Wow Scott—your story seems surreal. The audit sounds like a (governmental) kick in the nuts; but that’s what they do—so I’m almost tempted to give that a pass. And then putting in all the extra hours—well, that would temporarily suck, but it would be something in which I would endure if I believed in the cause. (I may be a little bitter about it, but I could find satisfaction in the result.)

But when some uninvolved superior begins to question my loyalty? Well… game over. You know those little turkey-timers that pop-up when your birds done? Ok—that just went off. I’m done. As one of my first (4 year old) clients used to say, ‘I think our time is almost up!” I can deal with the hours; I can deal with the sacrifice. But when I do so in a matter that is not only unrecognized but also unappreciated… the emotional decision to leave the environment just became exceedingly easy and clear.

A not-so-similar situation occurred to me at my old position. One student had turned in two others for cheating. Upon looking at the data—the accusation was clearly confirmed. When confronted about the uncanny test similarities, the two students gave diametrically opposed (and conflicting) responses. Yet my spineless boss undermined me, and I was given the choice of proceeding without departmental support (i.e., losing) or writing a letter of apology to the students (i.e., make the situation go away).

And I’ve never felt a “game over” feeling quite that strong in my life. What I’ve come to learn realize since then is that appreciation trumps income. (Given that the income is sustaining.)

So in short… Wow man—I’m honesty sorry dude. I’d almost like to see a George Costanza quitting the New York Yankees kind of response—but I’m confident that you and S will figure this out.

In other news, the US Postal Service improves wait-times by removing clocks in public spaces. Oh--the price of stamps is going up again.