Burning Bridges

At some time or another, we’ve all worked with these types of people: those happy to have a job and in an eternal state of happiness, those who are disgruntled and quickly quit, and those who are disgruntled but stay, making the rest of us at work miserable. And then there those few individuals who start out disgruntled, grow even more so with the passing years, and finally either quit or retire, burning down all bridges as they go out the door that final time. 

My parents said many wise things during those seven magical years we kids spent growing up on that old familiar street not so far away called Flamingo. This story isn’t about any of those. This story is about one that made absolutely no sense to any of us. You decide, Dear Reader. If you were a child of ten again, would you understand what my dad said to me when I got my first job?

After my dad congratulated me on being hired as a paperboy, he gave the normal pep talk as any dad would.

“Do your job better than anyone else.”

“Work hard.”

“If you’re on time, you’re late.” 

The first two I understood. The last one had me confused, and I was gonna ask him to explain, but then he added one that was even more confusing. 

“And the most important thing to remember is you don’t burn down bridges when you quit.”

I didn’t have a clue why Dad was talking about bridges. First, there were only two bridges on Flamingo, and both crossed over Cripple Creek and neither had a mailbox. The one on the other side of the vacant lot next to Neighbor Thomas’s led to Mt. Olive Elementary School. The bridge was built out of concrete and certainly wouldn’t burn. The second was built by us kids out of large limbs across a narrow bend of Cripple Creek. Our bridge would’ve burned easily, except that we dared Bubba Hanks to be the first to do a test ride. Since he was the largest kid on Flamingo, we knew if the bridge supported his weight, the rest of us could cross without fear of a collapse.

Bubba managed to get halfway across the four-foot-long bridge before crashing into the water with his bike. Alas, our limb bridge was no more, but he did invent a new game we enjoyed playing the rest of that summer: Who could cause the largest wake and how far could it travel downstream? 

For years, “Don’t burn your bridges” was the dumbest thing my dad told us when we were kids. But when I turned fifteen, he added, “…because one day you may have to cross back over them.” 

It didn’t take long when I got out into the real world to fully understand what my parents said about having a good work ethic. Yes, I’m that guy who’s always happy to go to work. No matter what job it has been, I was hired to do the best that I can do. I wasn’t hired to complain. This is a rather simple work concept that some have yet to understand. Figure if I’m so dissatisfied with what I’m doing, then I could quit, go somewhere else, or even start my own business – something I’ve done three times. And when I did, I hired only folks who were happy working rather than complaining.

Whenever I’ve quit a job, I’ve always given a two-week notice, never badmouthed the boss after I’d left, and never ever burned the bridge down behind me. Like my dad always said, “You can’t cross back over a bridge you’ve burned down…even if it seems as strong as concrete.”