Drive Right On By

[Guest 1152923]

I have this ongoing and pervasive thought almost every morning.

Anyone else have to really, dig deep each and every day of work to fight an overwhelming urge to just drive right on by their place of employment, return home and get back into their warm bed for a few more hours of delicious sleep?

I am so tired after 29 years of active nursing, shXtty, sarcastic doctors and mid-level providers, weekends, nights, holidays...  Add to that, a steady dose of toxic coworkers and ever-shifting policies and directives and Trader Joe's looks better every day.  Oh but those golden handcuffs and few other options!  Sorry for the rant everyone!

[amoLucia]

(((morelostthanfound)))

[Guest 1152923]

23 minutes ago, amoLucia said:

(((morelostthanfound)))

you too?

[Davey Do]

9 hours ago, morelostthanfound said:

I have this ongoing and pervasive thought almost every morning. Anyone else have to really, dig deep each and every day of work to fight an overwhelming urge to just drive right on by their place of employment

Eiffel, Ill. is the town where Mixed Nuts Mental Health Systems and Wrongway Regional Medical Center are located. I worked for Mixed Nuts for five years and Wrongway for seventeen, so for 22 years, I drove basically the same route, perpendicularly underpassing a major interstate route in Illinois & Missouri.

For years, just about every time I saw that major interstate route appear on the horizon, I fantasized about chucking it all, veering off, and taking that route, morelostthanfound.

Until I found my bliss.

In Joseph Campbell's book The Power of Myth, discussing Sacrifice and Bliss, he sites the last line of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt,  “I’ve never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.”

Joseph Campbell says in order to not feel as Babbitt did, we have to follow our bliss: "Namely, that if you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you’re living somehow. And well, you can see it. You begin to deal with people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss, and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be."

Find and follow your bliss, morelostthanfound.

The very best to you.

 

[EDNURSE20, BSN]

I’m surprise you get that far, before thinking that way! Most days when my alarm goes off it takes a bit (sometimes lots) of convincing to get out of bed. Fantasying about staying warm in bed and throwing it all in, till I remember I need the money. One day. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Ahh, the golden handcuffs. You've worked hard to come to the place of stability/seniority that you achieved, but then it's hard to keep going. I have to say that when I was laid off from my first career after 17 years, I never would have considered leaving on my own. I had a good salary, a career I thought was pretty stable, but I wasn't really enjoying it because of the day to day environment. Then I was laid off and came to nursing full time. Initially it was a 60% pay cut (thankfully before overtime- which I worked a lot of) and I was once again at the bottom of the totem pole. But, it worked out fine. In meeting up with many former colleagues in similar positions, almost everyone was happier in their new jobs that paid much less and in some ways had less benefits. But our day to live works lives were happier and that indeed outweighed the downsides. 

Good luck to you in finding either a way to get through, or a way to make a change. 

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 1/17/2021 at 11:03 PM, morelostthanfound said:

you too?

Add me to the list...I've given my notice to go back to staff nurse (currently clinic manager), as a situation happened while I was off with covid. My manager wonders why I didn't do something about it. Hmmm, I was off sick...I still got *****ED out. Noted that there is a FT staff nurse position near my home. I just finalized the paperwork 10 min ago, online. On 2/15, I'm a dialysis staff nurse again. No loss of pay per hour. No more 1 hr + drive, one way. No more after hour phone calls about things I have no control over. While its not driving right on by and going home,  it's a decrease in headaches. If I could retire though, I would...Walmart greeter is starting to look appealing

[Davey Do]

19 minutes ago, Hoosier_RN said:

I still got *****ED out...

Walmart greeter is starting to look appealing

I am happy to hear you're back at work and healthily dialyzing patients, Hoosier, and I'm sorry to hear about the stressors.

I don't know if working at Walmart that would change things all that much.

I was in Walmart the other day when some older employee was barking directions at a young employee who responded respectfully.

Walmart takes those CLEAN UP ON AISLE THREEs pretty seriously.

 

[Sour Lemon]

There's a song I used to listen to every day on the way to work called "Cumberland Mine". It ends by repeating the line,

"I don't know now, I just don't know
If I'm going back again"

There's also a GIF I love. It's a non-nurse woman parked outside of work crying, drinking from a flask, and trying to decide whether or not to go in. It pops up once in a while ...makes me laugh every time.

And I used to be pretty well known by staffing for requesting first cancellation every single day.

So yeah, I can relate.

 

 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

2 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

Add me to the list...I've given my notice to go back to staff nurse (currently clinic manager), as a situation happened while I was off with covid. My manager wonders why I didn't do something about it. Hmmm, I was off sick...I still got *****ED out. Noted that there is a FT staff nurse position near my home. I just finalized the paperwork 10 min ago, online. On 2/15, I'm a dialysis staff nurse again. No loss of pay per hour. No more after hour phone calls about things I have no control over. While its not driving right on by and going home,  it's a decrease in headaches. If I could retire though, I would...Walmart greeter is starting to look appealing

Sorry to hear things went badly, but glad you're looking forward to the benefits of the new job. 

[Davey Do]

39 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

There's also a GIF I love. It's a non-nurse woman parked outside of work crying, drinking from a flask, and trying to decide whether or not to go in. It pops up once in a while ...makes me laugh every time.

I did a search and couldn't find the GIF, Sour Lemon, so I made a quick one with my claymation character doing as you described:

 

[Guest 1152923]

On 1/18/2021 at 8:04 AM, Davey Do said:

Eiffel, Ill. is the town where Mixed Nuts Mental Health Systems and Wrongway Regional Medical Center are located. I worked for Mixed Nuts for five years and Wrongway for seventeen, so for 22 years, I drove basically the same route, perpendicularly underpassing a major interstate route in Illinois & Missouri.

For years, just about every time I saw that major interstate route appear on the horizon, I fantasized about chucking it all, veering off, and taking that route, morelostthanfound.

Until I found my bliss.

In Joseph Campbell's book The Power of Myth, discussing Sacrifice and Bliss, he sites the last line of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt,  “I’ve never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.”

Joseph Campbell says in order to not feel as Babbitt did, we have to follow our bliss: "Namely, that if you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you’re living somehow. And well, you can see it. You begin to deal with people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss, and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be."

Find and follow your bliss, morelostthanfound.

The very best to you.

Davey Do, thank you for the response-some real pearls of wisdom in what you wrote.  As an added point, I am also from Illinois and spent many, many years working in area hospitals around the state.  The likelihood is that I may have even driven under that same overpass and entertained that very thought:)