Nothing left but the details

WOW! Two blogs in two days. I've gotta admit that I'm rather impressed with myself. I really didn't think I'd be able to do two days in a row. But alas!!! This one is pretty important. So let's just dive right in, shall we? I met with Erick Hawkins, a District Manager from Rally's today to discuss my career and my future with Burger King and with Rally's. I have to confess, I am thoroughly impressed with not only the company, but with him as well. He reminds me so much of my boss, M. We spoke for approximately 30 minutes and talked about many things. We talked of expectations, money, more money, bonuses, training and respect. It was that last one that definitely caught my attention. Respect. Imagine that? A boss who respects their people? Reminds me a LOT of M. By the end of the conversation we were on a path. A path that Erick and I hope and pray will lead us both to a lot of success. The plan is there. The road chosen. I am leaving Burger King. I turned in my two weeks notice just a few moments ago. My last day (unless I get fired before that) will be March 12, 2012. I am very excited about the opportunity that Mr. Hawkins and Checker's/Rally's are giving me. Even though I will be starting out making more money per year than I've ever made in my life, it is just not about the money. It's about finding happiness. I simply cannot find that happiness at Burger King anymore. Two months ago, I loved going to work. Let me repeat that. I loved going to work. But that's about when I really started getting burned out. 60+ hour work weeks. Busting my hump to meet numbers that are not appreciated. Sacrificing precious time with my family to try to make my store a success. Being on call 24/7, no matter what I was doing, or where I was going. Getting phone calls and texts while in the middle of church, or spending some quality time with my wife. I did it all. I gave everything up for my career. Why? Because I truly thought it would make a difference. I honestly thought that people cared about what I was doing. But the fact of the matter is, it didn't make a difference. The only difference it made was that it caused a rift in my marriage. One so severe that we almost split up because of it. I had put my job before my wife. A mistake that I will NEVER make again. For the month of January my little store in Trafalgar, Indiana was the 5th fastest store in the market. Now that market consists of over 200 stores in three different states. That was something that me and my entire team worked really hard at to achieve. We wanted to be something. We wanted to make a difference. To matter. We were also the fastest store in the entire state of Indiana! The four stores in front of us in the market were from Ohio and Kentucky respectively. We were very proud of that happening. We are also the fastest store in the district for this month as well. We all work really hard. We leave it all in the store. We work together. We sweat together. We honor each other, and we respect each other. All we had hoped for from the higher ups was some recognition. A "good job". We got nothing. One huge deciding factor in my decision is that there is a rat in my store. Someone has been running back and forth between me and the "acting" district manager talking crap about me. Telling lies about me, and saying things that were meant to remain in my store until I was ready to go to him with the information that I was in fact leaving. I know that no one else outside of my store told the district manager anything, because no one else knew anything. Trust and respect are a huge thing to me. That was violated beyond repair, and it came down to either that person leaving, or me leaving. So since I have been given an opportunity that I simply cannot refuse, it will be I that is leaving. My decision, not theirs. So in closing, I will say this. I will always love my store in Trafalgar. I will always love the people that have worked for me. And I will miss them all very, very much. They are my kids. My extended family. My people.