"Kinda" Fired

So I think everyone mostly knows, but dave wanted me to do a post about it..

I got "kinda" fired last tuesday. It was my first day back at work after the earthquake and my vacation to go to Rosie's wedding. I came in a 615am (as usual-though I no longer think any of my bosses believed I was doing that) and was getting my shit together - the usual, I've been gone for a while and I have mail and bills and I need to balance my check book, see if I have work email, update my computer, actually get my computer to turn on since the earthquake messed it up, etc.. and then at 750, this *new* guy comes in! I was thinking to myself, new guy? ..why did they hire a new guy? [side note: the word new looks really weird right now, but weird looks completely normal] so anyway, I was beginning to have feelings about job security when it came out that he was a new grad in geology.. even more suspicious.. PLUS!! usually when someone gets back from a break/vacation there's a pile of crap for them to do, there's constantly people running up with tasks and what not, but I got sent to COMPusa to buy a mouse and a floppy drive for the broken computer. Hmm.. ok, so I'm thinking that maybe I'm overreacting and I have no one else to really ask since I usually ask Bryan about work tensions, but he was on vacation too.
Then, I got a visit from Masa to come to the conference room (where we usually get briefed on new jobs, only I could tell that it wasn't about a new job) and my other 2 bosses were also in there. So I'm thinking wow! this is really happening! and they proceed to tell me that I've been
useless in the office, ..basically since I started, that they've had many complaints about me, that I make an inordinate amount of mistakes, etc. Basically that I'm the worst employee ever and all they really wanted me for was field work and lab work. BUT since I'm in school now and I can't work on Thursdays, me having to work 4 10's isn't really working out (Iforget how he slipped here, but it made me think he was going to say something about how no one believes I'm putting in 10 hour days), and they need to make a "change". This "change" added up to me finishing my one report I needed to do and getting the hell out of there until they "call" me when they have some work for me to do... and if I can work 20 hours a week, then I can keep my benefits, if not then I don't. To me that's a shitty, chicken-shit way of firing me so that I can't get unemployment.

So I asked them,

ME: so if you guys have been so unhappy with my performance all this time, did anyone ever think about telling me?

MASA: (looks around for a split second) we don't do that here.

ME: Well if you didn't tell me, I had no way of knowing there was a problem. Do you mind if I ask what exactly is the problem?

this is when they launch into me being so slow and making so many mistakes, then they brought out the big guns, I don't seem "motivated". They definitely had me on this one. I am not interested. Not when I get no training, no feedback, no reasonable amount of oversight, I have to walk around on eggshells around all my bosses cause they hate eachother and most if not all of their employees (maybe it's just me, who knows), not when I get dirty looks for asking questions, and especially not when I only get to do shitty boring jobs that only boring people are interested in while everyone pretends to be happy when they're the mosst angry people I've ever been around, etc.

So I tried to play it off like maybe I wasn't totally uninterested for a while [mostly to get a few shots in and hopefully help out David with the phase 1's plus I knew my boss Dave was hating every sencond he had to be a part of this meeting, no only cause he hates Janice, but because he hates everyone, and confrontation the most, so every question I asked grinded him] while they bitched about my school and vacation - apparently no one knew about my trip so they had to give up a bunch of work - which to me makes no sense. If I am the worst employee ever, completely unmotivated, making nothing but mistakes and unwilling to learn anything, how is it that in my absence everything falls apart? No work can be done while the worst employee ever is away. Hmm. Sounds fishy to me.

That's the long and short of it. I tried to sign up for unemployment yesterday and I have a big pack of papers to fill out for it sitting on my bed.

Overall, I'm quite happy to be fired. I hated that job, I only stayed casue I didn't have a car and I didn't hink I could get a part time job that would pay this bills. Now I am more motivated to look. ha! there's motivation all over this place... now that I'm in school and I don't have to go to Aiea and sit in a cube wishing I wasn't there... =)!