Better late than never...

Well, I did say it in my first post that I would "try" to keep up with the blog and to my own credit I was true to my word. I did try. But procrastination is always one of those things that's hardest to get past, especially when there are so many other things that you need to do that seem to bit just a bit more important. However, this does give me the chance to fill in anyone that wants to read this with what has happened over the past week or so.

As I work in a retail environment, it was one of the easiest things to notice when the economy started to slide. I know, here he goes hoping up on the economy again. Well, let's just say I have too in this case. It wasn't my intention to do really do that here in this blog, but be that as it may, I am putting in my two cents. And why is that?

I work in a "Staples" office supply store in MA. I wont mention the location just in case this makes its way back to the powers that be. After demoting myself in late 2007 from a full time useless position of a tech dept lead, I ended up becoming a regular full time tech associate, retaining my "lead" pay but without any of the hassles of being in even the slightest position of authority. This began a golden time for me. Associate of the month in 2008 and still holding on to my full time vacation and personal days. But then in the summer, we noticed a change in the amount of customers coming in. Everyday it was less and less. This was the shift to a worsening economy, although no one was willing to admit it at that point.
Christmastime was lackluster and as opposed to the amount of products we got in to the amount we received in the year before was a telltale sign that the company,while not wanting to verbally admit it, was now in the beginning phases of realizing there really was a economic disaster just over the hill. And they acted on it accordingly.

Now a week ago, I was informed that three of us full timers were having our positions eliminated. The manager was heartfelt and nice enough about it, but he was just doing what the corporate directive was telling him to do. It had nothing to do with the fact that i was a great worker and that they wanted to keep me on, no it was just a matter of getting rid of full timers, with of course the stipulation that we could either choose to take an, in my case, one week severance package and then leave the company as of March first, or stay and as of that date become just another part timer, with no guarantee of hours. OH and did I mention that this was told to me 45 Min's before i was scheduled to leave for the day and that I had to let him know by 8:00am the next morning. Not allot of time to stew about it and then try to make a rational decision based on reality. i spoke to my wife and after some deliberation, found that the best thing to do was to stay with them and go part time and to just keep working while I looked for another full time job. So basically, that what we have been doing, just working our schedules and waiting until the change over while we look.
Do you know what that like? It's like waiting for your own execution to happen. You find that your attitude, that was usually pretty well stout everyday, was not in the shit can. You know you have to do your job, but its not the same anymore. plus you know that the company doesn't care about you in the least. All of this is making a great chemical imbalance in my own head and life. I know that I'm just one in a number of thousands with the same story, but when it happens to you, its of course a very personal thing. hence this rant of mine. I really did intend for this to be a little bit shorter, but until you start writing about it, you find that its like going to confession. your afraid to start, but once you start it just pours out of you. So for the record, yours truly is now available for work. I do graphic design and photographic work. There, that's my shameless plug for myself.

Thanks for listening.