Hello,
I come to you with a full heart. Yesterday my life was going okay although I have had some struggles recently. My wife and I are seperated but we are working through things. I haven't been able to find a "real" job. I also have started counseling to help me deal with everything. But yes my life was going relatively okay. I still have my faith that sustains me, I have a wonderful wife and great kids. I also have outstanding parents, a great brother, sister-in-law and nephew. So compared to some other people things are pretty good. My family and I are struggling right now but there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel.
That is until about 1:10 yesterday when my life went to crap. I had yet another demoralizing thing happen. I found out the temporary job I have been faithfully working had been pulled out from under me. Monday I woke up and worked about 7 hours for Utah Transit Authority (UTA) through Manpower. I had a normal work day, I did all aspects of my job to the best of my ability. I went home and relaxed, having no inkling that I would be receiving some very demoralizing news very soon. Tuesday morning I woke up and I worked on some home projects and had a good morning. I had been e-mailing the boss I have a good relationship with. I was going to go in and pick up my schedule for the next three weeks. I was going to do that and then go to work. She was a great boss and always e-mailed me back quickly. When she hadn't e-mailed me by 11:00 I e-mailed her again. I thought it was wierd that she hadn't e-mailed me back. I didn't put too much stock in it, I thought she just might be sick or on vacation.
I went and ate lunch and started getting ready for my work day. About 10 minutes before I was going to leave I heard from Manpower. They informed me that my project with UTA had just been ended. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut, I could not believe it. Manpower said they tried to contact me about 10 times previous to the time when they got hold of me. Of course they blamed that on me. They said they dialed my cell phone, I don't have a cell phone. They finally got hold of me about 10minutes before I was going into work. The official reason I was given for the "project ending" was because I was trading shifts and not communicating properly.
Of course since this is Corporate America, I did not have the chance to explain my side of things. I did not trade shifts, as a favor to two people I picked up their shifts that they were trying to cover. These shifts may not have been covered otherwise and they might not be covered now. Both people I picked up shifts from told me they would let our supervisor know. My second "problem" was about my supposed lack of communicating. After I had taken those two shifts, UTA sent out an e-mail about not doing that anymore. They also explained the policy. That was fine with me. There was nothing on the e-mail about them wanting a confirmation that we had read the e-mail. So I didn't respond to that e-mail. I am sorry I am not a mind reader and did not know I was suppose to respond. Again I am sure UTA probably sees that as my fault. In corporate America it is rarely the companies fault.
My main problem was that there was someone at UTA who did not like me, she will remain nameless. I will refer to her as Miss X. Miss X didn't have the courage to respond to my phone calls or e-mail. Her supervisor did, her name is Cherice Day, and she is a completely class act. She at least had the courtesy to explain UTA's position in a very nice and honest way. I pointed out to Cherice that these claims against me I considered bogus. From verbal and body language I surmised that Miss X, for whatever reason, was just looking to get rid of me. I am not sure what I did to her. But by her body language I could just tell she did not like me. Since she was the prototypical Corporate America Drone I did not like her. I didn't say that to any of the other employees. Other than her not being able to remember my name one time and her embarassing me at a meeting I had very little to do with her. I always dealt with the other supervisor, who was always nice and supportive, just like a supervisor is suppose to be. So Miss X I hope you feel good about putting my family more in a financial crisis.
In one day on some bogus, spurious "problems" I went from making $2000 a month to no income at all. I also did not have the chance to reply to the charges. I was just let go. Through Manpower technically the UTA project ended for me, although it didn't end for all Manpower employees. Of course in the Corporate America CYA atmosphere the project ended. They did not officially fire me so that they do not have to pay unemployment.
I think my biggest issue was I hadn't played the corporate game. That is more about kissing butt rather than doing a good job. I did everything I was told other than picking up shifts. I'm sorry I did not remember all the policies from 4 months ago. Essentially I got fired (which is the more accurate term, I don't care what B.S. Manpower or UTA says) for working extra shifts. I did everything I could to fulfill the requirements of the job. I usually worked all 6 days each week, my availability was from 8:00am to when the trains stopped running at night at 1:30am. That was my given availability. Although a few times I was given shifts earlier than my availability and I still worked most of those.
I tossed and turned last night, couldn't fall or stay asleep very well. I was worrying about my families already dire financial situation. I knew that this was not a permament job. I had been told it was possible to work until November on this job. I had been using my off time trying to repair my marriage. I also was trying figure out my personal problems I have and resolving them. Finally I was trying to find a permament full-time position. So that plan went to crap last night.
Corporate America it's not what you know, it's whose ass you kiss. So Miss X. I hope you feel good about putting my family in this situation over some spurious allegation that I did not have the chance to refute. That is part of the reason I started a blog. I was hoping to turn my love of music into a blog and job so that I could support my family. I then would not have to play the Corporate America game. I don't do well in the Corporate America world, as I don't play all the kiss ass games. I just go in, try to do a good job, be nice to people and try to be 100% honest. That is not good enough in Corporate America.
So I will be back tomorrow with my regular blog. I am going to spend the day trying to pick up some pieces of my life. I plan on spending time with my family, try to find a job and hopefully begin to recover from this near debilitating blow.
themusicaddict
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