Keeping In Touch

[milehigh96caliti]

Hi everyone...sorry I haven't been on for so long. I worked a lot of OT over the summer and I was really busy doing that and working on my house. I'm in need of some hugs...I was released from my contract at Honda on Oct. 5th. I didn't say much but when I started there 14 months ago I had the bad luck to yet again end up working with what I found out later is referred to as a "workplace bully". She was the youngest supervisor/lead hired, ex-military, 29 years old (everyone else was over 40), and just thought she was the cat's meow. She set her sights on an assistant data center manager position that ended up 6 months later not being funded.

Anyway as the only 2 females leads in the place, we had some major issues. I knew that if she ever found out about Sean being in prison I'd get fired (been there done that before). So no one there knew except my tape operator whom I had worked with in 2006 when he was in prison the last time. Things got a little better over the year, but we were all having issues with the contract company. First we were promised shift differential, holiday pay and vacation time. The primary reason that I changed jobs was the small raise AND the shift diff. My commute went from 20 miles RT to 100. I gave up a good permanent position with benefits for a contract job that made a lot of promises and then reneged on them. Then in April, 2 days after I closed on the house, we got an email that Honda was cutting their bill rate and the contract company passed the entire paycut onto the contractors. It was not small either, 6.65%. That BS made none of the contractors at all happy, but we had to bite the bullet because there were/are not a lot of jobs out there. Ms. Chicklet is also disabled...screwed up her knee 6 years ago in a motorcycle wreck. So apparently Honda is so afraid of her suing them for discrimination that they let her do whatever she wants. It created a very hostile work environment for everyone. To make a long story a little shorter, on Oct. 3rd she came into work that morning. Asked me if I wanted to go out and smoke...so we went out to the smoking area and she told me that she knew about Sean, that she had found out the week before. I have no idea who told her. The person she blamed told me that he never said anything. Anyway, I got a phone call on Monday morning the 5th from the contract company telling me that Honda had released me from my contract. I've spent the past month looking for a job and contacting attorneys. The contract company is claiming it was performance (I call BS on that), then they said it's an at will state we can do what we want. Well I have a 14 page EEOC complaint that says they can't and if they're going to, they better get their checkbook out. Needless to say, the few people who had "performance" issues were counseled and allowed multiple opportunities to improve. The contract company is saying it had nothing to do with Sean...I call BS on that too considering that I was fired 2 days after the bully told me that she found out about it the week before.

Anyway, I'm just feeling a lot stressed right now and needed to vent. I sit here and wonder why there are so many people in the world that feel the need to be A$$hole$ to people they don't really even know. Oh maybe it had something to do with the fact that she falsified her resume to get her job....I dunno...life is just so unfair sometimes. It made me really angry to go to my son's wedding on Oct. 24th in Texas (thank god I already had my plane ticket), with just enough money to pay for the rehearsal dinner. My other son paid for the hotel, meals and rental car. Although he could afford it, his wife has leukemia and he has enough to worry about financially with her being sick and not working. I should have been the one paying for him, not the other way around.

So here I sit at the age of 50 trying to figure out what to do for the rest of my life. I'm sick of being in IT, it's totally cutthroat and ruthless, but it's all I know. And unfortunately, I'm an IT Generalist which means I know a lot of different things but I never specialized in anything but AS/400 operations. Most of those jobs have been outsourced overseas and are hard to find unless you're a programmer which I'm not. I'm eligible for workforce reinvestment grants for job training, but I can't decide what to do. Right now there's a good chance of getting a tech support job with Sprint, it pays 1/2 of what I was making which means I'll need to get a part time job to make ends meet.

The positive things I look at are my mom helping me out with bills and the remote to my car finally remembering it's a remote! It stopped working when I wasn't driving it because of the brakes. Eric fixed it in September and it took this long to recharge the battery so the remote would work...silly huh? And Whitney is on her last round of chemo and there hasn't been any sign of cancer in her bone marrow since she got sick in May.

This is a bad time of year to be out of work and looking for a job for sure. Most companies are waiting for 2010's budget to be approved and they're holding off on hiring until January. Hopefully I'll hear from Sprint tomorrow, the training class starts on the 30th. I'll start working there and try to go to school for certification at the same time. Sean should be eligible for the halfway house in December or January. The bad thing about that is I won't have the money to help him out. He'll have to get a job to pay for his room and board there (no driving either), so that kind of screws him on getting his old job back. Well tomorrow is another day...I needed time off from work but not this much of it!

Thanks for listening!

[elchicano]

Sorry to hear it cindy. As long you work with other people, there's always going to be one person who's going to make working with them a living hell. You could always go back to school, take me for example. I have been going to school now for 3 years as an accounting major. Well i have decided to go for a psychology major instead, accounting wasn't as fun as i thought it was gonna be. ha! Well hope everything works out, the economy has people struggling, I still can't leave my parents house and I'm 21.

[milehigh96caliti]

Hey does that mean you can be Sean's shrink?

[elchicano]

Ha! Prolly but that wont be for a while.

[milehigh96caliti]

Originally Posted by elchicano318ti

Ha! Prolly but that wont be for a while.

That works...you can be my backup!

[milehigh96caliti]

I can totally identify with this!

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13713823?source=rss

[wolferj-RIP]

Big hug and sympathies for you from me!

I went through the same crap last year and this year. I finally am working full-time with a software company, but had to start at the extreme bottom of the ladder (at 45 years old!) making 40% less... Oh, well. I too, still have to keep other odd jobs going to make ends meet, but I am finally working again.

(Networking with former clients and co-workers to get the inside track on job openings is the only way to find a job right now.)

Let me know if we can do anything!

[milehigh96caliti]

Thanks James...I am getting too old for this crap. People just need to grow up and realize that they are spoiled and can't have everything they want. Karma is a Beeotch and I am sure it will come back to haunt her, she already has no family, sig other or anything else. The fact that she has no one in her life should be telling her something, but she's so psycho I am sure she thinks it's everyone else and not her.

18 months later I'm still angry about Sean going back to prison....50/50 between him and the idiots you know? At least with my 8k house tax refund I was able to pay off 2 large bills so I no longer have to worry about them and that saves a little money. If I go to work for Sprint then once I'm done with training I can get my knee fixed (torn meniscus) because I'll finally have decent insurance. I'll have the rest of the holidays for the year off. Oh and all of the stress has made me lose the last 7 lbs I had to go!

(counting my blessings!)

Sprint will pay for everything but food and gas...lol...and if I want to finish my house in the spring I will def need a part time job...hmmm...Home Depot maybe! I'm there so much I might as well get paid for it! Even better, hopefully the contract company pay me for the shift diff and pay cut...I had one of the attorney's tell me the pay cut was illegal since we had a written contract...so...we'll see. Just wish I could spend a few of my free days at the beach instead of cooped up in the house job hunting!

[b.u.ti-ful]

[milehigh96caliti]

I'm whistling! Man I miss Monty Python!

[tiFreak]

e-hug

I hope Sean gets into the halfway house, working to pay for room and board is probably better than being in prison

congrats on losing those 7 lbs.

[elchicano]

Originally Posted by nineironkitty

People just need to grow up and realize that they are spoiled and can't have everything they want. Karma is a Beeotch and I am sure it will come back to haunt her

I see these people everyday in class. The sad thing is that most of them were brought up this way. Yes, I too believe in karma and i bet she will get whats coming to her as well. Well look on the bright side, there's people who are far off worse than you are. Just try to stay positive and things will eventually start to get better.

[pnosker]

Sorry to hear about all of this . It's good that you have an optimistic outlook and I'm sure you'll be alright. Glad to hear Sean will be back soon!

[pdxmotorhead]

I had an acquaintance that got around the half way house thing by volunteering to wear a ankle bracelet. Don't know if that fits the plan for you, and I'm sure Oregon is different...

Good Luck!
Dave

[milehigh96caliti]

Thanks all of you! You are all my Lucky Charms! I did accept a job with Sprint last Friday but then at the last minute I got called for an interview with another IT company, one that majorly competes with IBM Global Services. I've interviewed there before when they first moved here 4 years ago...to make a long story short I got the job! It's 90 days temp to perm. They hired 14 temps and 7 or 8 of us will go full-time so I hope I can really wow them over the next 3 months. Sprint is a lot farther away and a lot less money and although I would love to work there, they're just not paying comparable salaries. I can live without the benefits for 90 days and at least I can keep applying for other jobs just in case I don't go permanent. I also start two weeks sooner and since unemployment says I have to accept employment that's my email to Sprint recruiting. Their training doesn't start til the 30th. I am so excited, this is my last week off!

Sean talked to his case manager yesterday and his CM said he would be eligible for community corrections at the end of February. It can still take another 3 - 4 months for approval and to find space for him but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I think he has to stay in the halfway house for about 6 months minimum. It's like a 12 step program. And his first parole hearing is in October so hopefully if he is doing really well in comcor they will parole him. It's hard to believe he's been gone for 18 months almost, I guess all of the OT I've been working really made the time fly by. I know we'll have better visits at the HWH, but he'll also be able to work himself into day passes. One thing is for sure, they won't let him drive, that's the rule. Pretty stupid but for now it's ok...he can ride the bus to get where he needs to go. Anyway...I love you guys and thank you for the prayers!