Thanks for the thoughts. I actually don't hate the job itself, that would really put me totally over the edge. I care about what I do, I'm actually pretty good at it, it is challenging, and I have a chance to make a difference in a lot of different ways. That, as you might imagine, can make you feel pretty good at times. The problem is the terms and administration of my employment. It's just extremely frustrating to be taken advantage of, and to have the terms of your employment unilaterally and pompously changed with no formal recourse. We all do a lot of things in life that have to ultimately be based on trust of other people and letting go--that is something that for most people is really pretty hard to do (at least at some level). I try to take people at their word, and I also am one of the most consummate team players you will ever know. I have been burned very badly by being a team player and taking people at their word. What should be good traits get twisted and misused and abused by other people. My career, at least in the short term, has been destroyed by doing the things I was asked to do (and doing them well), and then effectively being punished for doing what I was asked to do (or punished for not completing a task that I was told to stop doing and to abandon!) Politics at an academic institution can be wicked and strange sometimes, but the one thing it almost always is is vicious. So, life is often bad, but it is not always hopeless. Everyone wants to be appreciated, or at least have people try to understand. It is when neither of these happens or you perceive that they are not happening that things can get ugly.
