My ~1 year update

[Apple]

It's been just over a year since I left the hell-job.  Since then, two of the guys on my old crew, who lied about me during the interview, have followed me to my new location.  Fortunately, due to my shifts, I rarely see one and have not yet had to see the other.  

Outside of that, things are beyond fantastic and much better than I could have hoped for.

My new supervisor is a nice, fair, good guy.  He is not a micro-manager, not a good ol' boy, and pretty much just a pleasant, upstanding guy.  He has his drawbacks (putting more emphasis on an interview than looking at how much a person really knows/their value to the project), but since I have no desire for any promotions, that won't affect me.  Also, since he never did our job, he doesn't know when or how to stand up for our crew the way someone who has done the job might, but really, things could be 100 times worse, we have it pretty good as far as bosses go.

My crew...  Even the guys I'd worked with before (not a good experience) have been easy to work with (ETA: these are not the two bastards above who lied about me and followed me to the new location.  Those bastards are on a different crew).  I guess no longer dealing with the pressure of school has helped a lot.  It was a lot of just feeling each other out for a while, since there was some bad blood there, but things are going smooth, which is awesome.  I'm even paired with one of them, and it's going well.  Even if we couldn't stand each other still, we only have to see each other at shift change, but we can sit and talk, help each other out, etc, so that's been great.

I'm still learning the job (it's a big place!), but have a lot more confidence than I started with.  We've had some people leave, so I keep getting to take a better schedule.  The one I really want, mostly night shifts, is only "maybe" wanted by one guy with seniority, so hopefully next spring I'll find out if I can have it (the guy who has it now will be retiring).  I get a decent amount of overtime, so that helps with the budget.  And, the schedule is perfect for travel (which I plan to do more of once DS graduates college).  Five times a year I can take 16 hours of vacation to get 16 days off in a row.  Because we know the schedule a year out, it will be easy to plan a vacation, buy tickets, etc.

I've taken up quilting and joined a group of ladies who meet twice a week.  I've also used videos to teach myself crochet.  I have time to watch more movies, so getting back into that as well.  A huge bonus of the job is that I can often get some quilting or crochet in on my downtime, can't beat that!

It's been a great year, and I am so glad to be out of the abusive environment.  No job is perfect, but this one is close enough for me!  I no longer hate life every work day, and I've even got rid of my "countdown to retirement" calendar.  

A big thank you to those who supported me during that time    I finally feel like it's over.

[sesfw]

Apple ....... glad for the update .......... and VERY glad things are going well for you.

Hopefully you can keep your good working relationship with the 'other guy'.  You are a bigger person than I am, I would be wondering how soon the knife would be in my back again.

[Apple]

Oct 6, 2016 14:47:30 GMT -5 sesfw said:

Apple ....... glad for the update .......... and VERY glad things are going well for you.

Hopefully you can keep your good working relationship with the 'other guy'.  You are a bigger person than I am, I would be wondering how soon the knife would be in my back again.

Thanks

To clarify, the ones on my crew are guys that I worked with 15 years ago, not the guys who stabbed me in the back during the sexual harassment interview.  Those two guys will never have my trust again.  I avoid being anywhere near them!  I haven't ran into one of them yet, but I have no plan to even acknowledge him unless it is directly related to the job at hand.  So I might not be that big of a person 

15 years ago, we were all going to school and work, people were stressed out, etc.  We butted heads, but worked it out of our systems over time  It also helps that I have no desire to get the promotion, because one of them really wants it.

[wvugurl26]

I'm glad to hear that the new job is going well. I hope the hell is firmly behind you.

[haapai]

I'm glad to hear that things are going well.  I've forgotten how long you have until retirement.

FWIW, I left a bad job about six months ago (not SH, and just a transfer within the same worksite) and the reduction in stress has been enormous.  Not dreading going to work is a life-changer.  On the other hand, I feel this strange emptiness and residual fear.  My belief in justice seems to have taken a permanent hit and I haven't been successful at redirecting all of the energy that I was using just to get through the day toward anything useful.  Did you go through a period like this too? 

[Apple]

Oct 6, 2016 15:03:20 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

You seem a lot more at ease now, and I'm glad because I'm sure it was a pretty rough time. I cannot stand that "good old boy network" mentality and it sounds like you ran into that in spades. 

What I still don't get is why somebody would jeopardize their job like that.  I consider it a really good job, so why muck it up by inappropriate behavior?  Save that nonsense for the bar on the weekends or something.  But I guess you see CEO's that get into trouble for stuff like that though, so apparently it doesn't matter how good the job is...if somebody wants to act like an ass their going to act like an ass.

Part of it, I believe, is that the people who do this within my district just get promoted, or moved into a "no responsiblility" job where they just play online all day.  There has been no true punishment for the person doing the abusing.  I think a lot of them have dirt on each other, so when it looks like one might fall, they do everything to cover for them to keep their own secrets.

In my situation, the main guy got removed from his position, but sent to a place where he is making more than 2x the money, so really not much of a punishment.  Three others were able to get promotions out of it.

[Apple]

Oct 6, 2016 15:07:11 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm glad to hear that things are going well.  I've forgotten how long you have until retirement.

FWIW, I left a bad job about six months ago (not SH, and just a transfer within the same worksite) and the reduction in stress has been enormous.  Not dreading going to work is a life-changer.  On the other hand, I feel this strange emptiness and residual fear.  My belief in justice seems to have taken a permanent hit and I haven't been successful at redirecting all of the energy that I was using just to get through the day toward anything useful.  Did you go through a period like this too? 

19 years for regular, minimum age retirement, 9 years to an "early out".

Yes, I went through a period like that.  There is kind of a one-year probation where they could have gotten rid of me if I couldn't pull off the new job.  For the first 6 months I was afraid that if I made any little mistake, they might use that to get rid of me or something, watching every move like a hawk.  Around 8 months I had my first review with the new supervisor, and he said all the guys have been impressed and have said I was a good addition to the crew.  I think that is when I started to release the old fears.  

I do know that things can change in a second, so that is always in the back of my mind, but the environment I'm in now does not encourage that attitude and treatment like the old one did.

[msventoux]

I somehow missed this when it was originally posted.  I'm so glad things are going well for you at work!  And that you're having the time and inclination to learn new things and get out to do more fun stuff.