As of yesterday morning, my Fleet Reserve request has been submitted for approval, with a GTFO date of 29FEB24; putting my total time in this crazy service at 20 years and five days.
Assuming that the request in its entirety is approved, my timeline looks like this:
10 days of house-hunting leave from 22DEC23-31DEC23,
60 days of terminal leave from 01JAN24-29FEB24, and then
Freedom.
Pure, unadulterated freedom.
No more leadership bullshit.
No more collateral duties.
No more people.
Aim of the game is to go for a completely teleworking job in the form of either software development or technical writing, both of which are flush right now in the job market.
Bonus content: my list of reasons to get the fuck out:
Too many meetings with too many sidebars (FACSFAC does an excellent job mitigating sidebars, though).
Too much socialization. I can't empathize with a need for the MWR. Make your own morale! Dues. Obviously not mandated to pay them, but feel like an ass if I don't (peer pressure?).
No sense of urgency from everyone concerned with regards to any given evolution.
No sense of initiative from anyone, either.
I made a choice not to have kids first and foremost because I don't want to babysit.
Too concerned with everyone's feelings and reputations.
I love bureaucracy, but as with many other things, the Navy is terrible at it.
Awards and Sailorization. A job well done should be payment enough (broken advancement system notwithstanding).
An increasing personal mentality: "What's the worst that could happen if I didn't show up to work?"
An increasing personal mentality: "I understand why some people do what they do."
Politics. "Why should I help you return to an operational posture when I could use this as a teachable/vindictive moment?"
Fat Leonard. You spent the entire time in the Navy playing by the rules and overwhelmed by anxiety of the most minor misstep, and this fat douche and a crapload of corrupt senior leadership took the Navy for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's getting harder and harder to stop focusing on what others are doing and/or what they're getting out of it. People come in late, leave early, and yet I can't bring myself to do the same. I'll gladly jump on an excuse to leave early to help Mandy out, but those are increasingly few and far between.
Depression/anxiety. Effexor dulls the blows, but people are irrational, selfish, and inconvenient. Need to remove myself from that equation (note: not suicidal).
Business practices and workflows. The military makes things needlessly complex. Can't even properly self-service separation. WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO DO SOMETHING AS STRAIGHT FORWARD AS LEAVING.