OK…here’s what went down (because I need to get this out…I’m bursting!):
At first, as you know, I was supposed to have my 60-day Follow-up meeting with my boss and HR on Tuesday afternoon. That mysteriously got changed to Friday, and that made me do another big “uh oh” in my head, but I was still thinking positively…even though my last trip had been canceled.
SO! I worked my ass off through the week. Another BIG milestone meeting was held in my area, for which I’d prepared another presentation. And that went really, really well. My team congratulated me for getting some really big ideas into work, during and after this particular meeting.
My boss was chatty and happy and life was good (though, I have to admit, there was a huge elephant in the room every time we spoke).
Friday finally comes, much to my dismay, and it was an eerily quiet day. I worked on another project with my design partner in the morning, and in the afternoon I tried to finish another large report, but was unable to focus at that point.
4:00 rolls around and HR gets there before boss, and the woman is chatty with me, but as soon as my boss walks into the room, the door closes and it takes a record 5 minutes tops to tell me I’m fired and to get the hell out. Their explanation? Inconsistencies.
I asked for clarification on what they mean by “inconsistencies” and they said nothing. Crickets chirp. Time is warped. Nothing. And then the silence is broken with, “well, you did some things really well and other things not so well.”
I asked again for specifics, and again, NOTHING.
Then HR chimed in with utter BULLSHIT, saying, “I’m sure you worked on the things that you liked doing, and didn’t concentrate as much on the things that you didn’t like doing…there were some deadlines that I don’t think were met [not true! NOT TRUE!! I met every single deadline, AND had alllllll this extra work piled on top…AND did EVERYTHING that I HATED doing!!], plus there was not enough enthusiasm on your part.”
Really? Enthusiasm? Stuff I didn’t LIKE doing? That’s ALL you’ve got??
Yep. That’s all they had me on. That’s it.
So. HR walked me to my office and I handed her my badge, credit card, etc., and she asked me if I wanted a box. Really? A box?
I told her that no, there was nothing here that I wanted to keep.
She looked around my office and noticed that I had a few personal items, and asked me if I wanted to take them (one of them was a small gift that boss had gotten me, another was a photo of me and a celebrity that has a line in our stores). And i just said no, there’s nothing worth keeping.
I said, so there’s no severance? No insurance? No, and no…when you get fired from this company, there’s nothing. Which again is utter bullshit!! Seriously? 10 years here and I don’t even get my crystal bowl?
She walked me to the door (and she also said that she had to tell me that security was on the floor..HAH!!) and then said, “good luck.”
And that, my friends, was the way it went down.
So. Lessons learned? Unfortunately, never, NEVER trust what your boss is telling you, no matter how personal she gets (never get personal with the boss, either!). Never have a personal crisis (at least NEVER let anyone at work know you’re having a personal crisis), and always look out for #1, always.
I realize that everybody else in the world knows these things already. I just have to keep telling myself.
It’s all good, people. It’s life. It’s truly been a year of growing up and challenges for me. There are things I still have to learn. But I am ready to climb out of this hole already. And if nobody’s throwing me a bone, I guess I’ll have to find my own!
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