. When I was writing about retirement planning for a living, one of our favorite metaphors was the three-legged stool: Each leg of the stool represented one facet of your retirement savings plan: personal savings, Social Security and investment earnings.
So in my head I likened my attempt to build steady income to my own version of a very wobbly three-legged stool, which in my mind consisted of:
1. My freelance work, erratic and impossible to predict
2. Dwindling unemployment benefits
3. My part-time, low-paying job with a publisher that's barely getting by and has the building up for sale
Well, a leg broke off the stool today. I was fired.
It all started with an air conditioner. I went into work as usual, arriving at 8:30 am. and was unable to sign in on the time clock that resides on another employee's computer because it was asking for a password which I don't have. There are 5 of us who work in an open office environment in a very large room. No one was there besides me except the editor in chief (EIC) at the other end of the room. I walked halfway down toward her and called out that I wasn't able to sign in. She said what? I can't hear you. The room is cooled by a very loud, in the wall AC.
I repeated what I had just said in a louder voice. She came down and entered the password, then returned to her desk without saying anything, but looking angry.
I went to my desk and started opening various programs up to get started for the day. The EIC came over to ask me about a file I'd been having problems with the day before and directed me drag it over to the master file.
I use a Mac at work which is a little different than a PC. When i tried to drag it, it didn't appear it was working right, and rather than take a chance and lose any data, I decided to ask her for help.
I walked over to her desk and politely waited for her to acknowledge my presence before speaking, which she didn't do. I waited, then started speaking and she said I startled her. She looked angry. I asked my question about what I was doing and she came over, visibly annoyed, and showed me what to do.
As she got up from my desk, she said she had really had it up to here with me, that she didn't like my attitude and that i was very rude. !!! Then she started walking back to her desk! I mean, you don't just say something like that to someone and then just walk away. I said S., would you like to talk about this?
She didn't answer. I don't know how anyone could just sit there and not address it. As you know from earlier posts, I've been having my own issues with her and I thought this might be a good time to try to talk it out. So I got up and went over to her again. She was now sitting at her desk.
I said again, S, would you like to talk about this? She started going into how i was slow to pick up on things, that I was stubborn, rude and that i had an attitude. None of which is true! All of which came as a complete surprise to me. And I have never been rude or taken an attitude with her.
I asked her how I had been rude. She said, like just now, with the AC. I said S., that was a case of your not being able to hear me over the air conditioner. How was that rude? She said angrily, how could you not know that I couldn't hear you? How many times have I run the air conditioner?
I just really was not getting her. It just seemed like she was so angry that she pulled that out of thin air. I mean, you think that was rude??? I said S., I don't think that was a very big deal. I think you're over-reacting. Maybe the wrong thing to say??
It seemed that no matter what i said or how i responded, she just got angrier. At one point, I asked her, would you like me to leave. She said no, I want you to learn things better so I don't have to keep telling you things, etc. She said I should know after working here how many months how to do what I'd asked her for help with this morning. Then there was more back and forth.
She was still sitting at her desk and getting more and more agitated as we spoke. I was really taken aback by how quickly things escalated. At one point i said, S., please, you need to calm down. It was at that point that she stood up quickly, standing very close to me. I honestly thought she was going to hit me. She said, "You can leave now."
And so i did.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset. Yes, I wanted to leave, but hadn't planned to until I found another job.
But wait, there's more.
When I got home, I decided to send a brief note to S.'s boss, the owner of the company. I do care about my reputation, and I was afraid that S. was going to say all sorts of nasty things about me. so I told him my version of the story, briefly, and also told him I felt that S. was condescending, disrespectful (due to her earlier comments about me being either "lazy" or a "plagarist") and a poor manager.
I wasn't expecting to get a reply, but I did. He told me he "understood the challenges" and offered to write a positive reference for me if I wanted.
I was a little flabbergasted. He obviously knows what she's like. But he's depending on her to get the job done and the books published. So unlikely he would do anything about the firing except maybe talk to her about it.
I accepted his invitation for a reference. I've never said more than a "Good morning" or "hello" to him if our paths crossed in the kitchen. But I imagine he was kept up to date on my progress and that of my counterpart, and as I've mentioned before, the EIC was very happy we were as far ahead as we were for this time of year.
Anyway, i thought it would be great if the company owner could post his reference on my Linked In profile, where S. could quite possibly see it. Wouldn't that be satisfying? 
I mean, what kind of statement does that make if you fire someone and your own boss gives the person you fired a recommendation?
Aside from that short-lived satisfaction, I am now most definitely in a situation I call, My Back Against the Wall, financially.
You keep waiting for things to get better and instead I'm going backwards. I haven't heard back from the PR agency woman as she had said she'd be interviewing all this week. It would be great to get that job, but I have learned not to count on anything.
Last week I also turned down an opportunity to interview for another p/t research job because it only paid $12/hr. I regret that now.
The three-legged stool has broken
July 5th, 2012 at 06:06 pm
July 5th, 2012 at 06:36 pm 1341513363
Good luck to you. I hope something better comes along quickly!
July 5th, 2012 at 06:37 pm 1341513420
I hope that work make you eligible for unemployment benefits or even access to training programs that give more benefits.
July 5th, 2012 at 07:31 pm 1341516671
I hope this will free you to find something more constructive. I know you've had a lot of disappointments, but at least you know that everyone here is pulling for you. There's got to be a change of fortune coming for you soon!
July 5th, 2012 at 07:34 pm 1341516850
July 5th, 2012 at 07:36 pm 1341516971
July 5th, 2012 at 07:55 pm 1341518129
July 5th, 2012 at 08:07 pm 1341518856
I'm not really too upset about the job, although I am concerned this throws my financial "stool" totally out of whack again.
But at least I have options. I told one of my oldest friends I was thinking of just paying off the remaining balance on my mortgage, which would at least lower my monthly expenses. I was reluctant to do it, but given what's happened, it seems like a sensible thing to do.
He said, Patient Saver, that's what savings are for. I told him yeah, but this was my retirement money (taxable though it is). He calmed my worries and said I should do it, so I just now completed a sale and transfer of some mutual funds to my checking acct so I can finally pay it off. I think I've lost about 10% from this fund since I opened it but that's the way it goes. I actually thought it was worse.
Ceejay, I don't think I got your PM. Figuring out how to send PMs to others here is something that always threw me.
July 5th, 2012 at 08:22 pm 1341519759
July 5th, 2012 at 09:21 pm 1341523270
July 5th, 2012 at 11:42 pm 1341531770
July 5th, 2012 at 11:48 pm 1341532080
July 5th, 2012 at 11:59 pm 1341532745
July 5th, 2012 at 11:59 pm 1341532754
Nothing to add but just, "sorry that really sucks!!"
July 6th, 2012 at 01:09 am 1341536985
July 6th, 2012 at 02:31 am 1341541902
I think paying off the mortgage is a good strategy. It will give you peace of mind to know your home is 100% paid for. The 10% loss on your funds will be a tax write-off, plus you are saving the monthly interest you would have paid on the loan.
July 6th, 2012 at 03:08 am 1341544113
July 6th, 2012 at 03:44 am 1341546267
July 6th, 2012 at 04:31 am 1341549082
July 6th, 2012 at 10:19 pm 1341613146
July 7th, 2012 at 02:59 am 1341629957
July 9th, 2012 at 02:38 pm 1341844698
July 15th, 2012 at 08:56 pm 1342385804