Talking to my former supervisor Roman yesterday, I learned something interesting: there probably was enough correction work to justify keeping me at the hospital. Which makes it possible that the manager who I didn't like was giving a false or at least incomplete picture to my direct bosses.
A couple of months after I'd moved offsite and then quit, that manager resigned. (By the way, it turned out that she'd turned in and then taken back resignations four or five times in the less than two years she worked for the hospital. At least once she resigned on a Friday and then returned to the job the next Monday.) I think of that and what I've since learned, and wonder: what if I'd been able to stick it out for those few months? Would I have had a chance to return? Would I still be working there today? As difficult as that job could often be, I was glad I was doing it; I felt I was helping a good place do good work. And it is a good hospital; I've felt that ever since I first was taking my dad's parents to eye doctor appointments up there in the mid-1990s, nearly a decade before getting paid to do so.
There's probably some level of sour-grape-ing in these thoughts. It's a little conspiratorial and defensive. But I didn't like how I was treated near the end, especially in that last month; I think I've earned the right to be defensive about it. And I'll add this: Roman suggested I apply for work at the hospital again -- now that it seems to be past a wave of layoffs -- and I'll tell you, I'm tempted. Especially with that manager I didn't like being gone. My issues with other hospital people were NEVER as big as my issues with that particular person. And I could even manage to work with her. If I could do that, I could handle being there again.
It's food for thought as I figure out what I should do to keep earning money.