We went in today for our annual group rad safety meeting, and things were going pretty good. I was recently granted a brand new darkroom on a truck and was planning on switching it over after we wrapped things up.

Okay first a little history here, I was given a hand me down darkroom back in June of 2024, I painted it, I reworked everything inside to fit my needs for my work among pipelines and fab shops, I kept enough leds and socks both 70mm and 4 1/2 to successfully do any job I needed to. I 3d printed my own tools, I HAD nice things... I had to pull teeth to get a generator... I was doing great at our local practice fab shop, I was getting good super impose AND elliptical experience and I was learning it well. Suddenly one day, one of our other techs got us booted from that fab shop for overcharging hours... my use in that dark room dropped like a hot rock literally immediately. So I ended back in my original techs darkroom as an assistant and have pretty much been there ever since minus maybe one or two jobs back in my truck.

Fast forward to about September and without warning my darkroom makes a 3 week trip up to a northern state to transport a cobalt source and some heat treat shit. I went 3 weeks not knowing what the hell was going on with my darkroom. It comes back and the very next day I have a job that I have to do at a high profile clients shop, so I show up and check out a camera, I get to my darkroom to put it in the overpack and wouldn't you fucking know it, my overpack key has been broken off in the key hole.... so I go drag the RSO out to fix that bullshit.. he fixes it, and I head to the job site after throwing a metric ton of heat treat garbage out of my darkroom.. and guess what? My fucking truck developed a death wobble and no one fucking mentioned it! So I drive (dangerously) to the job site and shoot my panoramic shots, thank fuck those turned out... I've spent the rest of my time just flat out avoiding that dark room, I don't talk to the bosses much because I'm not in the good ol boy club. They know about the death wobble but I'm pretty low on their priority list. My friend who got me into this industry has been the only one that can talk me down from the ledge when I want to leave, and I appreciate him for it, but I don't fit in. I won't rub shoulders with people i work with because I really don't like them, they're by and large slobs and pretty foul to talk to. And that's not even mentioning all of the gay shit grab assing they do... its gross and I'm not about it.

So today.... I go to start fashioning my new dark room and I grab my cranks and guide tube so we can clean, lube, and inspect. I notice that thing has been literally ransacked. I'm like whatever, new truck, new leads, fine. All of my 3d printed tools are gone, my lead box is gone, and a FUCKING survey meter is nowhere to be found. I jump out, and lo and behold my generator is gone too! My bosses have been hounding me to get this new darkroom switched over and filled with chemistry for a week but I have been busy working 14 hour days, sun up to sun down. I have kids, I have a fucking wife, I have a life outside this bullshit for fucks sake. So I picked TODAY to do the switch since it was gonna be an easy day and I was there anyway... I stewed and fumed for about 5 minutes and said fuck this, I tossed my coworker the keys to my truck and told him I was bouncing and just left.. how can you sit there and tell me to move stuff from darkroom to darkroom when you let your butt buddy employees ransack it behind my back? Am I an asshole? It seems like I don't even really exist there, and I'm sick of management only ever yelling at me for menial shit... I always have to ask my RSO if I'm doing something unsafe per rad safety procedure but no, he's just a dick that insists on splitting hairs just to validate his title. I probably have more integrity than half the people there, but it's not about how good you do your job, it's about how good you blow the boss aparrently. I'm done with this shit, even if they choose to keep me on, I'm looking for other jobs. My brother is actually talking to his boss right now to see if he has an IT position open. And if so I'm jumping on it. I Hate NDT, it was great at first, but now that i know the types of people i have to deal with every day... I can't deal with this disrespect anymore. I'm better than this.