Wow That Really Happened? The Staying Employed Game.
Where does one go from here?
Wow I can’t believe that happened! To start off let me begin by stating that I have had the best and worst of times with employment. Mostly working on contract positions I have gained a variety of work experience in many different fields. Working contract whether it be long term or permanent and seasonal has had its benefits and lack thereof.
Leaving my position with the Internal Revenue Service due to the instability of financial security I left to obtain a position that was to be considered contract to hire. I did excellent on the interview and was hired within two weeks of applying. I got on with one of the largest financial institutions in Jacksonville Florida. It was ideal. Great opportunity with lots of learning and skill gathering while networking with growth potential. I learned immediately from management that I was an immediate consideration. However, my staffing agency didn’t inform me about the position until weeks later. Don’t ask because I don’t know and the staffing agents that I was working with then are no longer there now.
Anyway my first one on one with the management team went excellent. I was nervous as heck but it turned out awesome. All great reviews. They loved me and I had received lots of great feedback from my peers. They spoke to me about taking on more responsibility and possibly a leadership role. I was stoked. I had finally proven myself to those that mattered. Years of working hard and getting seen has helped but hasn’t helped. I have been promoted in positions that were later eliminated due to job relocating out of state and or temporary position only. No growth opportunity. From what this management team discussed with me I was sure that I would be hired on permanently with my leadership skills, outgoing personality and adapting to the many changes within the department. I was given the chance to go on Job empowering events. Learning and job shadowing with several different departments within the organization plus my references within my department I knew I was a shoe in for any job I applied to.
Ominous music begins to play in the background. All because a few months later after the transition of moving into a different area-did I tell you I was stationed in a closet with three other people. Not the best of places. Although we did have fans that assisted with the days the heat got to us. Anyway we moved into different living quarters. I didn’t have a problem with the box. I loved the people I resided with in the box. Moving into the open space we were all up in one another’s faces. Including management. I sat directly in front of my manager! Yikes! It was a little intimidating in the beginning but I got used to it. Of course I did. I am an awesome team player and I can adapt to any changes within my working and or living environment.
With the transition one of our closet roommates got the word that she would be transitioning from temporary to permanent. I was so happy for her. That’s the truth very happy. Because I knew that I was sure to be following in her footsteps. This was it! I was finally moving up in the world. Or so I thought. No more one on ones after the first initial one which was when I first started and only a month or two in. Things became shaky. Everyone could feel it especially when a very large portion of our job was outsourced to the organization’s India team.
We all met with the India team via video conference. We did our round the table or shall I say room of introductions. I felt it deep down in my gut that this wasn’t actually in introduction but perhaps a “Hello meet your replacements.” I’m getting way ahead of myself here. That doesn’t happen until a few more months down the line. The office seemed to run smoothly and what did I know the large part of our work was delegated elsewhere but we still had lots of work to do. On top of phone calls and following up with documents received for processing and making outbound calls internally and externally there was some form of job security there…still.
Realization of where you fit career wise
Then the BIG BANG happened. We were in the team meeting and the great news of a new transition was upon us. Here we go more changes. But of course I am very well adaptable to changes. I love challenges and risks! Bring them on! The transition this time consisted of a switching of roles within our management team. People were moving around and this would be the new way things would be worked moving forward. My team got a new manager whom knew her line of business. That was all biscuits and gravy! But there was something else a float. I felt it. The unorganized and irreplaceable feeling that I was going to be a temp forever hovered over me every day.
Then it happened. A co-worker wanted to talk with us on our break. No! Yes…we were losing our jobs. No mention of being hired on due to new policies now in place by the big wigs upstairs. No Bachelor degrees meant you were being kicked out and would be out of a job. The fear of losing such a good job one that I had grown to love because of the people I worked with was unsettling to say the least. It felt as if it was still a rumor. Nothing concrete. Not until we walked into the area and was told by management that they wanted to speak with us. We all gathered in the front of the office and they politely mentioned with saddened faces that we were indeed losing our jobs.
A few more months and we will be replaced by new hires that they expected us to train. The look of I knew this was going to happen sat on my face for the duration of the time I was there. I didn’t happily train anyone and I left before the end of my term with another job on the horizon. That’s another story. Stay tuned.
Perhaps hard work doesn’t pay off in the end. Corporate America is as cut throat as walking into a room full of beastly characters on a blood thirsty hunt. Who knows maybe this is just karma because I didn’t finish with my Bachelors and only obtained a measly Associates degree. Two years of business school. Learning Accounting and Business practices that has pretty much gotten me nowhere. I may as well have a high school diploma with many years of experience. Getting older only means that you’re getting older. Your hard work and experience doesn’t pay off much. I am now in the pool of competition with others just like me or better yet with those high school seniors set to graduate this 2016 year. In the end Luck has absolutely nothing to do with it. Bad choices have everything to do with it.