I have referred to a stressful situation a few times. I also referred to last year being one of our worst for reasons I wasn't specifying. At the time.
(It's actually been closer to 2 years, and it's been almost overwhelming at times. Overwhelming to the point where it's affected both of us in terms of health and there were times when I seriously worried that Bill was possibly in danger of a stroke or heart attack. It was that bad. Soul crushing would be a good term to describe it.)
Today, I'm specifying. An example of some of the issues.
Nearly 18 years ago, Bill changed jobs from the one he started with when we moved to Tulsa. We moved out of Tulsa a few years back but are still somewhat close to Tulsa. His job was actually in Tulsa and it was a fairly major Tulsa employer.
It started out good and had a pretty bright future. But the last 2+ years have been beyond bad. The bright future? Well, it evaporated. His department head retired and he (and the rest of the techs) were transferred to a different department head that had been in charge of their department in the past. The department head wasn't very good then, but the situation was tolerable. But then, just over 2 years ago, the department head started making changes which culminated in his hiring someone as a supervisor who is supremely unqualified for the job. Basically, he put an unqualified bully in charge. The bully started making life miserable for as many people as he could and the department head basically let him do it. When anyone would complain, they were targeted for even worse treatment. Apparently, the bully (and the department head) viewed anyone with any brains, experience, dignity, morals, etc., as a threat. Bill was one of the first ones targeted. He wasn't the only one, but he was the one getting the worst pressure. We probably had grounds for a hostile workplace suit, among other things. We were looking at options and considering what to do, it was pretty obvious that the supervisor was angling to fire Bill (and probably not just him) and he had (more than once) made up things or falsified things and even though Bill always proved that he (Bill) was not guilty of whatever he was accused of, the department head went along with whatever the supervisor said/did. There is a lot that went on but I'm not going into those specifics. We've prayed ourselves into near-exhaustion over what to do.
A couple of weeks ago, those prayers were answered. In the form of a cost-cutting measure which basically was a contract buy-out offer to over 500 employees. Bill was one of the eligible employees.
We realized that this was the answer we'd been praying for. The timing was too perfect for it to be anything other than God's timing. The buyout process was too perfect for it to be anything but God's timing. The actual buyout offer was too perfect for it to be anything but God's timing. He took the offer and turned the paperwork in this week.
Today was his last day actually being there although he is still technically an employee. He has some vacation time which he's taking next week so that he's still actually employed but that ends at 3:30 next Friday, April 1st. There is no way that he will change his mind. It's a done deal and he's done with it.
And we are not worried at all about what the future holds. We know that God is still in control.
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