The Dash

Endings
Endings are hard, especially when they are unexpected or come without a choice. My worse endings were when I was "let go," from my different jobs. I've seen it handled in many different ways, but its never gotten any easier. I think I've learned to take being laid off or let go a little better, though. The first job I lost due was by definition a "firing," and marked the end of my short-lived career as an employee at the Hartland Hardee's. I was fired because I neglected to show up to work one Sunday. It was Father's Day, and when I looked at the schedule for that week I honestly misunderstood when I was supposed to come in for work. They waited a few hours, then asked why I didn't show up for my shift. I don't think they actually liked me well enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, or another chance. I can't blame them, since I was really slow with making food. Toast the bun, cook the pattie, build the sandwhich, add the toppings, wrap it up and throw it down the chute. Back then, I was way too deliberate of a worker to move as quickly as they would have liked. Plus, food preparation has never been my forte. Later on I worked at Arby's, where they seemed to like me a lot more than the people at Hardee's. Actually, I owe my longevity at Arby's to the fact that they had put me on front line instead of backline where the food was made. I was a lot quicker serving the food than I was making it. Food prep was a lot easier at Arby's, too, because most of the ingredients came from a single slab of roast beef that they stuck on a slicer and kept warm with heat lamps. It killed me when I overheard my manager call up one of my coworkers on the phone because he was late and then tell him to "come on in," like she was his mom or something. I wished that I had been given that kind of extra slack at Hardee's. It also showed me that it was possible for people to get a second chance. Although I didn't see it this way at the time, the first job I lost to "outsourcing" involved work I did for a Realtor while I was at CMU. Every week, I would pedal down to his office in downtown Mt. Pleasant and sit at his Macintosh computer compiling reports. Most of the work involved pulling demographic information from older report and copying it into the new report, and then there would be a copy of his property assessment at the front. It was pretty easy work. Eventually, though, he "let me go" because he switched to a service who would do it for him. My first job out of college was with HomeTown Online, an internet service provider owned by HomeTown Newspapers and serving the citizens of Livingston County. We worked in the very back of the Livingston County Press office in downtown Howell. What I didn't know until much later was that this ISP was only considered to be a temporary project which could be pulled at a moment's notice. What I should have known is that an operation which had no defined business strategy, little profits, but high costs couldn't keep going forever. The notes my manager brought back on a napkin one day following a meeting with a client should have been a red flag, too. Just a couple months after our manager pulled us all in his office to squelch rumors that our division was going to be sold to a sister ISP in Livonia, we were pulled into a conference room 32bpwr3@gmail.com | Wiki | Blog | Documents |

The Dash
by the Human Resources officer to explain that we were all being laid off, and that HomeTown Online was being merged with its sister ISP in Livonia. Shows what he knew. Actually, he knew very little because they kept him completely in the dark until the last possible moment. But, the good news was that they were going to keep us around so we could help shut down our company and get it ready for the merger. My last few months with Michigan State Medical Society were actually quite similar. We're sorry, but your job has been outsourced. But, we'd like you to stay on during the transition. Oh, thanks. Special Olympics Michigan didn't mess around. They made their decision, asked me into a conference room and told me that I was being let go. This was, of course, after spending six months trying to keep my job by completing items on a plan, performing my normal duties, then when I was at home desperately searching for another job because I was pretty sure I was going to be done for. I had hoped, though, that I had put in enough effort that they would give me another chance. Like that manager did at Arby's. I suspect that they were bigger fans of Hardee's, though, because they weren't giving me another chance. And, then they told me to grab my things and get out. My three years with Dow Chemical followed a different pattern. More of a rise and then a fall. The contract for SPL was winding down and the iRooms were gradually being phased out. There were about five of us who were hired to install new iRooms, a total of 500 in all. I could swear that we began decommissioning them almost as soon as the 500th one had gone online. Well, so, the future seemed very bleak for those of us at the videoconference helpdesk. But, at seemingly the last minute I was thrown a lifeline--a transfer to Dow Chemical's Employee Development Center. It was a sweet gigge which allowed me to get hands-on experience setting up conference rooms and troubleshooting equipment in person, instead of just over the phone like I had done when I was at the helpdesk. I enjoyed the job so much that I didn't mind having to start at 6:30 a.m. But, then I ran into trouble with my new co-workers in AV. They didn't think I was doing enough to help with the AV work, which consisted of traveling to different buildings to troubleshoot or install equipment. But, here's the thing: I couldn't go anywhere, because I was on call for the EDC. I was expected to run up at a moment's notice to respond to a question or problems with equipment in a conference room, so I couldn't go very far. Then, one day I responded to a meeting in progress which was having trouble projecting their computer. They had brought in a Macintosh, so I was a little worried but it actually wasn't any sweat. But, while I was in there they asked about getting sound, and even though they had plugged in an audio cable they weren't getting sound. So, I began poking around in the back of the rack trying to figure it out. My co-worker from the AV Department and the new manager stopped by, and even with his help we couldn't get the audio to work. The meeting had been delayed 15-20 minutes, which wasn't a good thing but the people didn't seem too mad at the time.

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The Dash
But, of course the crap hit the fan, I was asked a lot of questions and then told that I couldn't be trusted to respond to trouble calls anymore. But, I needed to get practical experience with the conference rooms so that I could help out more. Basically, it was a classic Catch 22. In the meanwhile, my manager in the AV Department didn't like me, and I was eventually transferred back to the Video Conference helpdesk. I knew this was the beginning of the end for me because the helpdesk had been slowly shrinking as people were let go. So, I saw the ending of my career with the helpdesk, and then an end to my time with the AV Department/EDC. My last day with Dow Chemical came just after Easter. I found out at the end of March when I tried to sign up for an online course was denied. When I asked my immediate supervisor about it via email, she referred me to the person who was both of our manager. For a long time, I took all of these endings with jobs very personally. But, that's because I let the work I did define me. I think that I've found a way to create a better balance between my personal life and work. One thing that I've thought about is how each ending to a job was followed by a transition to something better. And, my experiences at all of these different jobs has accumulated in a skill set that serves me pretty well where I work now. All I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, and hope for a happy ending when it counts the most.

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