Freedom Day

Ed sidles over, “Jim, I heard you tell Marnie that you're leaving. If they need programmers, please let me know, I gotta get out of working for Rob.”
(Another walk through the mine field. Rob is a flaming ass hole, but if he finds out that someone disrespected him, he can make life very difficult for that someone.) “I have no idea what your problem is with Rob, but there may be a guy with a similar management style at my new place, I don't know.”
Ed says, “Then, you don't mind working for Rob?”
“I sigh, “It's a job. I'd rather be starring in a romance movie, with Fifi Le Jugs, but central casting must have lost my phone number and they don’t return my calls.”
Ed says, “You heard about the job from one a your buddies?”
“Yeah, we were drinking beer and the job was mentioned. I wasn't really looking for a job.” (Only when I was awake.)
Ed says, “I gotta get out of working for Rob.”
I sigh, “You've heard of out of the frying pan, into the fire?”
Ed says, “Yeah, but even the fire gotta be better than this frying pan.”
I say, “It’s strange, since you hopped out of the fire to take this job.”
Ed says, “Yeah, I hadda have a pay check.”
I lecture, “Truly it is written, by the great philosophers, the frying pan has a pay check, the fire has no pay check.”
Ed says, “Yeah, but the crap that I have to put up with here aint worth the paycheck that I get.”
“The cashier down at the supermarket might disagree.”
Ed says. “Yeah, I gotta pay the bills.” He then wanders off.
The Department Secretary then tells me that the Department Manager wants to see me, in his office.
I get up and walk into the Department Manager's office, “You wanted to see me?”
(Rob, the Department Manager and Jean, the Project Manager are waiting for me.) Rob says, “You quit.”
“I turned in my notice, however, my resignation is to take effect in two weeks.”
Jean snaps, “I have been told that you don't like working for me.”
I ask, “Who told you that?”
Jean snaps, “I'm not going to tell you that.”
“I'm not going to respond to supposed statements made by people with no names.”
Rob says, “There's no need to turn this into a hate contest.”
I don’t answer, since an answer can only provide a springboard for another Jean attack. I just look back at Rob.
Rob then asks me, “Why are you quitting?”
(It’s a trap question. If I say that I got a pay raise, Rob offers to match it.) I carefully state, “The work for my new company will be in a newer language and operating system, as a result, I'll enhance my resume. I have been promised help in getting two technical papers, that I have written, published, when this company won't do that. I'll work as part of a team, not as the lone ranger. I will be the Team Leader, which buffs up my management credentials. My new Project Manager is actively mining possible customers, for new work. My new company promotes from within. I get a nice raise in pay and my new company has a much better fringe benefits package.”
Rob asks, “What if we match your pay raise, best we can do?”
I sigh, “Pay is well down on my list of priorities.”
Rob then lectures me, “You want to be Project Manager, don't you?”
I sigh, “I was assigned work on a project that was in big trouble. I was promised, by you, that, if I could rescue the project, I would be the Project Manager. I then put in a lot of unpaid overtime and managed to get things done and delivered. You then told me that Jean was to be the Project Manager. I wish that I had known your plans, before I put in the unpaid overtime”
Rob then assumes his, 'I am the King, you are the slave,' manner and tells me, “I had to go with who I thought would do to the best job.”
I lecture Rob, “I have to do all of the technical Project Manager work, at Jean's order, since she told me that she has no technical background.