This is my vent. At my new job, looking forward to my June 5th 1 year anniversary, I had sent a letter of thanks the afternoon of May 23rd to my employer. I had been busy that week, we were readying for API deployments which I was managing the implementation of. This is, or was, the day job that keeps/kept this blog afloat, along with my entire family as the primary breadwinner.
Well into my morning on the 24th, having logged in a bit of extra time all week and in the throes of responding to emails, I received a call to stop all work. I had actually been let go yesterday, just nobody had bothered to tell me. No time to hand off work properly. What kind of crazy is this? How rude for the person taking on my work.
The bathroom remodel, which was supposed to take 3-4 weeks tops, has spanned two contractors and 3 months so far and went from 19k (guy didn’t have a clue on prices) to 32k. While I have money saved, I was actually counting on regular paychecks to take care of this remodel. Not only would having my bathroom back, getting my beautiful new tub (which has been sitting for months outside in the yard) actually situated in the house where it belongs, be quite lovely, my master closet is also in this bathroom. This would be the closet where I could perhaps locate appropriate shoes and attire for an interview, were one to come up not on skype or phone that requested my physical presence with expectations of me putting some care into my appearance.
And I was now completely stressing over a very expensive stove for my inlaws that I had gleefully offered to pay for, not knowing the bathroom price would be significantly higher or that my job would vanish within a few weeks. The ins just don’t understand my current (and very temporary) drama. They’re in a jam and I have been shoring them up as agreed. It will all work out in the end of it.
I continue to scan the finances to figure out what I really should keep and what I can let go of. Change is always a great time to sit quietly and meditate on what you need in your life and what no longer serves you. All monthly donations to charities were canceled. I can set those up again downstream. YMCA membership? Keep, I DO need my yoga! We have re-worked the budget and I am not allowed in stores. 🙂
On June 5th our dogson, Rhett, a strapping handsome, smart and sweet Doberman, normally bounding about with full-on power and energy, went into a spiral. After his morning walk, he kept falling down. Some sort of spine, nerve trauma and so suddenly we have no idea what he could have done to bring this on. Rhett needs twice weekly therapy and acupuncture treatments. On the upside, we have witnessed swift improvements and he is feeling so much better. Not to beg, but I did set up a gofundme for him and the link is below if you know of any animal lovers, dog lovers, Doberman people, kindly help by sharing, please and thank you.
Job from the bible comes to mind but that guy had it way worse than me so I am determined to remain thankful. Still, what on earth happened to common courtesy? What happened to warnings of layoffs pending, to having a conversation and providing some modicum of notice when someone is no longer needed? How is it that the worker bee is asked to provide notice when the business does not? What do these actions say about a future at any corporation or the morale there? Do we put up with instability and fear or change our plans? When is the income level high enough to compensate for that fear and not knowing when yesterday was your last day there? When a company is that freaking hard up to do a merger, provide extra bonuses for their execs, or make their bottom line and stock price heftier before announcements, that they must turn to layoffs, especially without any notice, one has to question if the decisions which precipitated that action, are equally thoughtless. While this, of course, affects individuals and their families, many of us also have employees counting on us, a lawn service, housekeeper, grocery delivery service, dog walker, and we should take that seriously too because just as our income is affected by our employer, we affect peoples incomes too. Also, in some situations, we are not really in a good position to let these employees of ours go. For example, I get sun poisoning if I stay outside too long, so the lawn guy stays.
While I am absolutely stewing over this, ruminating over my pissed offedness, and hurt, really so hurt, I also know intuitively we co-create at least 95% of what happens to us. Next, when things do happen, there is reason and purpose behind it. I am now opened up to find other work, another purpose. I am also out a 98k salary. All in all, quite the bummer.
My contract terms stipulated I must provide 2 weeks notice to leave my position, while I received an ‘oh by the way this happened yesterday’ termination. I have become an afterthought. This makes me think of all the afterthoughts out there silently hanging with me. Corporations today seem soulless, doing things on the regular that they would never have even discussed perpetrating 30 years ago. There was, feigned or true, an appearance of giving a damn, an understanding that there should be coverage provided to good workers with some grace, funded 401ks, healthcare and pensions and time off to enjoy life. In my 20’s the healthcare I never used was fully funded by the company. I watched the pension die. I watched the 401k stop getting matched. I watched 16 years of quarterly layoffs and spotty raises. So many people back in the day worked for themselves or in their families business. When you give up that control for working at someone else’s business, it makes sense to get some kind of return, not just weekly but to cover you in retirement years. It sucks having what you have worked for crumble through no fault of your own. Not all of us want to work until we are 100. Not all of us will be capable. I have seen ethics and compassion vanish over the last couple of decades and greed take over. My husband, who is in management, complains of the millennials. He is lucky to get even a day’s notice when someone quits. His last notice was less than 24 hours and said ‘thanks so much for the opportunity but I am moving on’. This from a young dude my husband took under his wing and mentored. It was his first job. He could have moved up but decided to move on. Most don’t even give notice, they’ no call no show.’ The millennials are far more about themselves, what they want to do right now, make right now than ever paying any kind of dues or putting up with anything they don’t like for any length of time. I find quite a lot of humor in this. It is the ultimate payback to the dispassionate care corporations have given their workers for so long now. While I do feel sorry for my husband, he is a wise, ethical, caring and fair-minded man, I snicker at what has been wrought. This is exactly what Corporate America asked for when they took us from long 8 hour days and weren’t satisfied with that into mandating exempts work until the job is done, 10, 12 and 16 hours per day and stack ranking us accordingly, managing by fear. Getting the milk for free as they say. Nothing is ever free. Eventually, we pay for things the right way or Karma takes care of it later. In the 50’s & 60’s, there was much talk of how technology was to have us working perhaps 4 hours a day and enjoying so much more personal time. I want to know what happened to that? (Greed) When companies make the choice to disassociate from compassion towards their workforce, to buy up another company or do some other unnecessary thing, this is not balanced. I see a lot of imbalance in most folks finances and I see the same insanity in many corporations. Obviously, a company is attempting something that is too much of a strain if they are unable to do that and also keep their daily work and workers going. They are not living in balance. And if your finances are a mirror of this, you are not in balance either. The problem with your personal finances not being in balance is the stress it causes. Gone are the days when you could feel comfortable at work, settle in. I believe everyone should have significant savings and manage all debts to increase their cash flow as much as possible. Ages ago, I read Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad,(link below too) and at that time I was mired in credit card debt. My mother had taught me that, but my dad was a very practical man and a saver. This book really opened up my eyes to the spirit of money and all the ways we tend to abuse it.
No matter who you are or what you make, everyone needs to be thinking about a plan A, B & C. Stuff happens that throws us off our game and shapeshifts us. While you can feel how you feel, in that moment, it is also necessary to absorb lessons and to move on. In order to do that, you have to sort through the wreckage, what worked, what didn’t and create a plan you can use next. All of this really helps if you already had a backup plan to turn to. For me, I had some savings to finish the bathroom. Job searching but I don’t believe my next role will be with any typical corporation after going through all that I have been through the last 28 years and in particular the insult a few weeks back. I am thankful for what I have earned and the education, but firmly believe we all deserve respect and very saddened to see a lack of the very basics in courtesy happening in Corporate America. I am learning, meditating on next steps, determined to carve a new path forward thinking more like a millennial. For those of you finding yourself in this or similar situation, I hope sharing my story and the interesting reading below helps you shed light on where you are today and where you plan to go. ♥
Help Our Pup! https://www.gofundme.com/treatment-for-heironymus-rhett?sharetype=teams&member=295754&rcid=r01-152951544828-f60b9c3bb15c4ec2&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w
Interesting Reading: