Stuff

I lost my job last week.

Jason called me into his office and told me on Thursday afternoon that he was laying me off.  There simply wasn't enough work to justify keeping me on.  He told me to come in on Friday to get some paperwork from his wife (accountant/HR).  When I got there on Friday, after driving 45 mins from Mississauga to Guelph, Paula told me that there was no paperwork and that she was planning to put together my ROE on Monday.  Great... I drove all the way there for nothing.  At least I got to say goodbye to my coworkers in person.

Then I checked with Paula that I would be paid out for my remaining vacation day and that I would be receiving 2 weeks in lieu of notice.  She deferred to Jason and didn't seem to know what she was doing at all.  First Jason tried to tell me that because it was a lay off, I do not receive any payment in lieu of notice. I pointed him to the ESA. Then he backpedaled and said that I could come in for 2 weeks and maybe they will find things for me to do.  Not liking that idea at all, and in talking further with Paula, she determined that by law I am only owed 1 week's pay in lieu of notice because unfortunately for me, even though I had been at PC for 52 weeks, it had not yet been a calendar year.  My 1 year annivesary at PC would have been on Tuesday.  Paula swears that they didn't know it was so close, but I am sure he planned this.

To rub salt into the wounds, they then tried to be stingy in paying out my one vacation day left. They told me to go home early and take a half day vacation so they would just add the other half to my last pay. It wasn't as though I could argue I had work to do to fill out the afternoon as I was only waiting on one thing to pass on, so I had to leave.

I am just appalled at all of this. What could have been an amicable parting has now left me pissed off as hell, as if being unemployed in a recession a month from Christmas wasn't bad enough. I think it's safe to say that wherever I go from here, I will be very clear to anyone who will listen that this is not a company they should ever work with - not only do they not keep things in confidence that their clients tell them, but they are unscrupulous about their dealings with clients and employees alike.  This whole thing is actually even worse than it already sounds, but I am not ready to say more just yet.

I told my parents the bad news last night.  I explained how I was already starting to pound the pavement and have given my resume out to a few places but I don't think anything will come of it until the new year.  I said not to expect too much at Christmas since things are tight, but that I would be giving a lot of homemade gifts.  In her classic parental way, my mother says to me "You always say things like this so that people will feel sorry for you."  Remind me again why I want to see my family during the holidays??

Yay.  Great way to end the week.