#i hope she has fun making chocolate for her new coworkers around the holidays

[madmaryholiday]

so at my workplace, there's the day shift and a part-time evening shift. some of the evening shift people start to trickle in before i leave, so i've made acquaintances with some of them over the years.

the lady who sits in jane's seat in the evening showed up today looking like she wanted to say something. she goes "oh, how are you doing?" like normal, and i can only be honest and reply "tired. you?"

and she's like "oh, excited, nervous..."

and i'm like "did something cool happen?"

"yeah" she says as she's digging around in a plastic bag she brought with her for some reason.

"do tell," i say, and she hands me a hockey puck-looking disc of chocolate.

"this is gonna be my last day," she says, "here's some homemade chocolate!"

i start laughing and tell her that i'm probably leaving this week, too. she thinks that's pretty funny and asks where i'm going after that.

"nowhere!" i say cheerfully. "i'm so burnt-out, i don't think i'll be able to work ANYWHERE for awhile!"

she's going to a high-end grocery store, i guess. i didn't ask what position, but i hope she's happier there. she always seemed nice.

anyway, jane got to work today to find that the mannequins and backdrops she uses to photograph fur coats were gone, and she's no longer posting fur coats. even though just on friday she was told she was still gonna post coats. so i think the evening lady was smart to get out when she did. jane's openly talking about quitting, too, but she has to find another job first. i gave her a little pep talk about how she needs to take care of herself and find something better for her before this job breaks her, and she thought that was sweet of me.

i just care about the welfare of other people, i told her. because i do. and i hate seeing everyone around me so miserable. i hope jane gets out soon, before she breaks like i did. james, too, though i think he'll probably stick it out longest.

god i hope we all get better jobs soon.