Free at Last!

Yesterday was my last day at DISH. My eighteen months there was—without question—the absolute worst experience of my entire career. Maintaining my professionalism in the face of such unrelenting unprofessionalism exhibited by the immediate management and most of the members of my department was a huge drain, both physically and emotionally, and something I hope to never go through again.

That being said, I did gain some additional Windows 7 proficiency that I didn't have before coming on board, I received formal OS X training, and I made two new friends (forged through fire as it were), the only positive things to come out of the whole experience.

My exit interview was enlightening, only because it confirmed that our H.R. representative already knew about what had been going on down there.

I didn't use the phrase "Feculent Vat of Toxic Hellstew" to describe it, but I so wanted to.

Her eye rolls and other non-verbal reactions to my answers to her questions told me all I needed to know and I finally said, "I'm not telling you anything you haven't already heard, am I?"

She replied, "No, but I need multiple data points before any action can be taken. And I wish you had come to me earlier instead of letting it come down to this."

Like anything would have changed had I done that—and I told her as much. As long as my manager has the protection of our department's VP, nothing is going to happen.

If nothing else, it felt good to get it all off my chest.

Now I can begin to detox, and by this time next week—as I came to realize when we were on vacation in Atlanta a couple months ago—it will return to being nothing more than the distant, tiny, petty little box of toxic hellstew that it truly is; not the center of the universe as it would like to intimidate its employees into believing.