Random Thoughts Thread

[Vuk]

Well, I was just fired. I left my family and everything I knew to help this company move up to this city and open some stores here, and I have busted my ass and put the company first every step of the way. My mistake? When the district leader up here was acting like an unethical, unprofessional douchebag and allowing the management under him to treat our new coworkers in a way completely opposite to our company's core values, I spoke to employees about it, documented several instances, and then reported him. Apparently that constitutes spreading gossip in the workplace and behaving in an unprofessional manner. You would expect HR to have my back when I risk my job to help the company and its employees, right? No, they threw me to the wolves.
Never at anytime in my entire life did I even contemplate that I could be fired, now I will have to live with that the rest of my life. I am a model employee, I work my ass off, come in sick, never miss a day, always follow policy to the letter and make sure that others do as well, answer the phone at any time of the night and come in, am always honest and ethical, etc. When I was first told that my district leader and HR agreed that "it would be in both of our best interests if we ended our partnership immediately". I was in such a state of shock and disbelief that I spent all yesterday laying in bed, sweating and shaking. I ate nothing and drank very little. I finally got up and called HR and tried to appeal, and just now found out it is definite. I actually felt relieved just to know for sure and have all that doubt off my shoulders after two days of pure torture.
No I have to try to find a job, with a termination on my record in a place where I know no one. I got deep in debt coming up here and was barely paying rent as it was. I gave the last year and a half of my life to that company, putting it about everything, including my social life and my health. I still haven't told my family, or anyone back home, and I don't know how I will be able to. Right now I am too full of shame to even go into the stores and face the people I used to work with to ask some of them for character references.
How is it possible to be such a good employee, and still get fired? Fucking corporate bullshit; brass covering brass.
I am giving myself tonight to finish getting adequately drunk, then in the morning I am off to collect references and start the nerve-wracking process of looking for a job all over again...this time right off of a termination. Please do pray if you feel inclined. I would appreciate any help I can get right now.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Tell your family, ask for references, establish lines of support for yourself. Don't let pride or shame keep you from getting help out of a shitty situation. Next time, remember that HR is not there to look out for the workers, it is there to look out for the company and when you began organizing workers and documenting cases it scared them. I don't know the specifics so I really have no idea if your actions were justified, but you obviously hold yourself to a rigid moral standard. Getting fired is not the end of the world, I have never been fired, but as far as I am concerned if future interviewers don't ask why should you tell them?

I'm not a praying person, but I will keep you in mind and hope that things turn out better.

[Fragony]

I am sorry Vuk, that really sucks.

[Beskar]

You basically just tried to set-up your personal Trade Union, Vuk. Corporations don't like the employees thinking for themselves, and you just discovered this the hard way. I hope you find somewhere else soon.

[Hooahguy]

Ive been fired before, and it sucks. I truly feel for you Vuk, good luck on the job hunt! Remember to keep friends and family around you who support you, its always best to surround yourself with people who care in hard times.

[Vuk]

You basically just tried to set-up your personal Trade Union, Vuk. Corporations don't like the employees thinking for themselves, and you just discovered this the hard way. I hope you find somewhere else soon.

No, I didn't. I just wanted people to give me their stories so we could go up the ladder and report it to the appropriate people in the company. No demands, no real organization. Just didn't want an unethical bully running his own little private kingdom up here that completely contradicts the core values and practices of the company as a whole. It is a good, family owned company, and one I took a lot of pride in being a leader at. The problem is that it is growing so fast that it is becoming full of cutthroat, corporate, carrion birds who are filling all the bureaucratic positions. It is a company with a good legacy that deserves better. My brother is still employeed in a leadership position in Central Wisconsin where I come from. He has been seeing the same thing: a good company going farther and farther away from its founding values as its founding leader loses more and more control and his business school educated kids and grandkids take over.
But no, I was not trying to form anything like a union. I was looking out as much for the company as the coworkers. I guess they just did not see it that way.

Ive been fired before, and it sucks. I truly feel for you Vuk, good luck on the job hunt! Remember to keep friends and family around you who support you, its always best to surround yourself with people who care in hard times.

I haven't told my family or friends yet, and probably won't till I get another job. For one, my ma is pretty old and having all sorts of heart troubles. She does not need my stress and worries to be added on to hers. If I tell anyone, I know it will get back to her. The only people I think I am going to tell is my brother who still works for the company (because he will find out anyway) and my married brother because he was fired before and knows what it is like. I think I can trust them to keep it a secret till I am back on my feet.

[Vuk]

Ive been fired before, and it sucks. I truly feel for you Vuk, good luck on the job hunt! Remember to keep friends and family around you who support you, its always best to surround yourself with people who care in hard times.

Can I ask you Hooah, did you have a hard time finding work after that?

[Hooahguy]

Well so my last job before my current job was working for a handyman. He was kind of a massive jerk so I really didnt mind being fired for his imaginary accusations of purposely getting in the way of work (a ridiculous charge). I was unemployed for a week before a friend put in a good word for me at the company he worked at, so for about six weeks I did scut work. It paid well though and I liked who I worked with. Then I went to Norway for seven weeks. There was no guarantee I would have a job when I got back, but I was asked to apply back anyways. So when I got back I did, but they said the current summer interns were enough so I was jobless for a month and a half. I looked for other work but came up with nothing. Then finally I got a call back at the end of July from my former boss at the company I used to work for and she asked if I could begin after the first week of August. I happily accepted the job offer, and Ive been working for that company ever since. Its still mostly scut work but I like the people I work with and its a great work environment (we get to drink beer at work that the company provides for free) so Im rather happy where I am right now and i feel rather lucky.

I can only hope that you have as much luck as I did.

[Vuk]

Tell your family, ask for references, establish lines of support for yourself. Don't let pride or shame keep you from getting help out of a shitty situation. Next time, remember that HR is not there to look out for the workers, it is there to look out for the company and when you began organizing workers and documenting cases it scared them. I don't know the specifics so I really have no idea if your actions were justified, but you obviously hold yourself to a rigid moral standard. Getting fired is not the end of the world, I have never been fired, but as far as I am concerned if future interviewers don't ask why should you tell them?

I'm not a praying person, but I will keep you in mind and hope that things turn out better.

Well, I went there to ask for references from my direct co-workers/bosses who have a really good opinion of me, and I was told that my district leader said that I am not allowed to talk to any employees, and they could risk termination for talking to me. lol So yeah, I am pretty much shafted. That shit aught to be illegal. I cannot even get a good reference from good people who know I am a good worker now.

[Strike For The South]

Well, I went there to ask for references from my direct co-workers/bosses who have a really good opinion of me, and I was told that my district leader said that I am not allowed to talk to any employees, and they could risk termination for talking to me. lol So yeah, I am pretty much shafted. That shit aught to be illegal. I cannot even get a good reference from good people who know I am a good worker now.

O rly

[Vuk]

O rly

Yeah, really. At least while they are on the clock. Either that or she was just trying to find a way to tell me to go screw myself.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I will pray for you Vuk.

Now, if I may vent a little for my own problems...

I have turned into a poor creature, debilitated by minor but frustrating ailments. Most of my life I have felt this way I do now - that things are not sustainable, that I am fighting against the way of things. I cannot hold down jobs or maintain friendships - any future just seems too fragile and unstable to invest in it. My life has a strange twilight-zone feel to it... everything seems indeterminate; temporary and fleeting, yet somehow unchangeable. An unending impermanence. I find my life littered with such paradoxes. That having addressed, and deconstructed, and understood my OCD, I somehow find it holds a greater sway over me than ever before. That after I deliberately left my old world of 'God and Ulster', I somehow find myself more deeply immersed in that culture than ever before - I suppose it is fitting that someone like myself should embrace a way of life so hopelessly and irreversibly in decline. And I cannot help but feel, that I am headed in a similar direction myself.

What to do?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Everyone here is having such a rough time. Sometimes I wish I could come by and buy you all a beer.