Friday, March 03, 2006
Yes, I Was Dead...
As IF it's any business of yours. Dead, buried and no longer around. I planned to stay that way too. However, I decided to raise myself from the ashes and post again.
Holy fuck, how melodramatic was that? No, I wasn't dead. I wasn't even sick. However, it's been awhile since I've felt together enough to post.
The long and short of it is that I got fired. Yes, me. Fired. And the reason? This blog. When I posted my female masturbation list, one of the IT geeks in Seattle just happened to be monitoring what I was doing. Well, he passed this lovely little website on to the senior partner at the big firm in Seattle who called the office manager at my office in Portland and told her that he wanted me gone by the end of the day. Nice.
Never mind that the post took me literally 10 seconds to post, since I had it saved as a draft. Never mind that I was on my break. Never mind that I was on top of my work from day one, never fudged my hours for billing purposes. Never mind that I was there every day from 7:15 to 5. Never mind that I busted my ass for them. Yeah, all that was out the window because of this website. So, as you can imagine I was a little bitter toward this place for awhile.
Yes, they claimed that I violated the "sexual harrassment" policy at their nice little firm. I asked how, exactly, did I do that since I never sent anyone at work my link. Never told anyone at work about this website. Never even hinted about it. She had no answer for that one. She only said, "It's out of my hands."
Then, I pointed out that I had worked the day before, which was MLK day (office was closed), and had I known this, I wouldn't have come in. After that, I said something about this being a supremely bad day all of a sudden to which she said, "Believe me, I didn't imagine my day being like this. I was home doing something and had to come in to do this." I looked her in the face and deadpanned, "Yeah, it's much worse for you considering after this you get to go back to your nice office and your $100,000 a year salary with as many days off as you can get away with." She asked if she'd have to call security.
At that point, I told her that no, you don't need security. See, I'd really have to give a shit about the company in order to go ballistic. Looking back, I really didn't give a shit. Don't get me wrong, I love doing what I do, but the last firm I was at has problems with how they treat their employees. Everyone is just a number. They give you just enough perks to keep you from slashing everyone's tires on the way out the door for the weekend. Also, it's hard to work for a company that is so intent on screwing the little guy out of every last cent they can. I really just didn't care. In that respect, they did me a favor.
So, after I collected belongings, she walked me out the back, watched me get on the elevator (as if I had any inclination about running back into the office and getting naked or something) and walked back to her cushy job and shitty law firm. Scoreboard me for the moment.
The first couple weeks were great. I took my kids to school AND picked them up. I did some projects I've been putting off for a long time now. Surfed the net on my own terms. Thought about what was important to me. Basically, I reconnected with my life.
However, after the first month, when I had seriously started looking for a job, I saw how different the market is this year. I really thought that I'd have a job with a comparable salary within a couple weeks. Well, we're going on Week 7 and I still haven't found it.
My savings account has dwindled to almost non-existent and the pressure is on. I have managed to keep myself afloat for the past couple weeks by doing some temp work and some side work for another attorney. I don't mind the temp work, but something's gotta change soon. I'd prefer to sell my Suburban and/or trade it in, not have the bank come get it. The problem is that if I sold my Suburban, I'd have to go get a new car and I don't know any banks that will loan moolah to a dude with a temp job and no clear definable income. Oh well, I'll just keep making that payment somehow.
So, here I am at ANOTHER cross-road. I found myself in a similar situation last year when I was told I was being laid off. The main diffence being that I had a new job the next week.
It's been a stellar 12 months for JP. Two forced job changes (one still pending), one divorce and no more savings account. A little word of advice, when you save money for a rainy day, make sure you save twice as much as you think you need because it NEVER goes as far as you think it will.
Anyhow, this has degenerated into a long, boring diatribe. I just wanted to let all you guys know what was up. I consider you my friends and wanted to put something here for awhile now, but just didn't feel up to it.
Hopefully soon we'll be back to our regularly scheduled ranting.
|
Holy fuck, how melodramatic was that? No, I wasn't dead. I wasn't even sick. However, it's been awhile since I've felt together enough to post.
The long and short of it is that I got fired. Yes, me. Fired. And the reason? This blog. When I posted my female masturbation list, one of the IT geeks in Seattle just happened to be monitoring what I was doing. Well, he passed this lovely little website on to the senior partner at the big firm in Seattle who called the office manager at my office in Portland and told her that he wanted me gone by the end of the day. Nice.
Never mind that the post took me literally 10 seconds to post, since I had it saved as a draft. Never mind that I was on my break. Never mind that I was on top of my work from day one, never fudged my hours for billing purposes. Never mind that I was there every day from 7:15 to 5. Never mind that I busted my ass for them. Yeah, all that was out the window because of this website. So, as you can imagine I was a little bitter toward this place for awhile.
Yes, they claimed that I violated the "sexual harrassment" policy at their nice little firm. I asked how, exactly, did I do that since I never sent anyone at work my link. Never told anyone at work about this website. Never even hinted about it. She had no answer for that one. She only said, "It's out of my hands."
Then, I pointed out that I had worked the day before, which was MLK day (office was closed), and had I known this, I wouldn't have come in. After that, I said something about this being a supremely bad day all of a sudden to which she said, "Believe me, I didn't imagine my day being like this. I was home doing something and had to come in to do this." I looked her in the face and deadpanned, "Yeah, it's much worse for you considering after this you get to go back to your nice office and your $100,000 a year salary with as many days off as you can get away with." She asked if she'd have to call security.
At that point, I told her that no, you don't need security. See, I'd really have to give a shit about the company in order to go ballistic. Looking back, I really didn't give a shit. Don't get me wrong, I love doing what I do, but the last firm I was at has problems with how they treat their employees. Everyone is just a number. They give you just enough perks to keep you from slashing everyone's tires on the way out the door for the weekend. Also, it's hard to work for a company that is so intent on screwing the little guy out of every last cent they can. I really just didn't care. In that respect, they did me a favor.
So, after I collected belongings, she walked me out the back, watched me get on the elevator (as if I had any inclination about running back into the office and getting naked or something) and walked back to her cushy job and shitty law firm. Scoreboard me for the moment.
The first couple weeks were great. I took my kids to school AND picked them up. I did some projects I've been putting off for a long time now. Surfed the net on my own terms. Thought about what was important to me. Basically, I reconnected with my life.
However, after the first month, when I had seriously started looking for a job, I saw how different the market is this year. I really thought that I'd have a job with a comparable salary within a couple weeks. Well, we're going on Week 7 and I still haven't found it.
My savings account has dwindled to almost non-existent and the pressure is on. I have managed to keep myself afloat for the past couple weeks by doing some temp work and some side work for another attorney. I don't mind the temp work, but something's gotta change soon. I'd prefer to sell my Suburban and/or trade it in, not have the bank come get it. The problem is that if I sold my Suburban, I'd have to go get a new car and I don't know any banks that will loan moolah to a dude with a temp job and no clear definable income. Oh well, I'll just keep making that payment somehow.
So, here I am at ANOTHER cross-road. I found myself in a similar situation last year when I was told I was being laid off. The main diffence being that I had a new job the next week.
It's been a stellar 12 months for JP. Two forced job changes (one still pending), one divorce and no more savings account. A little word of advice, when you save money for a rainy day, make sure you save twice as much as you think you need because it NEVER goes as far as you think it will.
Anyhow, this has degenerated into a long, boring diatribe. I just wanted to let all you guys know what was up. I consider you my friends and wanted to put something here for awhile now, but just didn't feel up to it.
Hopefully soon we'll be back to our regularly scheduled ranting.
|
