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I should be very happy today. Sure, this morning I went into a mortgage broker and found out the credit agency screwed up my credit report by putting other people's credit info on my report but that's recoverable. I called my parent's to tell them what had happened and my parents, who are really much better then I deserve, we're really cool and understanding. In fact my parents offered to co-sign on the loan so I could buy a home now rather then wait the 3-6 months it would take to sort out the credit agency's report. I was stunned but true to their word my parents both filed out the needed paper work and e-mailed it to the broker after which I (I should say my father) was pre-approved for a half million dollar mortgage. 
Now, the cost range I was looking at was/is half that amount but it is still kind of cool to know old dad's signature can open up doors like that.
Any I was totaled stoked about it. I was excited that I was going to become a home owner and I was grateful to my parent's because with out them I seriously doubt I could have gotten a no points, low APR, fixed 30 year loan. The whole process took maybe 2 hours start to finish. So everything in the world is great, right?
Not any more, you see, because I just lost my job a few hours after that.
Yes, that's right and I can't entirely say it wasn't my fault. As some of you may remember about six weeks ago I got into a disagreement/misunderstanding with my boss. A certain bit of work was unclear as to just what needed to be done and I was unable to reach my boss by telephone despite multiple calls so I had to choice between shutting the job down or doing what I thought the memo said to do. Turns out it was mostly right but partially wrong and my boss was pissed. I showed him the memo with what he wrote and he agreed that it was poorly written but said I should have known what to do from the 700 page work plan that was written two years ago. 
I didn't want to keep fighting so I told him I'd go out on the weekend and redo the work without charging the client or him any money. To this day I still feel I did the best with the crappy directions this fool wrote but that really doesn't matter any more.
So any way he said to make sure nothing like that happened again and over the last six weeks things went well and no bad data made it to any client. There was one time where two samples (out of hundreds done) got mixed up but it was caught due to a new QA/QC process that I put in place and it never reached the lab or the client.
So why did I get "let go"? The answer is politics and here's the details. One of the other departments in our (now their since I don't work there) company had a big project for the county of Sacramento where they were to develop and design a new data base (stupid to design a data base from scratch when MS access can be bought for $45) which would hold all of the water quality data for the county's drinking water over the last 25 years. No one wanted to do the data entry work so they called me in to do it. No problem. I listened intently as the man (we'll call him a-hole from now on) detailed which parts of the reports needed to be entered. I took copious notes and showed him my notes just to make sure I had written everything down correctly. He looked them over and agreed that the list I had completed was everything which needed to be entered into the database.
Now, if I had been smart I would have asked for a memo where he wrote out that he agreed on the scope of work. But he said things were really hectic, that the data base software was super buggy & crashed all the time (he was right there. The software was crap), and to top it off the client was still sending in all sorts of change order requests. So any way I spend the next 2.5 weeks entering in the data per the list and periodically checking back in with a-hole just to show him the progress and to make sure things are being done to his satisfaction. He always said he liked everything and never said anything was incorrect.
So I finish the project (this is a week ago) and hand in the last paper work. A-hole looks it over and starts to freak out on me. He says I totally didn't add in a certain lab I.D. so I recheck the list which he OKed and no where on the list is this lab sample ID number. I point this out to him and a-hole then says I must have left it off because he's 100% sure he told me. He begins yelling at me and telling me the project is 20% over budget, that his boss is looking over his shoulder and the reason is people like me who can't follow directions. I point out once again that all data was entered according to the list he O.K.ed but that I understand the project needs to be fixed and that I will gladly spend the extra time to enter in the lab ID.
A-hole then says "Damn, right you will and I won't pay for it either. You guys are going to do it for free". I then say to him that he can take it up with my boss but that the work was done to his specifications. So any way he goes and *****es and complains to my boss and then my boss comes to me and says that I need to fix the data, that I can only charge 25% of the time spent fixing the data, and that I was to only work on this project when there was no other billable work to be done. I figure the matter is closed and I slowly work (real slowly because I am now pissed off at a-hole) on the data base when I have nothing better to do.
A week passes and today rolls around; 3pm A-hole comes into our office and goes into my boss’s office. About 10 minutes pass and then my boss calls me in to join them. A-hole is frothing at the mouth. A-hole announces that his project is now 30% over budget and it was due today and I still haven't completed entering in the new data he tacked on. I point out to my boss that he said to work on fully billable work before a-hole's work after which my boss tells me thanks but I can go back to my cubical now. They stay in there for another 15 minutes then A-hole leaves; 30 minutes after a-hole left my boss calls me and asks me to come in to his office.
He tells me A-hole has just said his department won't give any more business to my department until the data is entered to his satisfaction. My boss then says that a-hole doesn't like me and that a-hole will make sure I never do any work for his department again. My boss says his department relies on other departments for much of our work and he can't keep people who alienate clients. I try to point out that I just did what he (my boss) told me to do and that a-hole's $600k over budget but less then $2-3k is from us. I tell him A-hole is flailing around looking for anyone to blame for his misbidding and then mismanaging the project. I tell him I will enter the data ASAP but that I was busy before and he (my boss) said not to work on it unless there wasn't any other work to do first.
My boss then says that he's sorry but he spoke with the other manager and they're going to have to let me go. Further he says he thinks he's being very fair with me and that I had broken the deal we made six weeks ago to not have any mistakes. I point out that, just as he specified no mistakes made it to clients, and that the sampling error from last week was caught because I started a new procedure where some one would review sampling information before it reached the client (before there was no QAQC if you can believe that). My boss then says the new procedure, which has one person briefly review the data before the client sees it, has driven up costs so I shouldn't be proud of it. How much does one person looking over the data for 20 minutes before the client sees it cost?
So anyway I'm told to clean out my desk and I don't get any severance pay and they just wrote me a check for my holiday and sick leave. That's it. I didn't have the heart to tell any of my friend’s who are co-workers (most had gone home any way) and so far I haven't even told my parents who were super happy about me getting pre-approved for a home loan.
Now, the cost range I was looking at was/is half that amount but it is still kind of cool to know old dad's signature can open up doors like that.
Any I was totaled stoked about it. I was excited that I was going to become a home owner and I was grateful to my parent's because with out them I seriously doubt I could have gotten a no points, low APR, fixed 30 year loan. The whole process took maybe 2 hours start to finish. So everything in the world is great, right?Not any more, you see, because I just lost my job a few hours after that.
Yes, that's right and I can't entirely say it wasn't my fault. As some of you may remember about six weeks ago I got into a disagreement/misunderstanding with my boss. A certain bit of work was unclear as to just what needed to be done and I was unable to reach my boss by telephone despite multiple calls so I had to choice between shutting the job down or doing what I thought the memo said to do. Turns out it was mostly right but partially wrong and my boss was pissed. I showed him the memo with what he wrote and he agreed that it was poorly written but said I should have known what to do from the 700 page work plan that was written two years ago. I didn't want to keep fighting so I told him I'd go out on the weekend and redo the work without charging the client or him any money. To this day I still feel I did the best with the crappy directions this fool wrote but that really doesn't matter any more.So any way he said to make sure nothing like that happened again and over the last six weeks things went well and no bad data made it to any client. There was one time where two samples (out of hundreds done) got mixed up but it was caught due to a new QA/QC process that I put in place and it never reached the lab or the client.
So why did I get "let go"? The answer is politics and here's the details. One of the other departments in our (now their since I don't work there) company had a big project for the county of Sacramento where they were to develop and design a new data base (stupid to design a data base from scratch when MS access can be bought for $45) which would hold all of the water quality data for the county's drinking water over the last 25 years. No one wanted to do the data entry work so they called me in to do it. No problem. I listened intently as the man (we'll call him a-hole from now on) detailed which parts of the reports needed to be entered. I took copious notes and showed him my notes just to make sure I had written everything down correctly. He looked them over and agreed that the list I had completed was everything which needed to be entered into the database.
Now, if I had been smart I would have asked for a memo where he wrote out that he agreed on the scope of work. But he said things were really hectic, that the data base software was super buggy & crashed all the time (he was right there. The software was crap), and to top it off the client was still sending in all sorts of change order requests. So any way I spend the next 2.5 weeks entering in the data per the list and periodically checking back in with a-hole just to show him the progress and to make sure things are being done to his satisfaction. He always said he liked everything and never said anything was incorrect.
So I finish the project (this is a week ago) and hand in the last paper work. A-hole looks it over and starts to freak out on me. He says I totally didn't add in a certain lab I.D. so I recheck the list which he OKed and no where on the list is this lab sample ID number. I point this out to him and a-hole then says I must have left it off because he's 100% sure he told me. He begins yelling at me and telling me the project is 20% over budget, that his boss is looking over his shoulder and the reason is people like me who can't follow directions. I point out once again that all data was entered according to the list he O.K.ed but that I understand the project needs to be fixed and that I will gladly spend the extra time to enter in the lab ID.
A-hole then says "Damn, right you will and I won't pay for it either. You guys are going to do it for free". I then say to him that he can take it up with my boss but that the work was done to his specifications. So any way he goes and *****es and complains to my boss and then my boss comes to me and says that I need to fix the data, that I can only charge 25% of the time spent fixing the data, and that I was to only work on this project when there was no other billable work to be done. I figure the matter is closed and I slowly work (real slowly because I am now pissed off at a-hole) on the data base when I have nothing better to do.
A week passes and today rolls around; 3pm A-hole comes into our office and goes into my boss’s office. About 10 minutes pass and then my boss calls me in to join them. A-hole is frothing at the mouth. A-hole announces that his project is now 30% over budget and it was due today and I still haven't completed entering in the new data he tacked on. I point out to my boss that he said to work on fully billable work before a-hole's work after which my boss tells me thanks but I can go back to my cubical now. They stay in there for another 15 minutes then A-hole leaves; 30 minutes after a-hole left my boss calls me and asks me to come in to his office.
He tells me A-hole has just said his department won't give any more business to my department until the data is entered to his satisfaction. My boss then says that a-hole doesn't like me and that a-hole will make sure I never do any work for his department again. My boss says his department relies on other departments for much of our work and he can't keep people who alienate clients. I try to point out that I just did what he (my boss) told me to do and that a-hole's $600k over budget but less then $2-3k is from us. I tell him A-hole is flailing around looking for anyone to blame for his misbidding and then mismanaging the project. I tell him I will enter the data ASAP but that I was busy before and he (my boss) said not to work on it unless there wasn't any other work to do first.
My boss then says that he's sorry but he spoke with the other manager and they're going to have to let me go. Further he says he thinks he's being very fair with me and that I had broken the deal we made six weeks ago to not have any mistakes. I point out that, just as he specified no mistakes made it to clients, and that the sampling error from last week was caught because I started a new procedure where some one would review sampling information before it reached the client (before there was no QAQC if you can believe that). My boss then says the new procedure, which has one person briefly review the data before the client sees it, has driven up costs so I shouldn't be proud of it. How much does one person looking over the data for 20 minutes before the client sees it cost?
So anyway I'm told to clean out my desk and I don't get any severance pay and they just wrote me a check for my holiday and sick leave. That's it. I didn't have the heart to tell any of my friend’s who are co-workers (most had gone home any way) and so far I haven't even told my parents who were super happy about me getting pre-approved for a home loan.
You totally got the shaft there. 
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