Blessings in Disguise
At this point I am compelled to put in something positive. Like a lot of you readers, who are at this point fictional (but if you one day decide to become real then I may get a spot in People magazine too, and get an article that is just as shallow as Jason Mulgrew's), I work 9 hours a day -- 8 hours + 1 hour for lunch. I put up with anything from long hours of boredom looking for something to do, to long hours of actually doing something. Don't get me wrong -- I love my job, I love the people who decided to actually *give* me the job, and I love the kind of rogues I'm working for. I love the idea that I actually have the ear of the President of the company and work directly for the Vice President. But it's been a long hard road there...You see, before I was gainfully employed, I was at the whims of cruel fate, as a temp agency took me from job to job, each of which I was ideally UNsuited for. But I needed a job, as I have a wife and child. So what did I do? Did I desert this sinking ship like a drowning rat? No! I was held by my tail and thrown overboard. I was on an assignment in another town that I was patently unfamiliar with. My advisor wanted everyone to have his/her own transportation. So far, so good. However, he gave me the number of a guy who I could potentially carpool with. Are you following this okay? Now, because of the first rule, he wanted everyone to have their own transportation, he fired me -- even though he was the guy who suggested I carpool in the first place. Figure that one out.
Well, it turns out that someone up there was looking out for me. It was Christmas time, and I was trying to solve the problem of how to get presents for everyone and pay my bills, and with the crap job that I had just lost, it wouldn't have been easy even if I'd stayed employed. Enter another temp agency. Or, rather, RE-enter. I had signed up with them before, only to find nothing. I suspect some shuffling had taken place, since I didn't know the woman who called me, nor did I know the desk clerk. Shortly after I got canned, they gave me a call. And after a phone interview (because, again, this version of the staff had never met me), I was told it looked as if I could do "anything," and that she would make it her work that afternoon to find me something by the next day. I came by to do some skills testing, which I had never done there before, and they placed me at a temp-to-hire job in the same town in which I live, for more money. I wouldn't be working til Jan 3, but how could I refuse?
I was told up-front by my boss that very likely it would just be temporary, and once the project I was assigned to ended I would end up unemployed again. I'm happy to say that on the very day I intended to ask about my future there I was offered a chance to work for the company directly -- with 401k, benefits, the works. So I'm extremely grateful for that. I owe the temp agency who gave me a chance, I owe the supervisor who put up with me, and I owe the rest of them a debt I cannot repay. I even owe the guy who fired me. And every time I forget this, every time I drag my sorry butt home after a grueling day, I walk in the door and see my 15 month-old grin ear to ear when he sees me, and that makes everything worthwhile.
posted by ERW @ 8:13 PM
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