Bad news at every turn today. Well, it's been a rough week all around to tell it fully.

I recall that this happened at the beginning of January last year, though it wasn't so personal. This job. It never changes.

People talk about growth and change in position, but in your garden-variety private sector company, it's just a carrot with which to distract employees from the fact that a given role really won't change that much. So it's true. You do have to change jobs if you want to feel like you're making progress. The reasons I don't leave my job are complicated but can be summed by the admission that I don't like the industry nor even the sector I work in, so a job change means a career change, and that is not so elegant a transition. It usually involves a drastic cut in pay and likely new or additional education, and it seems I'm not willing to take so wide a leap right now. I use my salary to fund creative and personal interests, so I have tried to time-box my job and have by now a well-structured way to leave the work on the computer so that when it's turned off I'm not thinking about it. But every once in a while, a day comes along like today and I'm powerless to shake the fury. The urge to quit swells in my throat and my thoughts run to their opposite corners and come out swinging as I try to talk myself down.