May 18, 2009

• Undeserved

  The second topic from Featured Grownups is to write about a time we received something we didn’t deserve.

  I kept trying to thing of good things I had received, that I didn’t deserve, and couldn’t think of any.  But I do remember something I received once that I felt I didn’t deserve.  You can decide if it was good or bad.

   I have blogged about this before, but I don’t feel like going back to look for it, so I’m going to write from what I remember LOL

  A pink slip.
  
  No, not the kind pictured to the left.  More like the one pictured on the right.

  Let me start from the beginning, and I’ll try to make it short.

  I hired in with a trade association in 1996 as a computer specialist.  In three years I was promoted to Information Systems Manager.  Two years later, my title was changed to Information Technology Manager.  My salary nearly doubled in those five years.

  My reviews were always “Exceeds Expectations” and the CEO thought I walked on water when it came to technology.  My own boss could not convince the CEO that we should be replacing our computers every three to four years after the auditors suggested it.  So he brought me into the meeting.  The CEO asked me what I thought.  I said I thought they should be replaced no less often than every 4 years, and preferably every three years.  He asked me how often I replaced my home computer.  “Three years.”  “Okay,” he said, “every three years it is.”

  He planned his retirement and a search was commenced to find his replacement.  One of the caveats given for the replacement was that he was not to “turn over staff” with his own people.  They selected Jake Dunghole (you have no idea how close that is to his real name lol) to replace the CEO.  The new and old CEOs worked together for several months and finally the old CEO retired.

  Three months later our Director of Administration and HR suddenly decided to retire – no notice.  A quick reorganization was done and a new Vice President of Operations was brought in to replace her.  From the new CEO’s old company.  Imagine that.  (We all pretty much assumed the two of them were having an affair.)

  A week after new VP started, she was to interview everyone who would report to her.  I was no longer reporting to the comptroller when she was hired, I was to report to her.  We interviewed.  She mentioned a report she would like and I went right back to my desk and created it for her.  As I approached her office, I overheard her say “I think he would be perfect for the position.”  As soon as she saw me she said “gotta go!” and hung up.  Is there a more sure evidence of guilt???  LOL  This was my first inkling that my days were numbered, because I was sure she was talking about one of their friends to be my replacement (Jake had mentioned this guy before – in an abstract way.)

  Over the next few weeks, they tried to find things that I was doing wrong.  They could find nothing.  At all.  I was clean as a whistle.  But during that time, I went to CEO’s old company and looked to see who their tech guy was. Some guy named Chase N. Rubenesque (that is amazingly close to his real name, too.)

  About a month later, the I.T. department was called together to announce we were getting a new Director of I.T. and his name was – yep – Chase N. Rubenesque.  No freaking experience managing people – three years as a system administrator and NO OTHER TECH EXPERIENCE.  I knew then that my days were numbered.  We didn’t need a director AND a manager to manage a department of six.

  So over the course of the next six weeks, I trained Chase.  He was asked to create a position description for his position, so he took mine, deleted “Manager of Information Technology” and replaced it with “Director of Information Technology” and saved a copy.

  Then they hired a consultant to look over their operations and see where they could save money.  Guess what?  There were two people in Tech doing the same job.  One should be eliminated.  That was  -  you guessed it – me.  After 8 years (almost to the day) of loyal service to the organization.

  But the day before I got the pink slip, my old boss was told to write my review – he again gave me an ‘exceeds expectations’ review.

  I did not deserve to be let go.  But in the end, it all worked out well.  I realized after getting no hits on my resume after a year that I needed to finish college, so I got my degree in business (at age 50 – with honors!) and immediately landed the very lucrative position I now have.

  I don’t believe in Karma, but if I did, I think it ended up happening here. Jake Dunghole ended up getting fired a year later for mismanagement (he nearly ran the company into bankruptsy and went from 80 productive staff to 26 overworked staff with very low morale.)  His chickie VP replaced him – Oh, I forgot to mention, he eventually promoted her to Executive Vice President and the Board knew she was doing all the work trying to run the org while all he did was take business trips and spend money.  Eventually Chickie VP left and went to another org.  Chase is still there, last I heard.  Probably making $20,000 a year less than I make.  From what people in my industry have told me (including vendors) he’s still a bumbling idiot.

  And though it seemed like a bad thing at the time, and definitely something I didn’t deserve, it all turned out well.

  • 6:12 pm
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