You can read the original post here.
First off, many thanks to all who commented, gave me encouragement, and schooled me in the term constructive termination. I wrote my boss an email later that day and quit. She was not surprised, and was not planning on rehiring for my position. Knowing that I had a bit of a landing pad through unemployment was really huge. I had been thinking of changing career fields for a while now, and it encouraged me to apply to a couple of graduate programs doing something that I think is positive for the world and people, versus what I was doing, which was wringing money from local businesses to line my boss's pocket.
There were many questions about base pay vs commission. For anyone who's worked in sales, the base pay is usually a fraction of what you normally make overall. This is what I was expecting when I was recruited last year to do this job. In reality, the boss lady kept cancelling magazine issues (I sold advertising) after I had sold into them, which lost me money and clients. The base pay was just enough to cover my kids' childcare and allow me to break even. The commission would have been what I made on top of that. So, after the email that she sent me that cut my base pay in half (and said she would cut that in half again the month after), I was also seeing emails about her cancelling more issues. This was a poor business plan on her behalf; her competitor across town (and ex-business partner) was doing the opposite and increasing distribution and continuing to publish. Ex-partner was KILLING IT and taking all our business, while my boss was freaking out. In a company of 8 people, 5 (including me) had quit in the past 8 months.
When I took this job, I signed my kids up for childcare, which meant a 10% nonrefundable deposit and a contract through the end of this June. So, within one month, I knew that not only would I be making substantially less, I also would no longer be making enough to even cover childcare, let alone my bills. I couldn't get out of the contract, so I really felt like my boss had screwed me over pretty hard.
Unemployment will be substantially less than what I make, but will still cover childcare while I change gears and get out of the cycle of work/spend and make a living doing something that's actually net beneficial for our society and environment.