It's been a long fucking week.
I've opted out of the business dinners at the big week-long company meeting, because I'm sick of playing the game in a business that has never hesitated to express how much it absolutely fucking hates me. And I'm tired of people telling me "it's just this job, you'll get through it".
It's NOT this job. It's my entire fucking career.
In every job I've had as an adult, I've been underestimated, ignored, disrespected, condescended to, hit on, bullied, boxed out of jobs I wanted or some combination of any of those, even when I've been given team lead positions. I know there is nothing I can do to help being small, young-looking and let's face it, female, but I can't say those didn't have anything to do with it. The problem is: I've got great performance reviews from every job I've ever had, including one from a job that a month later I was fired from for political reasons (yes, that was my own fault).
Everyone who talks to me about this (and this is pretty much everyone I work with at this point aside from the people who don't care or actively don't like me), reassures me by talking about this job as if it's somehow unique. It's not.
They tell you to jump through the hoops, shake the hands, wear the monkey suit and grownup outfits, get the Master's degree. And I fucking did all of that. And where did it get me? I'm a fucking PowerPoint engineer, and everyone around me keeps telling me I'm doing a good job and I can't imagine for a second where they're getting that impression from. I feel like I've been a token female, that I've been tolerated and artificially propped up, and that currently, I'm being carefully micro-managed by the people around me.
Oh and on top of that, I have to change my diet because my health is absolutely in the dirt. So, I've got that going for me.
Bear in mind, I'm not suicidal, not in any way. But when you put in this much time into what you do with your life and you see what's become of it, what is your life?
For the record, I have a career coach that I'm talking to that seems that he understands what I'm going through, and I'm working on transitioning the hell out of this vortex of absolute fucking misery. Really, if I had a "dream" job at this point, it would be something where everyone trusts me and leaves me alone to do my job without much supervision. Why is that so fucking difficult?