About a year ago I wrote about how my day job consumed all of my time and energy and I couldn’t focus on anything else. At that time I thought that the situation couldn’t get worse than that. I mean, the next step would be to work 24/7.
Of course, I was wrong! Things can always get worse. When the administration views the working personnel as expendable pawns who must always work without objection, you have a recipe for disaster.
I will not get in the details of the horror story that WAS my job. On one hand it will be a bit boring and on the other, I don’t want to remember everything. Let’s just say that work was increasing, responsibilities were increasing and demands were skyrocketing! Meanwhile my department was always understaffed and we had to find ways to be everywhere at the same time. We reached a point where we had to work for 10 hours a day, six days a week. This translates to roughly 9 working days per week; something is fundamentally wrong here! The one day we had off was not enough to rest and clear your head before the grind resumed.
And that wasn’t the bottom of the black hole!
Things began breaking apart completely when in one day the amount of work doubled. The personnel that could just barely handle the regular amount of work, now had to work to breaking point. A 12 hour day was a relaxed day and double swifts tended to become the norm. Things were not looking good in the immediate future because all this was happening in the low season. Even more work was on its way from the middle of May onwards.
About that time I began looking for another job. It was something that I should have done long ago but unfortunately I didn’t do. I also began flirting with the idea of just quitting and leaving it all behind. What made things break apart completely for me was when I began feeling dizzy from overworking. It wasn’t a passing event either; it lasted for almost a week!
So, I don’t have a personal life, I can’t do anything that fulfils and defines me as person AND my body breaks down? That is too much to bare and I announced my retirement.
So, now I am unemployed with all possibilities open. For the moment I am enjoying my freedom but a week later, I am still feeling the physical and mental exhaustion from the job. There are so many things left behind during this ordeal that I don’t know where to start. At least I wrote my first Steemit post in almost a year.
In the previous article I used the image of 8 of Swords to indicate how I was feeling trapped in an unpleasant situation. This time I use the 8 of Cups. It is a night scene and a man is leaving towards an unknown destination through the winderness. The cups appear to be in perfect order. But there is a catch. They also appear empty; they have nothing to give*. It can describe the situation I am in. I just hope it just doesn’t resolve to the 8 of Wands because that means overwhelming work! Any number 6 minor arcana card will be great!
This is the conclusion of my personal and real horror story. I don’t know what the future will bring but I will make sure to be in control of my life from now on.
*- To be honest, in many cards the cups appear empty but this is not the point here.
Hello @jackobo ! I hope that you finally found something that fulfills you after this ordeal. Unfortunately even more jobs and employers have the attitude and the audacity to suppose they own their employees' lives and time and we shouldn't be too eager to accept that.
I hope you are doing great and it would be glad to see you writing here in Hive too again! 😺