Fire Your Boss and Free Yourself

You don't have to fire rounds at your employer's office, but how great would it feel if you could? I'm not suggesting either that you immediately call up your boss and tell him/her to shove their job up their backside and into the seventh circle of Hell.

Firing your boss is a daunting prospect. I know because I did it. It was a leap of faith, and one that paid off—thankfully. I know for a fact that I got lucky, but it was honestly the best thing that I ever did.

I was working in a café, which itself was inside a large supermarket, and I was absolutely miserable. Within a few months of starting there, I was made team leader and I felt even worse.

Without wanting to sound mean, I didn't like the people I was working with. Everybody knew the team leader slot was open and everybody was trying to screw everybody else over. If I knew then what I was to learn later on when I was given the position, I would have told them not to bother; that it truly wasn't worth it.

I began really disliking them, and the fact that there didn't seem to be a functioning braincell between them didn't make the situation any more palatable.

My boss himself was a giant...Well, we all know how bad terrible bosses can be. Mine was particularly bad, though, and something of a bully. Half of the team (of 11) was replaced within a few weeks of his arrival—he had taken over from somebody else, my old boss going on to another store.

To say he had done little to endear himself would be a drastic understatement.

Anyway, miserable shift followed miserable shift. I'd never taken a sick day, but one night I was violently ill (I still don't know what caused it) and I was up most of the night with my head in the toilet bowl. Cutting a horrible story short, I had to call in as I was due in early morning to open up and get everything ready.

Everything was fine, except I had to take an additional day to be sure I was better, until I went back in and the boss chewed me out for "taking the p*ss." On top of everything else, that was the final straw.

I worked the remainder of the shift, punched out and never went back. I needed the job and I shouldn't have left the way that I did, but firing my boss was easily the best thing I ever did.

From that day to this, I have never worked a conventional job. Right after I left, I started hitting the freelancing websites. I happened across an ad from a guy looking for content writers to help with a project in the UK. Ongoing work, great pay, and flexible. What more could I ask for?

In one week, I earned almost as much as I was earning in two weeks at the cafe and I wasn't stressed, surrounded by idiots, or being berated by my boss for no reason. Or at least, no reason that I could ever fathom.

This was over four years ago, and I still write full-time, although for different people and companies now. I've honestly never been happier.

Now, as I said right at the top, I know perfectly well that I got lucky. I could very easily have found myself in a very tight spot. That being said, I firmly believe that with a little more forethought than I put into it, firing your boss can lead to great opportunities for anybody—you just need the confidence to give that guy the middle finger when the time is right and march out of there.

Don't be like me, though. Do your due diligence before you burn that bridge. Whatever your passion is, make sure you are able to realistically pursue it, and you can put 100 percent into it before you fire your boss.