I Quit

No, nothing like that. I'm not quitting this column, or anything else. I want to tell you about the time I walked into my boss’ office and quit on the spot. Not resigned with notice, with another position waiting for me at the end of the two weeks, I quit without safety of savings or income to save my sanity.

I got my real estate license in 1985 and embarked on the exciting and lucrative path of residential real estate. It became clear, very quickly, that this was not the career for me, and I accepted a position with an established real estate office.

A divorced couple owned the office (this should have been my first red flag, but I needed the job) who split the responsibility between the sales function, and administrative/financial function. I divided my day between the two and I had to document the amount of time I spent on each of my tasks so they could distribute my salary accordingly. We are not talking big bucks, here. I included the other half-hour I spent on this one task to my daily total and was eventually able to convince them to drop the detail and split the allocation 50/50.

The woman who ran the administrative/financial side of the business was a CPA, micro-manager, and penny pincher. Forbidden to throw out paper that printed on one side, we kept boxes of the used paper beside the copy machine for personal copies and she periodically checked our folders to make sure we were adhering to the rule. Part of my job required that I make color-code notes on various documents and I had two of those four-color BIC pens. One of the pens wouldn’t hold the blue tab down so I had to hold it with my finger when I used it. After a few days, I had enough of that and threw it away.

The pen was back in my desk drawer the following morning. I put a rubber band around it, so I’d know which was the broken one, and tossed it in the back of the drawer.

After a couple of months on the job, I’d developed an efficient system and was working my way through the tasks easily (this was not rocket science, the biggest challenge was an inadequate computer system than no one knew how to navigate. Both owners were happy with my performance and commented on how no one in the position prior to me ever reached the bottom of the in-box.

They rewarded my achievement by giving me more work and responsibility. No good deed goes unpunished.

After several months of the constant conflict and stress of the two owners power struggle that affected everyone in the office, I reached my breaking point. It was January, the month we prepared and delivered all the year-end statements to the rental property owners (there were hundreds), along with all the receipts for any money spent on the maintenance and repair of the property, and an accounting of the income.

On the day that I quit, I’d carefully organized all the documents and statements, in painstaking order, complete with notes on each one about any unusual or expensive expenditures. Then, I walked into the office of the owner who ran the sales side of the business and told him I could no longer work for the administrative owner and was leaving. I then went and gave the office manager a rundown of the statements in the conference room, packed up my things, and left.

After I threw away the broken pen. I couldn’t afford to quit that job, but I couldn’t afford to stay, either.

The real estate community in the town where I grew up was a connected and close-knit group. I had several friends from my time as a sales agent, and one of them knew of an administrative opening at an office owned by a couple who were still solidly married and worked well together. They also split the office, and I worked specifically for the rental property function. They had a robust computer system in place, and I was quickly able to apply my organizational skills and prove I could work autonomously.

After a year or so, the owners of the job I’d quit bought the rental management software used by my present employer. I’d become an expert-level user, and my current boss asked if I would consider training my former ones, and their employees.

That was the best full-circle moment of my entire career.

I worked for that wonderful couple until I left Killeen and moved to Houston a few years later. The lessons I learned about how to predict what your boss expects, and how to deliver it, served me well for the next 30 years.

Thank you, Jan and Don – and even David and Gay (sorry, not sorry, that I left you in a lurch).

If you would like to know more about my ancestral connection work, my Daoist path, or my other offerings such as tarot readings and classes, spiritual guidance, and mindset mentoring, you can find more detailed information by using the drop-down menu on my website:  https://the-mystics-parlour.ghost.io.

This coming June, I’m presenting a workshop for the Tarot Association of British and International members (TABI). The topic is: Tarot Conversations, Eavesdropping on the Cards. The fee is very reasonable, at less than $10, with a recording of the workshop if you can’t attend the live session. More information on the TABI website soon.

You can also contact me via email at themysticsparlour@gmail.com and I’m @teaintheparlour on Bluesky and @the.mystics.parlour on Instagram.

I appreciate your continued support and encouragement.