I’ve Been Terminated, I’m Free
In most cases when a person is terminated they are either angry, upset or both. In my case, I don’t think that I could be more thankful. As crazy as that sounds, with the state of the economy and unemployment being what it is, anyone that has read my previous posts “Working for the Insane,” will surely understand.
Although, it was a pretty stupid thing to do on my part, I do believe that everything happens for a reason. What ultimately led to my termination was that I inadvertently left my personal email open when I left the office on Wednesday. Funny thing is that every day I completely close the internet for security and safety purposes. On this day I had been working on something very time consuming on the company website and since my boss was so conscience of my utilization of time I left the site open so that she would see what I was working on. Unbeknownst to me when I left, there was another tab open….my personal email.
Well, consequently and without my permission or the legal right to read through my emails she did. Emails being a personal thing often contain your thoughts and feelings, right? I’m no different than everyone else and my emails expressed much of my distaste for her and her mistreatment of those she dealt with. In other words, she had plenty of eye opening information to peruse.
Keeping in mind that I had no idea of my blunder on my way into work Thursday morning, I arrived at her house to find her oiling her door locks, which she had instructed me to do the day before. As I approached she asked me for the house key which I handed to her assuming that she was going to test the locks. She then looked at me and said, “you are being terminated.” Hmm, nice set up, very unexpected. I asked her if she was going to tell me why and she responded that she would email me. I said, “OK, thank you” and walked away. There have been very few instances in my life when I actually felt a weight being lifted off my shoulders, but this was one of them.
Still at that moment not fully understanding why I had been terminated, I called one of the girls I work with. She informed me that she had gotten an urgent early morning phone call that she need to be at the office for a personal discussion. This is when it dawned on me that she had read my emails and that moment was the only moment that I regretted my indiscretion. Involving a friend as unintentional as it was just isn’t a good thing.
On my way home I called Mike who congratulated me. I’m pretty sure he was at the end of his rope with my complaining everyday about my dealings with her. Throughout the day, everyone I spoke to also congratulated me. I’m pretty sure that this is a completely different response than most people get. I’m blessed to have people that care about me enough to be more concerned with my well-being than my net worth.
An couple hours after returning home I received an email with a list of reasons that I was terminated. This fabrication I found almost comical as nothing on the list was a viable enough excuse to terminate me for until she read my personal emails. In addition, the majority of the items referred to the emails themselves.
As a result, I’m in search of a job in a horrendous job market. As were previously just making ends meet with Mike’s salary and my measly one I can’t waste any time. So, if anyone out there in “Blogland” would like to hire a very well rounded person who could really use the income, you know where I am. To all others trying to stay afloat, tell us how you’re doing so we can wish you luck in any and all endeavors.
In the meantime, chin up, somethins’ gotta give, doesn’t it?
2 Responses to “I’ve Been Terminated, I’m Free”
By Diane on Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Still unemployed since January 6th, I thought I’d update. First thing the morning of the 7th I filed for unemployment. The internet being a wonderful thing, I did it all online. I remember years ago what a hassle it was to go to the office, wait in line, meet with an agent, fill out the papers and repeat the process every two weeks. Doing all of it online was easy.
The process online was filling out the form to file for unemployment and then claiming your weeks. Claiming your weeks entails going online and answering questions about whether you worked, were available to work and whether you looked for employment for each specific week. You are also required to keep a worksheet for each week documenting your job search activities. I have continued to do what is required.
Realizing that it’s been almost a month, I’ve started to wonder if there was something else I needed to do. I thought maybe that I hadn’t received a deposit yet because I missed something. I started wondering if I was supposed to submit the worksheets. I decided to make a call.
Upon calling I was answered by a recording. I guess that was to be expected. Ten minutes later a REAL person answered my call. I gave the woman all of my information, she questioned and confirmed with me all the information that I had submitted online and then told me that it would be at least two or three more weeks before I would possibly see any employment benefits. The reason she gave was that they still had to investigate my case and confirm the reason for unemployment. Now I ask you, what have they been doing in the past month? How are people supposed to survive for what will be almost two months without a paycheck?
I have a solution to the assist in the unemployment problem. Hire more people to handle the claims.