Small ain't beautiful

While my work situation has been gradually on the mend, the same could not be said for my wife. For the last six years she has worked for small businesses; unfortunately, a less than favorable work environment is not unique to large companies. In fact, her tales could out-blog mine every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

She's worked for a dentist for the past year. It seemed great: nice pay increase, knew the dentist from our kids, professional environment, health-care field - ideal. But the practice, in fact, was literally bankrupt: the workers race each other to cash their check; last to the bank bounces. Some of the workers were downright hostile and very difficult to deal with. Some days she braced for the sheriff's arrival to repossess all the equipment.

Yet lately things had seemed to be improving. After many months, the practice had been sold. The new dentist promised a fresh start, my wife would be working full-time with a nice pay increase again, and a new hire in the front brought someone pleasant to talk to.

But first impressions were misleading. The new dentist needed every miniscule detail done her way; any variance brought a torrent of abuse. The dentist is single and a workaholic: suddenly the workday was extending till 7:30 at night, with Saturdays soon to come. And the new worker was assimilated, joining the Hostile Side.

My wife was no longer herself, drained of energy by the time she straggled home, sleepless nights thinking of work, borderline depressed. She made up her mind today: she'll give her notice Friday.

Even if it takes a while to find something, life is too short for every day to be a struggle. And the best thing: the decision wiped away her depression - she was her old self again.

Tonight was a nice family night, for the first time in a while. And that's worth a lot.

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