{"id":106831,"date":"2013-11-29T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/?p=106831"},"modified":"2013-11-16T10:21:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T15:21:30","slug":"quit-job-on-black-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/quit-job-on-black-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous Dad:<\/b> My Boss Expected Me To Work On Black Friday, So I Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"160992425\"

For many, November is the month of recognizing Thanksgiving. Usually by overeating and laying prone for eight hours watching parades and football in glorious high-definition. Sure, some moms think Halloween candy is the root of obesity, but at least the kids are walking from house to house. For November, we can justify any extra calories as winter insulation, as if we were bears ready to sleep-away ninety days, a proposition my wife is all-too-eager to take me up on.<\/p>\n

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Yes, many think of turkey and stuffing. But there are a select few of us whose thoughts turn to a different form of hunting and gathering. The Black Friday sale.<\/p>\n

A quick recap for those who are, as yet, unfamiliar with what Black Friday actually is. The Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving Thursday. The Black refers not to the color of the sky when shopping malls open, but to the fact that accountants refer to a profitable company as being “in the black” (and, in contrast, a company that is not-
\nprofitable as being “in the red”). It is this one, singular day where stores base their predictions on how the rest of the holiday shopping season will go.<\/p>\n

Each year, small shop owners and big-box corporations seem to take Black Friday to an incrementally higher level of insanity. More and more stores are willing to open their doors the exact minute after Thanksgiving ends. Others will “unsuspectingly” leak their sale ads weeks ahead of time. Several now host private security firms and elaborate voucher systems to keep stampeding crowds under control.<\/p>\n

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Regrettably, mercifully – choose whatever adverb you like – It happens only once a year.<\/p>\n

Which is the reason many subject themselves to freezing, pre-dawn temperatures. You can’t tell whether you’re shivering from the cold or if it’s the adrenaline in your veins. Most of the time, I’m just shopping for myself – trying to find a nice deal on a piece of technology. It’s funny because I know in another three months that price will naturally go down anyway but, as a wise person once said, you don’t know you’re alive unless you die once in a while.<\/p>\n

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Yes, internet shopping is set to outpace brick-and-mortar visits, if it hasn’t already. This has spawned its own holiday called “Cyber Monday” (where everyone returns to work from the extended break, only to overload the bosses internet connection with Amazon transactions). Yet, despite the attractiveness of snagging THE EXACT SAME DEAL from the comfort and warmth of an office building during regular working hours, people still subject themselves to camping out days-before in front of the strip mall. Yes, they even bring Thanksgiving dinner to their spot in line. There is safety and justification in\u00a0numbers. We may be insane, but at least we are together. Having a hot turkey dinner at your family table is easy*, sharing turkey jerky outside a Best Buy<\/em> with a total stranger is true brotherhood. We apparently are thankful for 35% off.<\/p>\n

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So, Black Friday is significant to me. Which is why I was so taken aback at my bosses’ proposal that the office come in to relocate the company to another office one floor down. This is just one more example of a decision from the higher-ups that I disagree with. Clearly, my boss could have picked a more-convenient situation for the move (i.e. some OTHER day when half the working world is, oh, I don’t know, WORKING), eliminating a lot of potentially disasterous variables.<\/p>\n

I actually have been looking to get out of this job for a few weeks now, but seeing this train wreck barrelling down on me and missing out on the biggest shopping day of the year was just too much, I tell you! It’s not a very common occurrence for someone to just quit their job AND THEN IMMEDIATELY think about shopping with no guaranteed source of income. I can only say that staying at that job would have been more-harmful to me than merely not getting the latest Pokemon<\/em> cartridge for my son’s Christmas present. There are plenty of other reasons why this company and I aren’t sympatico. Indeed, I’ve taken\u00a0stock of how much it would cost me to leave and I’m paying it with the biggest smile on my face. My family, friends, and extended acquaintances have all expressed their support with my decision – one more vital thing to be so extremely thankful for.<\/p>\n

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I have the convenience of actually exercising that “at will” clause in my job description. I know many cannot leave their difficult job situations, and that others would be grateful for the job that I’m leaving behind. I did accept the job in the first place, and even then, I feel justified – just two days after the new health insurance kicked-in, I was sidelined with a kidney stone. Emergency room visits with no insurance – I don’t even. But my days of sacrificing for a wage are near an end. The mornings of wondering “why am I doing this to myself” and the evenings of “if I’m late to after-school care again, my daughter will kill me” will soon be behind me. I’ve got a better perspective of what work-life balance is and whether a company will respect that.<\/p>\n

Clearly, this one does not.<\/p>\n

Any of you dear readers who are in a similar situation, you have my absolute empathy. I truly hope you can improve your situation as I have.<\/p>\n

Update: I have received an offer letter for a new job. Thank you.<\/p>\n

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(Photo: getty images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s November. Halloween is over and stores have already cleared the aisles for Christmas decorations. For many, November is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21319,"featured_media":107565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[421],"tags":[5498,4888,7353,5252,35147],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":421,"label":"dads"}],"post_tag":[{"value":5498,"label":"anonymous dad"},{"value":4888,"label":"Black Friday"},{"value":7353,"label":"gallery"},{"value":5252,"label":"job stress"},{"value":35147,"label":"shopping"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/160992425.jpg",399,208,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Anonymous Dad","author_link":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/author\/anonymous-dad\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":421,"name":"dads","slug":"dads","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":954,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":3,"count":103,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":421,"category_count":103,"category_description":"","cat_name":"dads","category_nicename":"dads","category_parent":3}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":5498,"name":"anonymous dad","slug":"anonymous-dad","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5579,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":4888,"name":"Black Friday","slug":"black-friday","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":4959,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":21,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7353,"name":"gallery","slug":"gallery-2","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7444,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2500,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5252,"name":"job stress","slug":"job-stress","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5329,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":35147,"name":"shopping","slug":"shopping","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":709,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":76,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mommyish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}