That time I quit my job

A year ago today, I turned in my two weeks notice. I am sure to my employer it seemed sudden and unexpected but it was something I had been working towards since November 2021. October and November 2021 were some of the worst months of my life. My husband and I had been dealing with unexplained infertility since January 2021 and although that doesn’t seem very long, the testing we had received back resulted in some very concerning results. In October 2021 we began confirming the diagnosis we received with a visit to specialist NUMBER FIVE. Specialist number 1 told us our problem was beyond his expertise, and specialists 2, 3, and 4 told us to do IVF without ANY evidence it would work. They just wanted money. Ironically specialist number 5 works at one of the largest IVF clinics in the southeast. He was a compassionate and honest doctor and told us very frankly “I can tell you with some genetic testing if I can help you or not.” So October 2021 we had the testing done and were anxiously awaiting the results. While awaiting the results we had our first consultation with a different fertility clinic about plan B for us which was and still is embryo adoption. For those of you who don’t know embryo adoption is when a couple who has undergone IVF and determines their family is complete would graciously give us their leftover embryos. And in case you were wondering it is considered a “moral grey area” by the Catholic church. A lot of people have a lot of opinions on this topic and I would respectfully ask you keep your opinions on this topic to yourself at this time.

Anyways, so we jump ahead to this consultation in November 2021 and a financial advisor from the clinic calls me and asks me for a CC upfront. I told her that was really weird because we had full infertility coverage. She then says “I just got off the phone with your insurance and as of November 1, 2021 your insurance policy does not cover infertility.” Obviously this was very upsetting to hear because what was even more upsetting was to hear then quote us the price for embryo adoption $16,200 (now $18,000). I emailed HR immediately after the appointment and the HR lady replies “oh I am sorry if that is difficult for you please let me know if you want to switch to a lower cost health plan, none of the plans cover infertility anymore.” It was super cool for them to not tell us this prior to open enrollment because we were told that the plans were the same but were increasing a little in price. Given the HR lady’s nonchalant attitude I decided to file a formal grievance with my insurer which I am sure you can guess…was denied. So anyways I called my mom very emotionally and told her I was going to quit. She calmed me down and asked me to please find another job first. Truth be told I was not and had not been happy at this job for a long time. I originally was hired to do technical sales and after a few months on the job they fired our sales representative in the southeast and promoted me to southeast territory manager. I never asked to be territory manager and was never asked if I wanted to travel 20-40% of the time in addition to continuing to perform all my engineering tasks. Sure they paid me more money but at the expense of my marriage and home life. I felt like I spent more time with the Atlanta airport than with my husband. I also knew if I did not actually QUIT over them terminating my infertility coverage that they would not learn that it was NOT ok.

A competitor had called me in August of 2021 and I had told them that although I wasn’t interested at the time I would let them know if something changed. (In August 2021 I was struggling with infertility and had full infertility coverage. I wasn’t looking to leave my job). I called him (my now current boss) as soon as I got off the phone with my mother asking me to find another job before quitting my job. So, I snuck around for two in-person interviews while managing a November and December travel schedule from the pit of hell. On a work trip to Arkansas in December 2021 my job offer arrived and felt like my saving grace. I negotiated the heck out of my terms and I did what everyone tells you not to do. I took a huge leap of faith and I confided (probably more overshared) with the owner of my current company why I was leaving my previous position. He responded with compassion and tried to find me infertility coverage. Unfortunately, in Georgia it is darn near impossible unless you work for a huge conglomerate to get infertility coverage. I was fine with knowing up front infertility wouldn’t be covered because it wasn’t like the last company pulling the wool out from under me and he increased my compensation to partially offset this lack of coverage. I signed on the dotted line and accepted December 31,2021. I do not like change so the fact I was just like “whatever, I am quitting my job” is a pretty big deal for me.

Anyways, you’re probably sitting there going “cut to the chase where you quit your job.” Ok, so January 3, 2022 I was scared to death because I haven’t mentioned this before the job I took was with my previous employer’s archenemies of a competitor. I had carefully typed up a resignation letter citing the change in insurance, my inability to perform my current job responsibilities while dealing with infertility, and I even attached the denial of my grievance from the insurance company. I called the owner of my previous employer and calmly told him I was leaving the company because when our insurance renewed in November I lost infertility coverage and a massive financial burden had been placed on myself and my husband. A burden that literally added insult to injury. He asked if I would disclose who I was going to work for and I knew it was the right thing to do to to disclose so I said “your most hated competitor.” And well he took it about as well as I thought. He got very quiet and I could tell he was pissed (and honestly the audacity). He asked me to reconsider and I politely told him due to our infertility and my desire to be a mother I was no longer able to perform my responsibilities as a territory manager. I then received an email that I would not be allowed to workout my notice, my access to the system had been terminated, and my last day would be Friday. Praise God, because my current employer allowed me to start work the following Monday.

Does anyone want a part 2 on how this lead to us selling our house and moving? It was never officially my word for 2022, but my theme for 2022 was “change.” Also for those of you who are like “wow this is a lot of oversharing” welcome to my blog. The OGs know this is literally how I roll.

Grace