John’s Blog

I don’t think that I could ask for more beautiful spring weather, especially for New England. We have been having almost two weeks of temps hitting or above 70 here. Which I must say is very refreshing after the winter we had (record setting snowfall). I have been trying to get out and enjoy the weather as much as I can. Which brings me to something that has been bugging me. We have three dogs, and for the last year we have been taking them to the local dog park. For them it’s great, they have a very large fenced in area where they can run and play off leash. The park even stayed open over the winter months, and with all the snow. However, on April 1st they closed due to muddy conditions. Now I completely understood that. I went by about a week later to check, the park was still closed, but it was dry as a bone. So I sent an email to the board about it. The response I finally received was that they were doing “maintenance” on the park and it would not reopen until the first weekend in May. The funny part about that, is that it is also when membership fees are due. Coincidence? I think not. I have spoken to many other members of the park that are just as upset that I am that with this great weather finally here, they are choosing to lock us out until May. But in truth, there really isn’t much we can do. They are the only game in town. So for now, we just have to wait for them to reopen and continue taking the dogs for long walks in the evenings after dinner. And it’s not like I mind walking them, it’s great exercise for both us and the dogs. But it is not as good for them as getting to run and play without the restraint of a leash.

On the subject of dogs, I have to give credit to out local SPCA. Over the weekend we took our dogs to their annual rabies clinic. Not for their shots, our vet had already taken care of that. They were offering something new this year. Micro chipping through Home Again. Many people don’t see the point in this service, however we do. Two of our three dogs came from rescue organizations. They were pulled from animal shelters where they would have been killed. The Home Again micro chip is implanted just under the dogs skin, and these days almost all vets and shelters have the scanner. When an animal is brought in it is scanned. If a chip is found they can attain the owner information from the service. This helps to not only identify lost dogs and return them to their owners, but also combat dog theft. The clinic they were offering was doing the implant for a greatly reduced price, only $35 per dog, about half what most vets charge. We got the clinic just before it opened and were almost the first ones in line. The whole process was done very quickly, from registration, payment, to actually seeing the vet doing the work. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes. Overall a very well run and efficient function, kudos to the SPCA.

Other than that, the hunt for a job drags on for me. I am approaching one month of being unemployed. Now granted the first two weeks I wasn’t really actively seeking another job, since I thought I was only temporarily laid off. I found out otherwise later (see earlier posts). So, since then I have been deep in the hunt for another job, and honestly, it’s not going well. This is the first time I have been out of work in as long as I can remember. Now I know that I am not going to land my dream job in a day. But the reality is that I am facing a horrid job market, especially in this area. I have lowered my standards on what type of work I do, for the sake of getting the income flow going again. However, the one thing I cannot lower too far is the salary I can accept. I know what I need to pay the bills I have, and unfortunately most of the employers in this area are paying well below that. I have had many phone interviews, and even one in person last week. All that interview netted me was a response along the lines of “We feel that you are too over qualified for this position and wouldn’t be happy here. We are looking for someone who will be a long term employee and with your experiance and background we feel you wouldn’t be a good fit in this position. But we will keep your resume on file should a management position come available”. All i could say in response was that while I did agree with them, you have to start somewhere and I would be more than happy to start out in that position until such time as a management position became available. They however did not feel the same way. Honestly at this point I starting to get discouraged, and more than a little stir crazy from not working. I mean since I have been working since I was 12, almost all of that time at least full time or better. So sitting here twiddling my thumbs is not exactly a good thing.

Well, hopefully things will turn around soon. If not, I may have to look at relocating, and that is something that I know will not be agreeable to the wife.

So, as anyone who reads this blog may know, I was laid off from my job on March 30th. (I blogged about it here).

When I was laid off I was told I would be able to return to work when things picked up (in a month or so I was told). But I left with a very weird feeling about the whole thing. I couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. But I tried to keep as positive of an attitude as possible about the whole situation. I immediately filed for unemployment, and just in case things didn’t turn around looking for work and sending out a few resumes (again just as a precaution).

So far I am still waiting for a determination from unemployment, they are working slow as ever on this, looks like they will take up the entire 21 days the federal government allows them to process the claim. In the meantime I am left waiting and wondering. Unemployment in this state is not great. I will be looking at getting about half of what I was making at work. Which in and of itself is not a rewarding prospect since we were just getting by on that and my wife’s salary. So yes, it is belt tightening time and we are doing so. And it was my sincere hope that before my first check even arrived that I would be called back to work.

Well today I learned that I would surely be getting a check first. Since I got a lovely email from the President of the company. It had no words in the email, just a Microsoft Word attachment. Upon opening and subsequently reading the letter. It informed me that I would not be returning to work for the company. Going on to state some bullshit about how there was not enough business to warrant it. Now in a lot of positions I could understand that train of logic. However, when I was laid off I held the position of General Manager for the company. I drew the second highest salary to the President (and honestly it wasn’t that much). So the reasoning to them is cost savings apparently. But in reading the letter, I also discovered that his son, a person who was brought into the company as a technician, and that I trained, has been promoted.

How can I see this as anything but a cowardly and feeble way of forcing me out of the company so his son can take over? There is no other way to view it. I am sure that from the outside looking in there are ways to spin it. However after being there as long as I did and knowing what I know. It is undeniably what happened.

So here I am, not just laid off, but unemployed. This is the thanks I get for the years I spent turning that company around. When I started the customer base had dwindled due to the types of people that had been employed there in the past. They had driven away customers and clients with poor attitude and customer service. Not to mention shoddy technical work at best. There was no reporting, no tracking, nothing. I came in and changed that. Made sure we hired knowledgeable people who worked hard, services those customers and clients. Ensured that all work we did was done with quality and accuracy in as timely a manner as possible. And you know what? It took about 6 months to see the difference. We had old clients coming back in, and new ones developing all the time. I got out there, advertised, networked, did whatever it took to bring in business. I worked all the time, whether it was from the office or at home, weekends, holidays, you name it. I gave up a lot over those years to make a difference. In the end I did, granted at the time I was “laid off”, things were slow. But that was normal for this time of year at that business. And to be honest compared to years past things were up, even with the shitty economy. Could business have been better? Of course it could. Could it have been worse? Hell yes it could have been. I’d seen the books, and had I not turned things around from day one, I am sure they would have been.

In the end, all my hard work didn’t matter much for me. I had spent my time setting up the boss’s son with the perfect opportunity to make a go of it. And once they had drained all they could out of me, they tossed me out.

Well hopefully on to bigger and better things. I do predict a rough patch ahead for us. Since with the economy being the way it is the job market around here just isn’t what it once was. And decent positions are that much harder to come by.

Well I guess that’s enough of a rant for now. Back to my job search.

So for the past few months I have been saying how the economy was going down the toilet. I have seen more places going out of business, layoffs, etc. But up until recently I thought I was fairly safe from either thing happening. My company has been in business for 20 years, it had seen the good times, and the bad, and was still around. So even though I had noticed things falling off from last year, sales not being nearly as high, and a sharp loss from one of our revenue streams, I was still optimistic. I had projects in the works to bring in more money, add more services to our portfolio to increase profits, etc.. Not to mention, I am the general manager, I run the place, can’t live without one of those now can you?

Well after spending all day on Saturday at a local economic fair presenting for my company, networking with other small businesses, and making leads. I returned to the office to drop off all the materials we had taken to the fair with us, and get headed home. Turns out the president of the company was there, and wanted a word. Hmm, I thought to myself, wonder what this could be about. I didn’t have to wonder long. I was promptly informed that due to the lack of business lately, it had come time for layoffs. And you know what, I was the first, and only one to get laid off. Apparently, my salary was just enough to cut out to allow the company some breathing room. Now as a side note I should mention, I don’t make a lot of money. Not even close to industry standard. But I do like the company, the relaxed atmosphere, etc.. and that is what had kept me there low these many years. But regardless I was not given a choice, or even a warning it was coming for that matter. It was simply, effective today you are laid off, with the possibility of returning when things pick up. Now you might be asking, who is going to run things? Well that gets a little murky. The president used to run the whole operation before I was brought in. He is however, completely out of touch with things at this point since he has not taken an active role in managing the company for over two years now. But according to him, it will be fine. I still have to wonder though, does this have anything to do with the fact that his son is employed with the company, and up until then had been working for me? Gee makes me wonder if this wasn’t the perfect time to cut me out to save money, and give the kid a chance to make a go of it.

Now I know the sales figures, and I know we weren’t doing so well. But we had been through times tougher than that before. And with the new service I was bringing on for us to offer, it had the promise of turning things right around. That service I might add, I put months into lining up, and was at the final stages with. I guess that is something that someone else will close out and take credit for.

So here I sit, in my home office, at 3 o’clock on a Monday. I’ve filled for unemployment, started sending out resumes, and took on a side project. And although I will undoubtedly get approved for unemployment benefits, they are about half of what my salary was (so not much help there). And I have no doubt I will land an even better job (but no idea how long it will take in this economy). I can’t help but be pissed at the fact that I spent years of my life working to turn a company around, to take it from the brink of failure, to something that was profitable again. To have given up so much in terms or free times, days off, vacations, salary (I was over 4 months overdue for a raise when this happened), and have it end like this. It is truly disheartening. But what is even more disturbing is having to look for work in this economy.

I guess it’s true what they say… no good dead goes unpunished…and that applies in the business world too. As I am now looking for work, and someone that I trained to do many things, is now most likely taking over my job, and at a higher salary I am sure…after all, it is the boss’s son.