Rambles About Last Week... and Further in the Past

One of the problems with trying to work in a "for or without cause" state is that you can be let go for no reason from a job. One of the best things about working in a "for or without cause" state is that you can leave for no reason. I've experienced both.

I was so excited three weeks ago, because I'd finally been hired by what I thought was an amazing small business. I've signed a nondisclosure agreement so I can't give details on the company (nor would I really want to), but I got let go from it last week. The reason I was given? "He [the company owner] is just looking for a certain kind of personality, and you don't have it."

Maybe it's because I pushed back when I was asked, kind of forcefully, to compromise my ethics and write a response as a 'customer' to a negative review another customer had left for this company. Maybe it's because I asked for a little bit of time with the operations manager to actually learn how to do the paperwork at that job that required more brain cells than answering the phone, having it be the owner of the company, and directing it to said operations manager just to have her spend most of the day talking to him rather than teaching me how to do that paperwork. And maybe I'm just sensitive to that above statement, because this isn't the first time I've gotten in trouble for my personality.

At a previous (contractor) employment, I got written up for the most trivial and mind-blowing of reasons: I was laughing too much. I have a well-developed sense of humor; you'd have to have one if you're going to make it through the potential minefield of my-life-so-far. At that point, my father had had his final brain surgery and things weren't looking good, my contract was about to expire with no real hope of renewal, and I had been assigned a monumental task (after the due date, I might add) that took all my time away from my other responsibilities. Those who knew my situation at home and cared about me took it upon themselves to call or come by my workspace and talk to me — and anyone who knows me knows I have a finely honed sense of "snark."

Needless to say, I laughed at just how ludicrous that write-up was, and right in the supervisor's face. I got let go two weeks later, just after I'd turned in that monumental project, and was escorted out like the criminal laugher I am.

I've also left jobs, not because I didn't need the income, but because I have ethical and moral standards. One of those things I've learned in my various employments is that every company needs procedures on the books. It's not often that you identify a need and offer to fix that need within a company, but at this one, I couldn't help but offer.

The company in question was contracted by a federal agency to help people on disability benefits find — and retain — jobs. This was the only company in the network that operated as a call center and had no attached career placement capabilities. People couldn't come into the company and talk face-to-face with their assigned coach; they had to talk over the phone.

Well, I was promised when I took the job that my job was to rework the website so that it was more functional and conduct social media marketing, which I told them would take about nine months to see progress made in that regard. When I actually started working there, my coworkers would come to me to complain about the lack of procedures, and when I had observed the day-to-day operations of the company, I realized that those folks were right.

I'm no good on the phone in a call center. My voice gets tired, I get cranky because I hear too much in the background and I lose focus on my own calls, and I need time to recharge my batteries before I get on the phone again. Fielding calls and throwing them to the appropriate individuals, or taking messages, no problem. And I need eye contact, because I need to be reminded on some level that I'm talking to human beings.

This company slowly but surely was taking away all of my internet-related duties, ignoring my requests to write procedures for them (gods above, the contradictory information that the call center staff was given day in and day out still gives me the heebie-jeebies), and putting me on the phones. I finally had it, and told them that if I couldn't firmly establish what the rules were and put them in black-and-white procedures (my ethical boundaries snapped), and that if I couldn't do what I was promised I was hired to do and was finally seeing real results happen, then I QUIT.

I'll be the first to tell you that I know that work is not all sunshine and roses and rainbows, but there's something about my personal makeup that says I must help others and that I must address those issues I see with systems that need fixing. How I'll do that in the future remains to be seen, but I dream of a job where my ability to see these things is valued and encouraged, rather than attempted to be beat out of me by a system that doesn't much care.