I swear, sometimes I feel like I just use this journal as a ranting zone, Other people it's like cool videos and how they're going to be featured at a comic-convention. I use it when I'm pissed. Whatever though.

Brace yourselves, it's a long one.

So, I quit my job yesterday. That's the gist of this whole journal, but during it I will innumerate the wrongs I have experienced so you can understand where I am coming from.

I was a lifeguard, and last summer I made it up to Assistant Manager. Awesome. I got paid $8.00 and hour and was happy doing what I did. Just before the school year ends they give me a call and tell me they'll be promoting me to a Pool Manager. Great! I get $9.00 an hour and I get to make the schedules.

After I was away at Special forces camp they told me (no warning, I found out the day of from another guard) that I was going to be a Roving Manager. Same pay, but I get to go around and fix pools instead of making schedules. Even better, because I get to learn a new trade. I was guaranteed 40 hours a week (because the City of Greeley doesn't want you to go overtime, period.) and I got to be trained by the new Rec Supervisor and the Current Rec Technician who I knew for a long time and respected a great deal.

I went through the whole summer doing my job VERY well. No big problems at any pool, and it wasn't because of luck either, it was because I actually fixed stuff. I messed up a few times, but nothing major that I didn't come in a fix right away.

Middle of July the Rec Supervisor calls me into his office and tells me he's cutting my hours down from 40 to 17 because of budget cuts. I was a little miffed, but I could still pick up shifts and I knew we were running low on budget, so I said OK.

The next week they kick me back up to 26 hours, so I'm pretty good on hours with the swim lessons I'm teaching and shifts I'm picking up. I was happy.

Over these two weeks, I became the "go-to" guy. I worked everywhere and for everyone. I even had to "modify" my time sheet so I wouldn't go overtime helping everyone out. The reason? Everywhere was going to hell! People were getting over-scheduled and there weren't enough guards to work the pools properly.

Everyone was quitting due to terrible conditions and stupid policies that had been enacted on the guards. Things that were supposed to save money, but just made it harder for the guards to fill up their hours. We can blame the Recreation Supervisor for that.

Prime example was last sunday, it was my day off and I was going to watch my little brother perform at a jazz concert. Braydon (Rec Sup.) calls me and says there wasn't a manager at one pool and everyone else was out of town or working. I was there in ten minutes, corrected the staffing problems at all the other pools BY MYSELF and worked ALL DAY to help correct this debauchle. I was already 3 hours over when I went in, and that pushed me over to 7. That was how the whole last half of the summer had been for me.

Two days ago, the Rec Supervisor calls me into his office and says that it would be in everyone's best interests if I "wasn't a Roving manager anymore". He said I could still pick up shifts for the last week of work but I wouldn't be fixing the pools anymore. I asked why and he gave me a lot of made up and petty reasons and my favorite line ever.

"You've been more of a headache than a help lately."

Needless to say, I felt really under-appreciated. I had busted my ass all summer for this guy, and he basically said to me; "You're done doing this because I say so, and you're going to bend over and take this."

As angry as I was, I didn't quit on the spot, but after telling my problems to other guards and the Rec Tech that trained me, and hearing all of their indignation, I went back yesterday to quit.

I felt I would have to have no self-respect to let them do this to me. So I dropped my keys and my last time sheet on his desk and told him how I felt. I said to him if this was how management was going to play the game after 3 years of hard work and me always being there for them, then I was done. I told him this was stupid what he had done to me and the rest of the guards, and that I understood that these are hard times on the budget, but that is no excuse to treat the people working the hardest (I was referring to the guards, I'm not that self centered) like shit. I told him this with his door open and the guards in the office listening so they knew what the real reason I quit was. (Hope the headache is cured fucker)

Sorry buddy, but I have principles, and I'm not going to subvert them for someone who's made this entire summer hell for everyone by just coming up with better and better ways to fuck everyone that's working for him

So I'm out that job, but I've got one in Boulder lined up and I'm gonna go hang with my Grandpa and my friends for the last week before school starts.

That's about it, the main theme here is that I feel like whenever I try my hardest and do the right thing, something comes along and fucks it all up and screws me over.

But all in all, I think I did the right thing and I feel good about it. Peace out and have a great rest of the summer.