Comments on: Adventures in Negativity

By: AlienBaby

AlienBaby — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:29:47 +0000

Thanks, SNH. It’s not the aggravation or the management I miss, it’s the students and the teachers.

By: sagenhoney

sagenhoney — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:42:36 +0000

I agree with Russ’ comments above. Not worth your time, breath, and energy. Hopefully new doors will open for you soon.

By: AlienBaby

AlienBaby — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Thank you, Mand. I’m feeling kind of shaky right now…I have no idea what will happen next, and feel no push or pull in any particular direction. It’s a comfort to have kindred spirits on the other side of the ocean, though.

“May you live in interesting times,” eh?

By: mand

mand — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:07:43 +0000

{hugz} – though it’s taken me more than a week to download, read, n get back here to say anything.

Horribly familiar, the shape of this story. ‘See in others what’s in yourself’ is a deep truth of the human mind.

Well done – for parenting yourself wisely through this; standing up for what felt right when it was so difficult; recognising what’s going on; surviving.

Best of luck with next steps, when it’s time for them.

2008/09 is being ‘interesting’ for SO many people.

By: AlienBaby

AlienBaby — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:06:22 +0000

Thanks for the tip, blue! The founder got high praise from Debbie Ford, a personal friend of my coach guy’s.

I won’t starve immediately, so I’m trying to take some time to figure things out.

By: bluemorpho3

bluemorpho3 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:29:34 +0000

maybe becoming a “self-centered” meditation teacher could be something for you? http://www.getselfcentered.com
as far as I know they now have a program where you don’t need to pay for courses (to become a teacher) but just donate afterward if and as much you like, which sounds nice to me.

at any case I’m sure you’ll find something much better than that last studio.

By: russthelibrarian

russthelibrarian — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:42:22 +0000

Believe me, after seven years of a job that turned my life around and really made me feel like I was accomplishing something, literally living out of that office, being there every day of the week, never taking a vacation or even sick time–to go from that to waking up to nothing, not even a social life…it felt like a divorce, a huge break-up. I spent two months not doing anything but sitting around the apartment, smoking and drinking and replaying the events of the debacle.

I had a lot of friends at the company; one of the hardest parts of leaving, something that kept me there for too long, was the knowledge that if I left, things would go to hell, and that would hit the people I cared about disproportionately. Believe me, if I could have left in such a way to really stick it to those at the top, I would’ve. But as it was, the day-to-day operations would be farmed out to the people I worked closely with; the executives all left at 5:00pm, regardless of the chaos. Several of them told me, “Don’t stay on our account. Anything that happens, we won’t blame you. You’ve been back here juggling chainsaws, keeping this whole mess going.”

I miss it. It was one hell of a ride. But it was over, and time to find someting else. Took me a while to find it, and it wiped me out financially, I’m only now putting things back together. Nevertheless, I can honestly say that I never sold out. This is not for you–I am not for sale.

By: AlienBaby

AlienBaby — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:47:09 +0000

Thanks for the moral support, Russ!

Right now I’m in the grieving stage. It was so much more than just a job: there was a whole community of great people there that I adored. So much of my life revolved around that place. It’s like losing my life, in a way.

But when I got that threat: We’ll take away everything you love if you don’t lie down, show your belly and grovel, I realized the only thing to do was say: Here, you can’t take it away, because I’m giving it back to you.

By: russthelibrarian

russthelibrarian — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:12:33 +0000

In retrospect, you’ll end up asking yourself why you put up with that as long as you did. Try to resist the urge to ruminate about this endlessly, going over every bit of it like the Zapruder film, looking for something culpable that you missed the first time. The situation wasn’t redeemable, and by your description, redemption would have been wholly inappropriate. Some species are *supposed* to go extinct. That’s how the good, adaptable species are guaranteed a future.

And you *do* have a future.

I could tell you about how I left telecomm, all the drama (and satirical stupidity) of that whole debacle–with Gillen being the back-stabbing would-be crony to the new owners–but I’ll save that for an email later on. Just take heart from Hunter S. Thompson’s admonition: “Don’t take any guff from these swine!”