Quitting, pt. 2

Quite a few of the teachers were screening the presidential inauguration in their classrooms. I stopped and watched it for a few seconds. It seemed a big deal.

“Today is your last day on the job,” said one of the teachers. “Yours – and Obama’s.” We stood a little while, shaking our heads, tisking.

My last shift wasn’t more strenuous than usual, but it wasn’t easy, either. One teacher asked me to digitally scan more than 100 pages of a hefty volume. Other teachers dropped off a great jumble of course texts – Scarlet Letters, Of Mice and Mens, To Kill a Mockingbirds – for me to sort and put away. Others made last-minute photocopying requests. Others, I had to train in the ordering of supplies.

Two teachers, old men, were quite sad to see me leave. I offered to join them one day for a meal at their favorite nearby restaurant, the Oaken Bucket.

Then, very weary, I turned in my keys and left the high school. I stopped at the public library to visit Mary, who was working at the circulation desk. She was about to go to lunch.

I told her about my last shift at the high school.

“In honor of your quitting your job,” she said, “would you like me to buy you lunch?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“The Oaken Bucket,” I said. “No. Just kidding. Subway.”

After lunch, I went home, collapsed into an armchair, and snuggled with the kitties. From the indoors, I enjoyed the mist – my favorite weather.

Quitting

Yesterday was the last of a four-day weekend.

Tues–Fri, I’m putting in shifts at the high school and at IUSB. And then, no more shifts at the high school. I submitted my resignation last week.

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This is the third permanent job I’ve quit.

The first was at McDonald’s in the summer of 2000.

The other was at Bed Bath & Beyond, in Seattle, in 2004.

The annoying thing is that my employers always wish to know why I’m quitting. I’m always forced to re-live the anguish of my decision.

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In 2000, the reason I gave was that I was beginning my collegiate studies. It wasn’t the true reason. I took another job a couple of months later.

The McDonald’s people were wise to this, but they let it pass. They didn’t particularly care.

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In 2004, my stated reason – a true one – was that I intended to go to Ecuador to live (which I did, for about six months).

The BBB people cared about this because they needed to make sure that I wasn’t quitting because of some problem with the company. They really, really attend to detail over at BBB. (This explains why I never flourished there: the details that I had to attend to were, e.g., how this saucepan differed from that saucepan.)

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To the high school officials, I’ve explained that I need to finish writing my dissertation (also true).

Incidentally, I’m sorrier to leave. The details that I must attend to in this job are ones that I do have an eye for.

On the other hand, at the school, there’s a lot of griping about who should have gotten this or that position. Everybody seems to have an opinion about what everyone else ought to do and how much everyone else ought to be paid. Since these opinions are constantly proclaimed near the photocopier, where I spend a great deal of time, the job is intensely wearying to me.

And that, also, is the truth.