It has been said countless times before.  Most of the time incorrectly or undeserved, but today was truly the end of era. After 6 months shy of a ten year mark of service I punched the clock for the last time. Now it is on to bigger things. Scarier things. Quite possibly better things. Although I already have my doubts. 

I won’t go too in depth but my new boss and old boss were once business partners. For whatever reason they had a falling out and parted ways. Since that time some things have transpired that gave the illusion that there is some bad blood. Since interviewing and speaking with my upcoming mentor I have learned that is very much the fact of the matter. Which leads me to wonder if I was just a pawn in their petty games. 

Whatever my new bosses reason, I have my own and it is to get my residential appraisers license. It is a year long journey, fraught with mountains of homework, exams, and 2000 hrs of appraisal experience. The best part is that on Monday I’m diving in head first. I hope there’s water in the pool because I have my suit on. 

One of my character flaws/strengths is that I have to please them. I will go out of my way to do something to make them happy. Leaving the ten-year office I have a lot of built up respect and loyalty to them. Even though I am in fact leaving I will do whatever it takes. In the end I sill love them. My boss meant more to me than just a supervisor or manager. He grew into something much more without my knowledge. Even my fellow employs were like the odd cousin I have to feign affection for at the annual family reunion. So just up and leaving is NOT in my character and demanding that I do that does NOT sit well with me. 

Prior to Wednesday I had no doubt or worry going into this new job. Maybe a sneaking suspicion but I was going to nip it in the bud once I started. The other development was when I called asking, for a second time, if I could extend my end date at MB&A so I could take care of training my replacement as best as I could. For the second time I got a resounding now. This dude seems about as easy to move as a 20 story sky scraper. But I understood. He took on a fuller work load with the understanding that I would be there to cover it. 10-4. So I asked if he would mind if I would moonlight for a short while to train my replacement. My new boss was agreeable and said I could do whatever I wanted on my own time. I thought that was the end of it. Flash forward to a couple hours after that conversation and his tune has DRASTICALLY changed. I have a deeply harrowing suspicion that a third party whispered in his ear and made the situation much worse. Regardless of my hunch, he put me in a very compromising situation that is forcing me to lie to him and I absolutely don’t want to start out with in this new chapter. He offered me a stress-free work environment and I know now that will probably not be the case. In fact, I’m scared it may be worse. You see, boss two is bedfellows with an old nemesis of mine, Hue!

That’s not really her name. But I change her identity to protect the (probably) innocent. I’m going off of hunches and intuition. She once had been involved with my former employer but they too had a falling out that, according to boss one is irreparable. I wish I knew the full details to feast on but I’ll take what morsels he chucked my way. It is in this knowledge that she would seem to have an ax to grind against the latter. 

Whatever the drama, I finish out this chapter on a good note, with a good cry. It was weird in my final words with Mike that he too got misty eyed, thus triggering my reflex to tear up. While he was such a character, and brusque sometimes, he taught me so much. More than I will ever know, I think. I grew up under his watchful eye. I went into the job inexperienced at the age of twenty with no real life goal or any crumb of ambition. I leave him with good grades and a dream to graduate with a bachelors in journalism and the desire to be a real estate appraiser. That is truly something. I also have this attitude for not putting up with bull shit. 

When I meet with newboss on Sunday I’m going to be honest and lay it all out Mike Style.