Employer of the life.
I urged my partner to invest in our company, trying my best to make him believe that he would also gain in the long run and have a comfortable retirement if he only invested a considerable sum right now.
My partner wanted none of it, but in the end I managed to suck a significant chunk of his monthly income out of him in order to promote the company. My partner left me, but due to legal issues, his investments were secured to continue for an agreed upon period.
Feelings of fulfillment never truly came to me as I expected after having heard so many great reviews about this job. So many of the negative points I now saw were always briskly covered up in the past.
If only I had used my skills of observation properly before applying. My contract was non-negotiable and social pressures kept me in perpetual fear of quitting and suddenly being jobless.
Oh, how often I had to cater to the boss and his colleagues for days at a time, arranging parties and taking care of the organizational as well as the financial aspects. I worked over-time non-stop, and as the years progressed I received more and more backtalk on any input I tried to present, even if it was in the company’s best interest.
We were truly in debt, having taken a loan out for a building we could never pay off and company vehicles that, while being able to transport all we needed, were running the deficit even deeper. I was working jobs on the side when I got a chance in hopes of still aiding the company. I felt mentally drained and could barely remember my former self (both physically and intellectually). All conversations at work and outside of work still revolved around the company, and I felt out of the loop in terms of political happenings, technology and culture. I rarely had contact to anyone not in the same field of work – isolated and dependent on the workplace.
Then it happened.
After my absurd amount of energy, financial assistance, sleepless nights and relentless drive to be the best worker I could be – I was fired. After 20 years of being a true slave and after giving up every shred of dignity and self, I was no longer needed. The boss had legally slipped out of any working relationship we had, taking with him any hope for future security and pay-off. All I was left with was the company’s debt, which I had taken responsibility for, and shame for being so deceived and foolish.
I should have known that, in my prime, I was too good for this kind of job. It might have suited some of my acquaintances and less intelligent and socially superior friends, but it completely destroyed me.
I hope that no self-respecting, educated and superior human being will ever make the same mistake I made by not only striving for, but accepting a position for the same employer.
This employer has many names the world over, but I will always know him by one: my child.