Hangover ruins plan to start new job hunt

On some days, I feel like I ought to quit full-time employment and start working for myself. This is because there are days I feel like a slave.

In the last one month, two people have quit the Finance department. Rumour has it that they quit because they felt that they were overworked but the same rumour mill said that both of them were children of some bigwigs and they simply could not put up with the long hours and demands.

Sometimes, I wish I too had those options of being able to quit. Unfortunately, I have bills to pay. The downside about their departure is that I have ended up with yet more work on my plate and it is really getting to me.

The CEO does not seem to recognise that we are understaffed and keeps piling on more stuff on me. The other day he sent me a terse email saying that I had “failed to meet an important deadline.”

What annoyed me about the mail is that he had copied some of my team members making it seem like he was antiaging or exposing me to all and sundry which did not sit well with me. I was tempted to respond and say that my reason for missing the deadline was the fact that he had piled on two more assignments on me both of which he claimed were urgent.

I was not amused by his statement but all I could do was eat humble pie, walk into his office and apologise. The accusations from the CEO annoyed me so much that after I left the office I decided to go out and have a few drinks to cool down.

That same day Shiro called me at about 8 pm and said, “babe where are you? “ I must say that these days our relationship with Shiro has improved dramatically so I said, “ I had a tough day so I decided to have a drink, care to join me?” To be honest, I did not expect her to join me since she is quite disciplined about her life.

Half an hour later Shiro showed up at the pub in a cab and said, “I decided to join you so I can figure out what is leading you to drink plus I am working from home tomorrow.”

We started the evening rather politely as I shared my frustrations about the boss and the working environment.

Shiro told me, “ I think the writing is on the wall – you need to quit the job.” I said, “whatever do you mean? “ She said, “listen babe, it has been over five years and all you do is get more work piled on.

You are more like a doormat for these guys. They will never promote you, they just keep giving you more to do.

C’mon! Can’t you see?” She did have a point and I must say there are days when I feel like quitting my job but I cannot do that unless I have a solid offer.

So I said, “What do you think I should do?” She smiled and sipped her drink and said, “Simple! Polish your CV, talk to a recruiter and go out and look for a job. I will help you." Maybe it was the drink or it was just the way Shiro said it, these words gave me quite some reassurance.

We toasted as I said, “ let us start tomorrow.” The next day I was in no state to polish my CV- I was instead nursing a major hangover.

Our night turned into one long drinking spree where we ended up going home at 1am. Once I have cured my hangover, I will begin the job search- things have to change here.