I’ve been at my current job for six months.
Last Friday, I found out that I’d been named “Employee of the Month”. Yay.
Five days later, my immediate boss let me know that our corporate asshats had instructed our General Manager to fire him.
Perusing Craigslist, I spotted a help-wanted ad for my boss’s job, dated the same day I was named EotM.
Today it occurred to me that my “award” may have been complete bullshit.
But first let me explain the situation better. My departing boss is my second department manager in six months. My first boss was an acquaintance I’ve known for 25+ years, who hired me almost the instant he received my resume via Craigslist (I didn’t know he was the department manager when I applied for this job, but we had worked together before and he knew my skills). But that guy got fired (due to his own idiocy, which I won’t go into here) shortly after New Year’s Day, and a coworker who was hired a couple weeks after me was promoted to replace him. I had no problem with this other guy getting promoted despite my “seniority”; he met the qualifications for the position, I didn’t. Not to mention that I wouldn’t have accepted the position if it had been offered.
So my new manager turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to my department. Everybody loved this guy, from management to the hourly workers to the clientele. I’ve been in my line of work for 30+ years, and this guy was perhaps the most talented person I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
Then, last week, our out-of-state corporate overlords came through to “inspect” our facility. And in the course of their inspection of our department, they found a couple “substandard” things that were easily correctable. And because of those small things, they ordered our general manager to fire my boss. Never mind that he was doing things the way the previous manager had shown him, and nobody had told him any different.
We happen to be a three-person department, at least in the specific work that my boss and I do. And our #3 person happened to be my boss’s daughter. So, unsurprisingly, she’s going to be leaving along with him. Leaving me as the only person who knows how the department works. So they’ve hired my new boss, and are still looking for somebody to replace his daughter.
So today it occurred to me that my “Employee of the Month” award was a last-minute decision: Management throwing me a bone to hopefully prevent me from walking out the door right behind my departing boss.
Yeah, that’s not going to work. I’m gone as soon as I can find a suitable new position, which shouldn’t be difficult. As I said, I’ve been in my line of work for 30+ years, all right here in the same town, and I have a good reputation. My six months with this current company have shown me that our corporate overlords are greedy, unethical asshats. Though, mind you, I’m only speaking of the corporate company owners. I have no beef with our local management. I can’t keep working for these corporate bastards. OTOH, I’m not going to bail immediately. I actually care about taking care of my customers, and in this particular job, leaving too soon would actually hurt my clientele (they’re sort of a “captive audience” without a lot of other options). So I’m going to stick around at least long enough for my new boss to get settled in and to get a new #3 hired and trained. Then I’ll be gone as soon as something suitable comes up. Thankfully, we’re entering a time of year when multiple options will be opening up in my town.
The first floor of our building is being remodeled, so our breakroom is out of commission, and there’s no place else to put vending machines. But it’s not totally bad, because I eat less junk food.