Maybe its because its his first day, maybe its his newness that is making me all sweaty and heart-poundy. God knows I’m not good at confrontation, I once dated a guy  for nearly a year longer than I wanted to because I couldn’t come up with a way to say “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

On the way to work today I practiced a pep talk for myself, said out loud in the car “It’s not personal – it’s something I just need to do.” And probably at 7:45 when I got here I could have done it, but my new boss waited until 4:05pm on his first day at work to make an appearance. Who does that? Who makes me sit for eight hours listening to the voices go un-checked in my head?

It’s been nearly five months since I applied for this new job – I have played so many mental scenarios about how this might go down but I never imagined it would be to a brand new boss on his first day.

Sorry, Rick…

~
20 Minutes Later

Of course, it didn’t end up being my new boss that received my finely typed up notice, but my bosses boss – my old nemesis that treated me like his administrative assistant and at one point had me setting up his travel arrangements. He wouldn’t make eye contact and spent our time chewing loudly on a wintermint before he informed me I should start looking for my replacement before I go.

Just like the three weeks I spent on the 3rd shift of that plastics plant assembly line in Vineland New Jersey, I’m going to let the last eleven months teach me to appreciate how good I have it and to recognize the difference between petty inconvenience and downright atrociousness.