I quit my job tonight. I’ve worked 3rds at a homeless shelter geared toward the chronically homeless for over two years now. It can be extremely draining at times but I found a huge passion working with people in need. Unfortunately, my work place has degraded pretty rapidly in the past few months. I do some voluntary first responder work on the side so while I’m no stranger to stress, I’ve found myself wanting nothing more to be elbow deep in a bloody medical run than be at work. One of my bosses had to quit due to medical reasons and he was really the heart and soul of the shelter. He bent rules left and right to beat help people that needed it even it wasn’t necessarily in the guidelines. This meant letting a guest come in past curfew if they struggled to find transportation or any other personal but reasonable excuse. He’d help transport guests to the hospital on his off hours even though it wasn’t really something we were supposed to do. He was someone I really admired and wanted to emulate. Once he left I found myself doing a lot of similar things but since I wasn’t a coordinator I was much more limited in what I could do. Still looked the other way if a guest needed laundry done for work and couldn’t get in early enough during laundry hours, still buzzed in guests that were past curfew, etc.
It’s been horribly draining though. Since my old boss has been gone the place has been ran more like a prison than a safe spot to rest your head for the night. Guests have been discharged for menial reasons like hanging a coat up on their bed or not mopping a floor absolutely perfectly. We have “details” that are cleaning tasks assigned to guests to keep the shelter clean tidy. My other boss implemented a new system where guests submit work hours and medical notes to see who to assign details best. Unfortunately it’s turned into a system where most guests are forced to do details even if they have work and can’t get a work schedule in within 24 hours or don’t have access to a regular doctor which isn’t an unheard of boundary with our local homeless population.
So after a few weeks of being forced to discharge guests for nonsense reasons that I can’t morally agree with I woke up tonight to get ready for work and instead wrote out my notice of quitting.
Didn’t go amazing. I showed up for my scheduled shift and told my supervisor I wasn’t coming into work and that I’m quitting. She didn’t take it seriously at first and asked who I was calling to cover my shift.
I said, “No one, I’m telling you now.”
“Well I’m not staying. It’s your job to find someone to cover so you need to call someone.”
“Actually it’s not my job anymore. I quit. If you want to leave too I’m not stopping you.”
Then I just left. Went to the store. Picked up some benedryl for my boyfriend. Came home and am now hanging out with the dog. I feel like I can breathe for the first time in a long time.
It feels really lame to type out but I’m proud of myself. I plan on doing some volunteer work at another local shelter that I know my current guests go to. I hate leaving only because I won’t be around them anymore but I finally feel free after years pretending I’m working for people that help instead of hurt