@Riven I shared a personal story with you about a work experience a few days ago. I’ll share a bit more of that story with you now.
You’ll recall that due to my supervisor being inept, I narrowly avoided having my employmemt by the government terminated. Two weeks later, my transfer came through.
For six months I was ordered by my new supervisor to sit in my office with the door closed. He made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to see me or speak with me. I was allowed to leave my office only for restroom breaks, lunch, and at the end of the work day. What did he want me to do? Nothing.
That’s when I decided to go back to school in the evenings to earn a Bachelor’s degree in theology. (The college gave me 60 hours of elective credits for my 4 year Civil Engineering degree. I only needed 60 hours of credit to be awarded a BTh degree by the college.) What did I do in my office for six months? I worked on my college class work.
At the end of six months my supervisor knocked on my door and said he wanted to see me in his office in an hour (I think it was.) When I went to his office he told me to close the door and sit down. (Okay. I wonder what this is all about.)
As soon as I sat down he asked me a question: “What in the hell is the matter with you? Why haven’t you quit?” (Ah. Their strategy revealed.)
I instantly replied with a straight face, “I have buttocks of steel.”
He just sat there. Stunned. And then he burst out laughing. (He wasn’t a bad guy. He was just doing what he was ordered to do.)
He asked me what I had been doing all that time. That’s when I told him that I was going to school full time in the evening and on weekends, taking 5 classes. I was doing my homework in my office. He asked what subject I was studying. So I told him.
He told me that he had told upper management that I wouldn’t fold but they didn’t agree. (Mexican standoff.)
He asked me one more question: “Would you really have sat in your office for another twenty years with the door closed and having no work assignments to complete?” (He meant government work assignments.) I told him that I like to read and twenty years sitting in my office reading with no distractions was like a paid twenty year vacation.
He told me to return to my office, leave his door open and close mine, and await further instructions. A few days later, I was back to doing engineering work - in my office and on the road - struggling to keep up with my classwork. (I still graduated 18 months later with a 4.0 grade average.)
I’m not a quitter. I’m a theological engineer.
