Little did I know when I awoke on March 10th that this day would be so appalling that it would change the path for the rest of my life. To be fair, there have been a few bad days which may have given it a run for its money, prior to this day. One was when I fell out of a first floor window whilst working on a customer site, broke my leg and got sacked to add insult to injury (literally in this case). Oh! and there was the day when I was about ten or so when I got a Tracy Island (Thunderbirds) for my birthday and at my party, a friend (ex-friend) from school sat on it. Where are International Rescue when you really need them?

Thinking back, the previous day, to my walk out was a real challenge, having two unbelievable meetings. It’s ingrained in my memory. 

Following my sacking, it was quite difficult finding a similar job. In the end, I settled for a uninteresting, unexciting IT role in a biscuit factory. Less pay and less fulfilling but it paid the mortgage, that and the two housemates I took in. That’s another blog.

To be honest, I’d become more and more dissatisfied with my job. Ideally, I’d like a job where I create something tangible; build a wall, plant a garden, write a book, bake a cake, anything I can point to and say I did that. Biscuits were the only tangible thing I ever produced and now even that life was crumbling.

Anyway, March 10th. Everything came to a peak that day and whilst I am normally calm and composed, a number of unfortunate events pushed me right to the edge. I was:

• wrongly accused of assaulting my window cleaner.
• forced to employ a maverick robot on my production line
• unjustifiably, dragged off to a police station.
• involved in a minor explosion on the digestive production line.

Finally, the accountant, who I’m normally on good terms with, raised another minor issue which would have caused a 50th revision of my business case, to take advantage of a sale on pencils. This was the colloquial straw, with me being the camel. This caused me to be propelled right over the edge where I practically fell through the sugar stained front gates, right out of the building inwardly screaming, leaving my career behind, such that it was.

I burnt my bridges that day. I do miss some of the people; Con Straint, the Business Analyst who I shared an office with and Ali Teration from the Product Testing Department who I used to talk to regularly. Even the Accountant Connor Pliance (Con to his friends) was generally decent. However, as for Miss Ann Thropy, the director and Ann Tagonistic The Head of Department, I wont be missing them.

Ali rang me, the next day, to say ‘Return. Reconsider. Really regret refusal to realistically reevaluate rift. ‘ which I was very moved about as she only normally aliterated a couple of words. At least I would have been moved, had I the ability to feel emotional. Very over rated as far as I understand the ‘feature’.

Despite the kind words, I was steadfast, staunch, firm, nay …. resolute in my decision.

Time moves on. It’s been a good while now, since I walked out of my job. All I still feel, is relief not having to see another digestive and walk through the sugar stained doors every day. However, my friends seem more concerned about my situation than I do, asking:

• Do you think that you should have walked out of your job?
• Are you worried about getting a new job?
• What are you going to do now?

to which I reply; ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Not Sure’, respectively.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not recommend walking out of a job but at the moment, I’m pretty positive and feeling chilled. It’s like, when you’ve just got over a particularly nasty bug. The feeling of relief and calm before going back to the day job. In my case, there’s no going back and no day job.

I’ve got time to indulge myself now, a day out and a solitary country walk, this time in North Wales. Don’t worry, the path is wider than it looks and the seals were elsewhere that day.

I like walking as it’s far away from the sound and smell of the biscuit factory, the persnickerty persistance of the computer and the carping, caustic colleagues. What could be better?

If you would like to read about the lead up to the horrendous day, and the day itself in more detail it’s in a short story ‘Oliver Sudden’s Defining Moment’ in Kindle books. This blog is what happened after I left my job and my striving for a meaningful, fullfilling life. It has been tougher than I had imagined.

… Oliver Sudden

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