Two and a half years.

Yami and I always joke about how when he quits I'll have to work for another five years so we can say that we've both worked the same amount of time. There are many things you can accomplish in five years and working for the same company I started at as a rookie would only be justified in the pursuit of other goals.
Getting canned over the phone was a bit of a surprise. I've seen quite a few cyclists(and ten fold more drivers) get washed through the company. Some lasted a day, well usually it would be a winter day with 20 mile winds and oh I'd say 8 hours of 33degree rain sometime the week before Christmas. Or a week, in the middle of June and the dehydration and exhaustion sent them home for the weekend that turned into a week, and then turned in their radios for the paycheck. A select few however enjoy(or tolerate it) and can show up consistently and even make something more of it than a paycheck to paycheck existence.
My problem say the vets, was trying to turn a company reliant on the rookies inexperience and resulting pliability, into a consistent source of fair income and honest work. Companies who want to keep your checks low to keep you coming out and always working harder for bigger checks that never come. Knowing that when you burn out there will be someone else willing, or even begging to take your place. Hopefully even a rider living with their parents to whom pay is secondary to the all important social capital of courier cred. But at the back of my mind was always the looming reality that there were only so many companies in town, and a couple of burned bridges would leave me without anywhere else to go, so I stayed on. Until they forced my hand.
So luckily I got my foot in at the elite company in town(thanks BoBo, and Larry). And the last few weeks have me convinced that a change was needed.