Saturday, December 31, 2005

Another year shot to hell

Got cut, spent some time in the Hospital, got threatened with loss of job for being sick.

Yes, it can happen. The job site I was working at was so small FMLA didn't cover it. I got a nice registered letter from the cunt who does HR (at a company headquartered in Houston) warning me that if I so much as went to the Doctor one more time I could be fired.

So I quit my job that day-gave them notice, of course. The very next day, I was invited to interview for a job I had held in the past, with a large corp. I flew through the interview process, got hired, and walked away from my old job-something I should have done years ago. The cunt was displeased, which doesn't surprise me much-she struck me early on as someone who enjoys holding power over people. I do so regret not being able to serve out my notice, especially in light of the human, compassionate way those shitbags treated me. 5 years of pretty good service meant nothing to them. But after being threatened for being sick, I'd have taken any job available-I am so grateful to large corp for liking me enough to let me come back.

Two lessons are in my story. Lesson #1-that bullshit about small firms being better to work for, is bullshit. My life's experiences have always been that I was treated better at larger companies.

Lesson #2 is that sometimes you have to suck it up, make up your mind that you aren't going to be kicked around anymore, and do the necessary thing. I took that job initially because my wife and I were both laid off in the space of 2 weeks, and she was pregnant. I had to do something to keep body and soul together, and that place was the first one to make me an offer. Given that I had to go through 3 afternoon-long interview processes, I should have known that the company was loaded down with dickheads-in fact, I suspected it, but desperation sent me in anyway. I should have walked right back out of the damned place as soon as my little girl was born, and I bitterly regret not doing it-my chickenshit nature means I wasted an additional 4 years at that shithole of a place.

4 years I could have been somewhere that I was regarded as a human being.
4 years I could have gotten up every morning not absolutely hating the day.
4 years I could have spared my loved ones my rants about the shit place I worked and the shit way they treated me.

Trust yourself. There is nearly always an alternative to being treated like trash, if you are ready to go after it. Don't make the mistake I did-for 5 years of service I got threatened, gray-haired, and unpaid for my last 3 weeks of work.

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