Unemployment Continues To Grow!

As you know, I lost my job on Thursday. Here's what happened...

It all started 4 weeks ago when I had the swine flu and missed 3 1/2 days of work. I got to work on that following Monday and started to play catch-up. Yes, I had a supervisor who should have been helping me out, but that didn't happen. Didn't touch a thing on my side. So, I had a ton of work to get done. On that Thursday I was written up by the Administrator for 2 class II offenses. One was because I didn't come to work while sick with the swine flu. Yeah, you help me figure that one out because it's still a mystery to me! The second one was because all of my work from that previous week was not caught up that morning. What that meant was that, one more write-up and I was out of a job. I told George that day that I wouldn't be surprised at all if I was unemployed in the near future... how true that would turn out to be!

Enter Thursday, November 5. I got to work that morning and immediately saw that I was being treated differently by a few people. People who would normally be very nice and pleasant were suddenly not talking to me. Hmmm... clue 1.

Clue 2: The Administrator came to my office and asked Noelle, my office mate, to go talk to him in his office. He said nothing to me when he did this. Odd. And I never saw Noelle again for the remainder of my day. Even more odd.

Clue 3: My supervisor Linda was called to the Administrator's office.

As soon as Linda went to Brian's office, I went to mine and called George to tell him I had a gut feeling I was going to be let go that day. I told him to just be near the phone, should I need a ride home early.

Thirty minutes later, another co-worker of mine came to get me to take me to Brian's office. Duh. I knew what was coming. I got into his office, and there sat Jake (Dir. of Nursing), Linda (Supervisor), and Noelle (RCM), along with Brian. For a few minutes, I had to listen to Brian drone on about how I'm not a good fit for the position, and that everyone in the room agrees. Everyone else, by the way, had their eyes glued to the floor. He then brought up an issue with a care conference I had with a resident and his family the previous week. When I asked for clarification on that, he would not answer me. He just told me to let him finish. What the? If there is a problem, I should have been told prior to being let go. But, he continued on his path and kept talking. He then gave me the option to resign, or to be terminated. Gee, which looks better on the resume? So, I opted to resign. He also said that I will be able to collect unemployment, that he would not deny me that, and that I'm totally rehirable by Extendicare. Let's think about that... m'kay, moving on! And the care conference issue was brought up with Linda later, but she magically had no idea what it was about. My opinion? There was no issue. Brian's not one to hold back when there's an issue, and he was suddenly very vague in his descriptions in his office. Weird...

I went to my office to pack up my stuff, and Linda had to escort me and babysit me while in there. Why? I guess they thought I would do something against the company. Funny thing is, the paranoia is useless because I'm just not that kind of person. Anyway, Linda sat like a lump in Noelle's chair and said nothing for a good 5 minutes. Finally, she mustered up, "I still think you're a good person. And you're a good employee, a good co-worker. You just weren't a good fit for the position." Then, as if this was to make everything better, she meekly said, "I hope you're not mad at me." I just looked at her and very sarcastically said, "I'll get over it." Why was I sarcastic with her? Well, it's because just days prior to all of this, she told me what a great social worker I am, how great I handle the residents, and how we work well together. Does that sound like I'm not a good fit for the job? Hmph!

The rest of the time in there I just packed while I told her what she needed to finish. Oh, and I might also add that I called George immediately upon returning to my office to let him know I was right and he could come get me.

So, after I told her what all needed to be done, I started to laugh a little, and then I told her about how I knew it was coming. She kind of dropped her jaw and asked how I knew when she didn't even know. I said, "You guys must have thought I was stupid. You all walked around today trying to pretend nothing was going on, but you're pretty transparent!" She just stared at me, at which time I took the opportunity to tell her that I'd already called George after she got to Brian's office and told him the above info. Kind of funny... she didn't say anything. She knew she had no room to say anything because I had them figured out already.

During my packing, Kim (Medical Records, and close friend) came in and wanted to know what was going on. She then started to cry, and gave me a big hug. I told her I was doing fine until she got in there. For the rest of the time, she and I talked, and Linda just sat there. Oddly enough, I felt comfortable with Linda's silence. A couple others came in to tell me about resident issues, and I guess it never occurred to them that I was on my way out. I simply told them Linda would take care of it. That felt good. :)

Kim gave me another big hug after Josh (Administrator in Training) came in and propped my door open, signaling it was time for me to go. We both started crying again, and then she said she'd call me. George and I left. On the way out, I waved to Linda Evans, the receptionist. She saw me crying and told George to have me call her. I called her on the way down the street and she told me she loves me and not to forget to call her frequently. :) She's one of my most favorite people in the entire world!!

That night I had calls from several of my co-workers wishing me well, telling me they missed me already, and that the situation was nothing but crap. :) I have to agree, but one can only do so much.

The clincher is that I found out why I REALLY got let go. One of my other co-workers (translation: not one who called to check on me) had, indeed, gotten me fired to save her own job. That's a whole different story in and of itself. But to sum it up, her boss was coming down hard on her for not doing her job, so she set me up to be the "fall guy". The problem is, even though I KNOW what she did, I can't prove any of it. So, I'm stuck. But, I'm a firm believer that you get slapped by bad kharma.

As for me, I'm moving on. I'll still keep in touch with my "real" friends from work, and the rest can just leave me alone. They've done enough damage, and I choose not to have people like that in my life. I've always known there were only 2-3 people at work I could trust. That was proven yesterday. The rest have lost a great friend.

What won't I miss there? Well, I certainly won't miss Jake, Brian, and Barb insisting I violate resident rights (those were all chart-noted, by the way, and I hope state gets into the right charts one of these days), I won't miss the double standards, definitely won't miss the lectures from Brian on why he believes Catholicism is the only true religion (he frequently tried to get me riled up by telling me Mormons don't have the truth), the pompous air about the upper management staff. I won't miss Jake and Brian sharing information about other employees that should have been kept confidential... wow, there's a lot to be thankful for here on the "won't-miss list". LOL I still have my dignity, and I feel great about myself because I never once caved to their unethical demands. I have much to be thankful for, and I truly am. :)