Written 12/19/2005:

Originally I was thinking of quitting my job the end of February, but now I’m leaning more towards the end of March. I’ve even debated quitting right now, but figure that I might as well wait until the end of winter. I don’t want to end up stuck inside all day with nothing to do and go crazy with cabin fever. But I need to quit. I need to bust free from the loose shackles of xxx and come into a life where what I’m doing matters and I feel like I’m contributing to society or myself or just somebody—anybody.

Today is December 14th, 2005 and I’m pulling another infamous no-call-co-show. According to the brochures provided online by HR, if an employee does not show up for work for three consecutive days without contacting a manager or coworker, he or she will be considered immediately terminated. I have called the company’s bluff on this statement more than once and I definitely still on the payroll.

I decided to quit a week ago and already my life is better. String together all the clichés you want…I feel like a weight has been lifted of my shoulders….I feel like I’m walking on air….I can’t stop smiling….
….they’re all true.

And there’s so much stuff I want to do after I quit. I can focus on my tennis and go camping and visit my sister in Chicago and read more novels and just try something new, hang out with new people, get out of the constant day in and day out of the same people saying the same things and….
I really haven’t been much of an employee to xxx over the past two years. Maybe this is a better way to put it: I am confident that after I resign, the company will definitely not be any worse off without me. I exert the minimum amount of effort to accomplish what is least required of my in order to do get by unnoticed.

I’m what is sometimes referred to in the business world as a “cave dweller”. There are several different levels of employees in the business world, ranging from actively engaged all the way down to employees who are actively disengaged. I consider myself one of the latter, although, I’ve fooled management into thinking otherwise.

From www.govleaders.org:

The “actively disengaged” employees are the “cave dwellers.” They’re “Consistently Against Virtually Everything.” They’re not just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

Being a cave dweller is not an easy task by any means. It’s a delicate operation that could easily fall to pieces in the hands of someone unprepared. Not only do I have to accomplish what is stated above, but I also have to do so while still maintaining my job. It really pretty incredible that enough of us exists in the corporate world that we’ve got they’re own acronym (doesn’t everything in business…). How do we remain while others get laid off? Why don’t we get fired for taking long lunches, coming in late, and leaving early? (Obviously, not all cave dwellers survive as long as they’d like to. Eventually some will get caught. Its like the inverse of the cream rising to the top. The sour milk festers deeper in the cave while those not truly devoted perish.)

Consistently against virtually everything. That’s a pretty strong statement. Everybody has certain things they don’t like about their job, but a cave dweller doesn’t like anything about it.

A cave dweller gets angry when a manager, or anybody for that matter, asks him or her to do something at work. When I get a Sametime (the AOL instant messenger of major businesses) from a name who isn’t in my small circle of fellow cave dwellers mocking to ridiculousness of it all, I cringe. Who do these people think I am? I they want something from me, but they could just as easily get it from Nashanta or Alpana or Sudheer or somebody else on my team. Why me? Leave me alone, I’m busy following my stocks….

I know the part about ‘actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged workers accomplish’ sounds pretty bad, but at least in my case, I don’t do it intentionally. I suppose its probably a good time for an example of something I have done myself.

I work in Columbus, Ohio for xxxx, the xxx largest bank in the United States. I am an Application Developer Analyst Level I working on the xxx team. I’ll try not to get too technical, but

I was originally hired into xxx in July of 2003, six months before the big guys from xxx bought us out.

Added 1/29/2007

I am currently cave dwelling elsewhere within the city of Columbus. Shhhh…..