January 31, 2002 10:31 pm
The Hits Just Keep On Coming
The bad news: Hmmmm, I guess not having a paycheck at all is probably worse than having half the salary I used to get.
Yes, I got fired this morning. No, not laid off as I was last year. This was a firing. Not really a surprise but do you ever really expect that today will be the day?
The fact that the guy who fired me this morning won't even be working there himself in two weeks really adds to the surrealism. Can a lame duck boss do this? Apparently so.
Through the day I have pieced together more of the story and how it all happened. A good friend from my former job will be taking over in the morning. He will do an excellent job (if he can stand it) and there is no doubt he is better at this job than I ever will be. He feels like shit to "take" this job from me but he had no choice. They blackmailed him into it. They offered it, he declined, two weeks later they offered again and mentioned that if he turned it down he would be losing $7500 in salary from a cut they would make.
I haven't even told my husband although everyone else I know knows now. Mark has been working on their new live album all day and I didn't tell him this morning because I knew he would feel he needed to stay home or he'd worry about it all day. He needed to have his head in the game so I'm waiting for him to come home to break the news to him.
The brightest side of the day was talking to my former "big" boss about it. He was my boss's boss's boss at the old job. He was solely responsible for us getting two months notice that the layoff was coming and a very nice severence package too. If it had been up to the company they would have given us our last paycheck and two weeks pay on the last day of work and said adios. He and I had a long talk today and he really lifted my spirits. I said, "I told them I wasn't a producer, I'm a disc jockey" and he said, "You are a TALENT, you are an incredible TALENT." He said many other really nice things and we talked about the morning show I was working with and their odds of launching their show into syndication. He and I saw eye-to-eye on their drawbacks: They are lazy and have no discipline. They are also older than the morning shows that find success with synication. They don't have the energy or desire, they just want the glory and the paycheck (okay, I'm expanding here into personal observations, not what we talked about). Anyway, it was fun to talk radio with him. He also told me to hang on and it didn't sound like a casual hang on, it sounded like there is something he knows that might help me eventually. When? What? I don't know that part.
As I examined this all day, I realized that the impact last summer was emotionally devastating, to lose the job that I loved and the boss and co-workers that I loved. This time it is much more financially devastating, but much less emotionally since I disliked so much about the job and its requirements.
I did go ahead and do my waitressing shift today and it went fine. Not very busy and I had a small section but I did all right. It won't replace "real" income but it will continue to help.
I also worked on producing some more commercials for the station I've been doing work for. I told the woman there that I had been fired and she called me back later and was worried that my work for them might have played into this. Not at all, I told her. I'm sure glad to have begun this venture. Now I need to promote it more.
So, I'm bummed at the shaky shaky financial situation we are in and the rapidly approaching trip to Hawaii which, I suppose, will still take place. But, I feel some release and lots of hope.