Losing my job/ Friday off in the snow

So I've been working as a personal secretary for the past eight months. I am really grateful that I had this job. My boss is a good person, but very intense and moody. Working one-on-one with somebody presents a unique brand of challenges.

Most of the time I've enjoyed working for him, and became familiar with his particular idiosyncrasies, and enjoyed some flexibility of the position. But sometimes things were really hard. For instance, yesterday a woman called. I took her name and number, and gave him the message. He yelled at me: "you don't remember anything I tell you. I never want to talk to her. She's a waste of my time." When I apologized and explained that I simply hadn't remembered her name he told me "you never take responsibility."

Things got worse when he asked me to check his messages, and the message I gave him wasn't one he wanted to hear. He went on a tirade about how I shouldn't bother him. He proceeded to yell out all these assumptions about how he thought I felt in general, and what I thought of him. None of which were true. It was really intense.

Making blanket statements about people is a pretty fruitless way to communicate. But I tried not to take his comments personally, knowing he was going through his own pain. On the other hand, I felt like my self-respect was diminishing.

I calmly asked him to please not talk to me that way. He didn't stop. So I told him I was going to go home. A few years ago I might have agonized about this decision or felt really hurt and guilty. Instead I took about ten minutes, packed my things, left my key on the desk and went home. I knew there was no going back.

I feel really compassionate and grateful for this person. I wanted things to end well, but the only way they could was if I took a stand for my self respect and made room for something better. Already this beautiful Friday has been something better.