Another Day 28: Life Goes On

 

8:19 am

Today is day 19 of being unemployed because holidays and weekends don't count, but it's been 4 weeks since I last "went to work". Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job, and it looks like that may happen soon. For now, I consider this time off to be an extended vacation. I only got paid for 12 vacation days (they screwed me out of the other 16), so today is brought to you by my severance pay, whenever that shows up.

When you lose your job, it's easy to be bitter about it. What hurts the most is that I was at the top of my game. My appraisal rating was the highest I've ever received and I was the hardest worker on the team. All the hard work I put in was being recognized and being laid off was 100% all about the almighty dollar. So, while I'm grateful for all that I achieved I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth. Being financially secure goes a long way towards overcoming the bitterness, but I think getting a good new job will chase away the last remnants of it. Hopefully I achieve that today. I can't wait for that big FU to AT&T. I think I will love the job at Accenture and I'll be very good at it once I learn their systems and processes. 

I do feel bad for Laurie, as she is left behind to quell the chaos until they're ready to dump her. She already knows her job is over in the next round of layoffs and she's allowing them to continue to work her like a dog. Last night she posted "I just can't" on Facebook with crying emoji's. I started to respond "yes, you can" but decided to just leave it at a sad emoji. I'm going to reach out to her later today and ask if she wants a sympathetic ear. I personally don't think she should be posting that kind of stuff because you never know know who will see that down the road. I've heard that some employers specifically ask for your social media accounts in the interview process. I've never posted anything about work other than the beginning and end of vacation or vague things like service milestones. I never trash talked the company or went into detail regarding exactly what I do. They expect her to pick up the slack left by 4 top notch employees and those expectations are so unreal. She won't speak up for herself or say no to anything. If I was sitting there knowing my job would be over soon NO MATTER WHAT I DID, my stock answer to almost everything would be "I don't know". For whatever reason, she is her own worst enemy and won't do that. She will keep working 12 hours a day and let them continue to abuse her. Her boss is a loser that is in no way qualified for his job and his boss is only in place to manage the department until they move the rest of the work to outsourced resources or cheaper resources in another country. My happiest day will be seeing the "open to work" badge on a few peoples LinkedIn pages. Karma does come for people when you least expect it. I don't wish anything bad on anyone, I just won't be sad when Karma finds them.

As much as I wanted to sleep in today, I was awake just after 7 am. I'm still coughing, so after a lot of that I gave up even thinking about going back to sleep and got up to face the day. I'm so glad the heat is gone for now. I still can't really taste anything but my sense of smell & taste "might" be starting to come back. I did enjoy a cup of coffee even though I can't really say I could fully taste it. I could smell a bit of the salted caramel flavoring, so that is a good sign !

I enjoyed my breakfast (pancakes and orange yogurt) on the couch and opted to give myself until 10 am to relax. At 10 I'll start getting ready for the interview, which is at noon.

12:26 pm

Well, I just concluded my first interview at Accenture and I don't think I will get this job. The recruiter says they are targeting employees being within a 90 minute commute of an office and she wasn't sure there was anything closer than Albany - which is 2.5 hours away. My only hope would be a satellite office that is closer. Sounds like they are preparing for a return to office model. She also asked about travel and Kurt never mentioned anything about that. I don't really want to travel, but there's nothing stopping me. I could leave Minnie for a couple days and she'd be fine. I guess the only thing that could save me would be an inability to find better candidates internally or externally. If they really want me, would they bend the commute distance rule ? Considering Kurt's team is scattered, I don't see how being in an office would help me connect with them. I really really really want this job, so I hope they can work something out. She also didn't ask those stupid "tell me about a time you failed" questions. Those could come in the next interview. I think they really want to hire me (I know Kurt does), so I will pray for success ! She asked me about my compensation requirement and I said the mid-range of the salary. The range is basically $60k to $160k and the mid-range would be $110k plus bonus, which is a huge raise for me ! Wow - I would be putting that extra money into my savings ! I sent her a thank you email and also emailed Kurt to let him know about the commute distance issue. Maybe he'll fight for me. She might also be misinformed as she said something about still learning about how his team works. I don't know that his other team members are within 90 minutes of an office and he said he didn't care where the team was located. So I'm not giving up hope. In the meantime, I'll keep applying to other jobs on LinkedIn.

2:26 pm

Well, I got a nice email from Kurt - he said the proximity thing is not mandatory and not to worry. He also reiterated he has 3 openings, so I really think I'm going to get this job ! Wow - that felt so good. I read it just as I was preparing to go out and mow the lawn. Since I might have a new job very soon, I decided to see if Doug could do it .. and he's out there right now ! What a dream this is, if and when it happens: lose your job and get a new one a couple months later with a $20k or more raise ! 

So, I'm done with looking for and applying to other jobs until the Accenture thing is either for sure and completely off the table. I have the luxury of time and plenty of money to survive.

Tonight is the drum circle with Michelle and I'm meeting her at Francesca's for dinner at 5:45. 

2:39 pm 

So now I get an email from the recruiter saying my application won't be moving forward. I guess proximity is mandatory and no exceptions will be granted. I emailed Kurt to let him know and he said he'd inquire. We'll see if he can get around it. Now I'm really sad again. I'm going to guess he can't get around it and there goes that job. There goes $110k plus and a job I would love and be good at. I just know I will not find another opportunity like this.