When Jerry Quit

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Jerry started looking for a new job the day his daughter got her first job interview after college. He had started at the company when she was getting ready to start high school.

For the first few years things were good. He had a great boss and interesting work. He liked the people he worked with. Then his boss got promoted.

The next boss wasn’t nearly as good. A couple of team members left. It didn’t take long until work wasn’t fun or satisfying anymore.

He remembers the day that he realized he hated going to work. It was one more time that that his boss took credit, publically and loudly, for one of Jerry’s ideas. But it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Jerry’s wife woke in the middle of that night and realized that he wasn’t in bed. She found him sitting in the darkened living room with a glass of brandy. He told her he wanted to quit.

In the end, he decided to stay. His daughter was about to start college and he needed the money. He figured he could “take anything for five years.”

That’s what Jerry did. There were a lot more nights in that dark living room. The energy he once put into work, went to church projects and coaching a softball team. The day his daughter graduated from college, Jerry told his wife he was going to quit. She just hugged him and said, “I know.”

When he got his new job, he gave notice. He knew his boss was supposed to do an exit interview with him. Jerry thought maybe if he told the company how it was, they’d make it better for others. The day before he left, Jerry asked his boss about the interview.

“Oh,” the boss told him, “I didn’t think you needed to bother with that. I just put down that you got a new job.”

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