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Eight years and it was all mostly...meh.
3 months ago
I gave notice to my supervisors a few days ago. They were not happy to hear about it. Since then, their attitude has been cold and callous. I always suspected they only kept me around because I have a nice voice for the airwaves and that I came in every morning at 5 to do the jobs that no one else wanted to do. I never questioned much or did anything to rock the boat. I did what they told me to do, and I did it. That kept them happy...until now.
I've spent the last eight years working at a small public radio station, and I have to admit, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. The station I work for has been going downhill for several years now. We lost a number of key people and many of my under qualified co-workers stepped in to take charge and they've been running the station into the ground ever since. They've kept someone like me around because I always went along with their ideas and did what I was told. Now that I'm leaving, they resent me for leaving their cult...and that's really what this whole experience has been like for the last few years...being in a cult. They expect you to do nothing else but to live, eat, breath and sleep for their station and it's content all the time with no room for a life outside of it. The job is your life and nothing else matters.
Our station lost loads of funding, and with that, there won't be much of a station anymore. I'm sure in their minds they see me as someone who is leaving a sinking ship, which is exactly what this is. Even if these cuts never happened, I would still be leaving to go study in Ireland. My plans would've been the same, but they would all still be upset with me either way.
Giving my notice showed me what their true colors are. These are small and petty people who get their kicks by patronizing others. Personally, I could care less if the station survives or not. They kind of deserve to go down due to poor leadership. I leave August 29th, and I'm not looking back. I'm going to Ireland and dedicate my time with horses because horses are easier to work with than humans.
I've spent the last eight years working at a small public radio station, and I have to admit, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. The station I work for has been going downhill for several years now. We lost a number of key people and many of my under qualified co-workers stepped in to take charge and they've been running the station into the ground ever since. They've kept someone like me around because I always went along with their ideas and did what I was told. Now that I'm leaving, they resent me for leaving their cult...and that's really what this whole experience has been like for the last few years...being in a cult. They expect you to do nothing else but to live, eat, breath and sleep for their station and it's content all the time with no room for a life outside of it. The job is your life and nothing else matters.
Our station lost loads of funding, and with that, there won't be much of a station anymore. I'm sure in their minds they see me as someone who is leaving a sinking ship, which is exactly what this is. Even if these cuts never happened, I would still be leaving to go study in Ireland. My plans would've been the same, but they would all still be upset with me either way.
Giving my notice showed me what their true colors are. These are small and petty people who get their kicks by patronizing others. Personally, I could care less if the station survives or not. They kind of deserve to go down due to poor leadership. I leave August 29th, and I'm not looking back. I'm going to Ireland and dedicate my time with horses because horses are easier to work with than humans.
Take care!
My life got significantly better after I left the station. I was very happy working there, but it was minimum wage with no benefits, and I was doing the work of multiple people. I had the big "AHA" moment when I was trying to put together video for a demo reel showcasing editing skills, and I had 4-5 videos across a year-plus of working there. The vast majority of my time was running IT for the youth program. The station had no one coming in. It was like a ghost town 80% of the time, and that 20% was because the bulk of the money the station earned was from running an after school program. Today, the station limps on, and I have been done with them for a while now, so I very much relate to all this.
I have friends in the army who speak of that cult-like management style, the "fail upwards" approach where competent people *have* to stay at the lower levels, because if they aren't there, things fall apart, meaning incompetent people rise through the ranks. This is, unfortunately, too common. I see this with friends in corporate gigs damn near daily. The biggest thing, of course, being "we are a family" mentality, which is now a cult mentality and a known joke. No one says the "family" line anymore because of it, but the mentality is there. You aren't more than your job. One of the first question Americans ask when meeting a new person is "What do you do?" Its core to most of our lives, even if our work is not us, and is simply a job.
Know you are making all the right moves. Congrats on getting out, btw.