I quit my job. And then I went back. I'm not sure if that was the right decision, but so far it appears to be.
When I mentioned the day care I reported, I didn't mention that they were a customer of ours. They were, and had been for a long time. It was a difficult week at work anyway since several things were going wrong, and I know my boss was feeling overwhelmed, and he's notorious for his temper. So it didn't help matters when the director called and asked for her account balances, and stated she wouldn't be doing business with us any more. When I asked her why, she said it was personal. I guess it wasn't too hard for her to figure out that the person who pulled her daughter out after only a month, and paid tuition for two weeks while the child stayed with Grandma, was probably the one who got them investigated.
I expected my boss and his sister to be upset, but I also expected they would get over it since I really couldn't do other than I did. Apparently I was wrong. The sister commented several times that I should have given them a heads up, since this was one of their oldest customers, and they deserved a chance to make sure they were on good terms if things were going to get difficult. Obviously I disagreed. I explained to her, in detail and at length, why I did not choose to tell her or anyone else of my decision, since the investigation had to be a surprise to be effective. She chose to ignore everything I said and persisted in saying that I simply didn't think about how this would affect them. Whatever.
A couple of days went by, and my boss overheard me on the phone at lunch asking my CCIS caseworker about the paperwork for the boys' summer camp. The camp provider happens to be a customer of theirs as well. A short while later I received an email from his sister stating that "going forward, [boss} would like you to keep him informed of where your children will be enrolled for day care, summer camps, etc."
Normally I keep my temper in check by refusing to respond right away, and perhaps I should have done that in this situation. But I didn't. It came across like the sort of thing that expected an immediate response, and I gave one. Starting with the fact that it wasn't legal for them to ask me that. I was much too furious to think things through fully at that point, and I didn't like my boss's initial reaction (as soon as he realized I was angry he tried to send me home for the rest of the day), so after giving the two of them a piece of my mind I cleaned out my desk. I had expected them to back down from such an outrageous request, but they didn't, and I left in a fury. I had to pull over twice on the way home to breathe, because I was shaking so bad I could hardly drive.
I spent the rest of the afternoon crying and pacing and trying to slow my heart rate down, and texting my coworker who had been on lunch when all this went down. She asked if I would come back if she and the others could convince them to ask me, and I said sure, if they dropped their demand, but that would never happen. The next morning I decided maybe that wasn't a good idea since it was probably bad for everyone to be in love with my boss anyway, so I texted her again and said I would only come back to train someone new.
I went back to the job search program. The sister called late in the morning and asked if I would come in and talk. So I went home and talked to my mom and sister, and my kids' godmother, and they all said I should go back if I could. Even though some of them knew my reasons for not wanting to. At the meeting they pretty much did everything they could to apologize without admitting they were wrong; my boss's sister could give Mitt Romney a run for his money when it comes to thoroughly, in depth, and at great length saying absolutely nothing at all. Still, I really didn't want to be job searching again, or get back on TANF, or stop paying rent after just starting. So I decided to go along with calling it a miscommunication. They said we would just move on, and I guess they meant it because it hasn't been brought up again.
Even though I'm glad to still be working, I have my doubts about this. And worst of all, I know that I hurt my boss's ego, and he's not the sort of person you want to do that to if you want him to like you. Not that I had much of a choice. Time will tell if things can go back to being fun there again.
Especially since his dog died suddenly a few days later. That I really feel bad about. We all miss her. It seems that Murphy's Law was in full effect there last month. Hopefully this month will be better.
