Skip to main content

Déjà vu

I have pretty much never written about work. At least not in detail. Not this job. Not my last job; well, until I was let go. And then I wrote about it afterwards. I still think my good-bye email to the office was one of my best pieces of writing to date.

Things at work have been slow. That is pretty typical for the summer. And we work pretty hard throughout the year, so it is not altogether unpleasant to be slow (though I prefer to be busy), particularly when we get out .5 to 1.5 hours early most Fridays. But things were becoming unnervingly slow. We did not have many contracts on the horizon. Then we heard about people (the people whose work we do) leaving. First it was one person. Then another. When we got to the fourth and fifth, I was downright panicking.

And then last week, we were told about a mandatory, full company meeting on Monday (yesterday). I did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. I felt very uneasy the entire weekend. The only reason I was not in a full-on panic was because I spent most of the weekend helping my mother pack up her things so she can move back to TX this week. Again. That makes me sad, and it will become another post someday soon. But fortunately dealing with that helped keep my mind off work and the feeling of impending doom.

On my way to work on Monday, I heard Green Day's "Time of Your Life." I heard that same song on my last day at my last job (the one I was laid off from). I almost threw up in the car at that point.

When I got to work, my stomach felt no better. Five of us who are pretty friendly at work spent the 2.5 hours until the meeting speculating. Then the meeting came. It ended up not being what I expected. It was mostly worse, but no one was let go on the spot, so there was that! I won't go into details, partly because some of it is unsettled/unofficial and partly because I just don't do that on here. But throughout the very uncomfortable meeting, my friends/coworkers and I exchanged various looks, ranging from panic, fear, and annoyance.

When the meeting was over, five of us headed to lunch, convinced we were not going to be employed for too much longer. Lunch was kind of a blur. Many cuss words were flying. I was responsible for 2/3 of them, I am sure. We tried to figure who of us would stay and who would go and what we would do. A few of us decided we had to talk to the boss. We hated to jump to conclusions, but the imminent ending of our jobs seemed soon.

I emailed the boss as soon as I returned, and she said she could see me right away. I told her I needed to understand what was going to happen. I said I liked working there, that I think I did a really good job, that it was a good fit, that I worked hard, etc., but I needed an idea of what the near future would hold. Much to my surprise, she said my job was safe through the end of the fiscal year (about 10.5 months away) and hopefully longer. She could not guarantee anything (who can), but she seemed confident that my days were not numbered (well, at least not in days and weeks, anyway). I asked her a few more thing and she gave me mostly reassuring answers. But the big takeaway is that I still have a job. Just 15 minutes prior to that meeting, I figured I was heading back to teaching (subbing) come the start of school.

Unfortunately, not all of my coworkers were so lucky. A good friend's job is ending at the end of the month. So is the job of another. A few people have not shared what their fate is.

I was worried since I was the last one hired for my position (there are five of us who do what I do). But since I work on my team solo, unlike the other four people, that ended up being a great advantage. I never would have thought it would come to that. But I am glad and relieved. And, I also like to think it is because someone (or someones) recognizes what I bring to the job. I know when I told the fellow I work with that I was staying, she was about as happy as I was. It is nice to be appreciated.

I don't know what the future holds. I can't say where I will be in a year. I may not even be at the same place in six months. But I can be cautiously optimistic. I sure would love not to have to pay for my kid's college...

Comments

bluzdude said…
I'm happy that you're good, for at least the short term. I know how stressful job upheaval can be.

I'm in a similar situation, in result if not in detail. My company has been sold, and no one knows how it will shake out once we start merging operations. It's like you don't dare make any kind of long range plans.
Facie said…
Thanks, Bluz. Hope it works out for you.
chris h. said…
At least you can relax for a little while -- it's good you talked to your boss. Hope the slowdown will turn around!

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a

Melancholy and Gratitude

 A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had

Hug your loved ones!

I hate to say that I am still working through my grief. I mean, in some ways I can imagine I will always be grieving. But I feel pretty confident it will get easier, and I will cry less and less. But, yeah, I guess I am still working through it. Yesterday, a thought occurred to me: I had not hugged my dad since the end of February, and that will now be the last time I ever did. I did not see him for almost three months because of COVID, and then at the end of May, he started his series of hospital visits with skilled nursing stints in between. I was always afraid to hug him then. What if I gave him COVID? And yet when my dad had really bad ICU delirium during a few different hospital stays, I fed him. If I could do that, why not hug him? So I cried a bit last night thinking about that. I am not necessarily a big hugger; I used to hate it, and then probably before Jordan was born, I got back to doing it again. Before COVID, I hugged my friends goodbye (and sometimes hello). I always wou