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RE: The Best Job You've Ever Been Fired From

Subject: RE: The Best Job You've Ever Been Fired From
From: "Diane Evans" <diane_evans -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 10:12:19 -0700


> "Have you been fired? Was it the best or worst thing
> that ever happened?"

I wasn't really fired, but had a contract come to a sudden end last year...

I took a 3-month contract-to-hire job last year out of desperation. The dot-com bust had just hit Seattle big-time, and I had a whole pack of wolves at my door, if you know what I mean.

I was assigned to write Service Notes for a wireless company. It was a profitable branch of a major international company on the brink of bankruptcy. Nine months before, the company had a huge layoff and 80% of the cubicles were unoccupied.

The three technical writers were assigned to the configuration manager, a semi-literate-Vietnam Vet-biker with a temper. When things went wrong, he would literally storm through the office, break into meetings and scream at the people there. (Note that there were three of us: If I had stayed for 10 years, I still would have been #3 on the totem pole. The other two men made it clear to me that I was never to write anything without their final approval.)

Everyone was in fear of the guy. It took me two months to figure out why I was so stressed out at work -- and then I didn't know what to do. If I quit, I wouldn't be eligible for unemployment. I anonymously put my resume out on Monster and quietly informed my contracting agency that I needed a different gig.

A three-day weekend was coming up, so I asked for a few hours off on Friday to catch an early flight. The manager was such a control freak that he told everyone else (but not me) that he didn't want me to do that.

I came back to work on Tuesday, and he just glared at me all day. I went home Tuesday night, and he called my contracting agency at 7:00 PM and said that they really didn't need me any more.

I was so happy, that I reopened my unemployment claim as soon as I hung up the phone!

P.S. I love my current job, and never once have looked back. I enjoyed every minute of my 3-day-weekend and wish I had known earlier that it was so easy to get laid off... :)


Diane Evans
Technical Writer

Washington State Coordinator, Tombstone Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/washing.html

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