I have been liberated

There is another big factor in how I am feeling today. For the last five years I have worked at a restaurant in Subiaco.
I started there when I was still a uni student, worked there full time for a stint between graduation and getting a job, but remained there ever since for a few reasons. Firstly, I knew the place like the back of my hand so it was an easy second job to go to. And I was getting paid a fairly decent cash rate.
But lately things have not been the same at the good old restaurant. It has just gone through it's second change of ownership and while I thought I might be able to handle it the second time around, it's starting to be a bit to much.
Firstly, the owners wanted to cut my pay rate by $3 an hour, which is, I'm told, "not a reflection on your performance at work" but more of a push to get everyone's wages in line. Well that's great, but I've been working here, on this pay rate, and can run the restaurant single-handedly if needs be, for five years. I told them that I would not accept a lower pay rate.
So they said they would think about it and get back to me - essentially implying that they would decide whether or not I was worth the extra $3 an hour. To put this in a bit of context, if they did cut my rate they'd be saving about $20 a week.
Anyway, it's been three weeks since then and they haven't even mentioned it to me. In my books that's bad management.
And then I get to work on Friday, a day when they did not need me to work - there were hardly any bookings - and, despite the fact that I was clearly sick, they wouldn't send me home.
I was sniffing and coughing and the owner insisted on folding napkins while telling me they were too busy to send me home.
Well fuck them.
So after yet another weekend of chaotic bookings, average food and tables walking out, I decided that this weekend coming up would be my last. It's time to cut and run. It's not like I won't be able to survive without the money, and the stress I will prevent from not having to go straight to another workplace on Friday night after everyone has finished for the week will be invaluable.
I am not a waiter anymore after this weekend. It is the end of an era for me, the last shifts in what has been my longest stint at any workplace.
It also means I will be able to go out with friends on a Friday/Saturday night!!
It is a fantastic feeling.