Ok, I'm ready to write about the ...rest of the story of my "retirement."
I thought it may take me a few days to find the humor in this and I was right. You've heard that no news travels faster than bad news. This was true for me. A week ago on Tuesday my phone and email blew up!
Evidently the college had begun to hire for my old position. And, surprise, surprise, they had upgraded the position and given the position a raise.
I wasn't surprised at all. I knew they wouldn't be able to hire someone qualified if they had kept the position the same as when I was in it. This is why I was asking for a raise.
Sure it hurt that I had been lied to. I had been in the job 11 years. I thought I deserved to be treated with respect. I guess I was wrong about that.
I got over this pretty quickly. I mean, my old boss, Mr. Nonconfrontational, showed his true colors. If he had been any kind of a man or manager, he would had spoken to me directly and just told me the truth. I knew what the truth of the situation was. It wasn't that I was a bad employee. It wasn't that I wasn't doing my job. The truth of the situation was that I had pushed them too hard. I asked for the position to be upgraded and a substantial raise. If they would have done this for me, then they would have been opening the door for EVERYONE to ask for raises. And, they would have been able to say, "You gave Happygirl an upgrade and a raise. Why not me?" They weren't gonna have THAT. And the easiest way not to have THAT was to close the door I had opened when I turned in my letter of resignation. So they did.
Ok, I get that there is not much humor in this portion of the story. Let's see if this next bit contains anything that'll make me smile.
The new guy that was promoted to be my boss (get that! he had been promoted. he had been a co-worker, now he was my boss. gee, you think he'd want to share some of the blessings that had gone around his way. I guess when you "get yours" you don't have to care about anyone else.) is retired Navy (albeit a blackshoe or surface guy).
It was inevitable that I would run into this guy in the commissary. (a commissary is the grocery store on a navy base, fyi) This happened last Saturday. It was everything you might have expected it to be. We were both surprised to see each other, although he looked much more uncomfortable than I felt. He asked me how retirement was treating me and I said I was well. I congratulated him on getting my old position upgraded. He hemmed and hawed and eventually said that he had told me he would get the position upgraded. I said, "yeah, but not for me." He responded with an uncomfortable sheepish look. And, oh yeah, he told me that EVERYBODY on campus wanted my old job. I told him that of course they would. It's the easiest job on campus. I mean, heck, I was capable of doing it. Then I let him off the hook and told him he could keep all the crappy things that they were saying about me behind my back, behind my back. Good luck and yada yada yada.
Are you laughing? Yeah, I'm not laughing that much either.
The bottom line is this. They did me a favor by not offering me the upgraded position. First of all, they didn't raise the pay to as much as I had asked for. (really?) Secondly, if they would have raised the pay enough, I would have accepted the upgrade and raise and stayed. And, this would still have been the character of the people I was working with 40 hours a week. These would have been the people I was sharing the best part of my day with. This is who was getting the best of my energy and intellect.
Enough with this nonsense.
Btw, now that I work for myself, I ADORE my new boss.
484. On line yard sales on facebook (I finally found something useful on fb!!)
485. Working with people I love
486. Reading
487. Finding my footing in my new normal
488. Chuckling at Samsung's smartwatch (really, who likes this thing?)
489. Finding my "happy" again
490. Smiling a lot more
I thought it may take me a few days to find the humor in this and I was right. You've heard that no news travels faster than bad news. This was true for me. A week ago on Tuesday my phone and email blew up!
Evidently the college had begun to hire for my old position. And, surprise, surprise, they had upgraded the position and given the position a raise.
I wasn't surprised at all. I knew they wouldn't be able to hire someone qualified if they had kept the position the same as when I was in it. This is why I was asking for a raise.
Sure it hurt that I had been lied to. I had been in the job 11 years. I thought I deserved to be treated with respect. I guess I was wrong about that.
I got over this pretty quickly. I mean, my old boss, Mr. Nonconfrontational, showed his true colors. If he had been any kind of a man or manager, he would had spoken to me directly and just told me the truth. I knew what the truth of the situation was. It wasn't that I was a bad employee. It wasn't that I wasn't doing my job. The truth of the situation was that I had pushed them too hard. I asked for the position to be upgraded and a substantial raise. If they would have done this for me, then they would have been opening the door for EVERYONE to ask for raises. And, they would have been able to say, "You gave Happygirl an upgrade and a raise. Why not me?" They weren't gonna have THAT. And the easiest way not to have THAT was to close the door I had opened when I turned in my letter of resignation. So they did.
Ok, I get that there is not much humor in this portion of the story. Let's see if this next bit contains anything that'll make me smile.
The new guy that was promoted to be my boss (get that! he had been promoted. he had been a co-worker, now he was my boss. gee, you think he'd want to share some of the blessings that had gone around his way. I guess when you "get yours" you don't have to care about anyone else.) is retired Navy (albeit a blackshoe or surface guy).
It was inevitable that I would run into this guy in the commissary. (a commissary is the grocery store on a navy base, fyi) This happened last Saturday. It was everything you might have expected it to be. We were both surprised to see each other, although he looked much more uncomfortable than I felt. He asked me how retirement was treating me and I said I was well. I congratulated him on getting my old position upgraded. He hemmed and hawed and eventually said that he had told me he would get the position upgraded. I said, "yeah, but not for me." He responded with an uncomfortable sheepish look. And, oh yeah, he told me that EVERYBODY on campus wanted my old job. I told him that of course they would. It's the easiest job on campus. I mean, heck, I was capable of doing it. Then I let him off the hook and told him he could keep all the crappy things that they were saying about me behind my back, behind my back. Good luck and yada yada yada.
Are you laughing? Yeah, I'm not laughing that much either.
The bottom line is this. They did me a favor by not offering me the upgraded position. First of all, they didn't raise the pay to as much as I had asked for. (really?) Secondly, if they would have raised the pay enough, I would have accepted the upgrade and raise and stayed. And, this would still have been the character of the people I was working with 40 hours a week. These would have been the people I was sharing the best part of my day with. This is who was getting the best of my energy and intellect.
Enough with this nonsense.
Btw, now that I work for myself, I ADORE my new boss.
484. On line yard sales on facebook (I finally found something useful on fb!!)
485. Working with people I love
486. Reading
487. Finding my footing in my new normal
488. Chuckling at Samsung's smartwatch (really, who likes this thing?)
489. Finding my "happy" again
490. Smiling a lot more
This sounds similar to my story. I decided fairly early on that they did me a big favor. I am much happier now that I am no longer there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement and confirmation. I know my story isn't unique. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's sad when office politics takes over. I left a job once in similar circumstances. But, there's always something new to do, and you are right, had things worked out, you would have stayed and maybe things would have gotten worse. Maybe God spared you from more grief. We just never know. Embrace your new freedom!
ReplyDeleteI'm proud of you for working toward letting it go. I still get angry when I think about leaving my last job, and it's been five years.
ReplyDeleteI find that all too often people do not do the reasonable, common sense, or kindest thing. GRRR! So frustrating.
ReplyDeleteHey smoothstones... are you loving the title? I took it from your favorite movie. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the line! Maybe I need to watch the movie again!
ReplyDeleteyeah if that is who they are, you are better off not working for them...the new boss sounds great to me...smiles..
ReplyDeleteIt's a good reason to watch it again. "There's no sense in nonsense when the heat is hot."
ReplyDelete