Back Again At Square One
Wow...it's been a while since I posted something on my blog. Although I think a couple of posts have been deleted or lost somewhere cos I am sure I posted something about my Second Chances Show in February of 2006.
I came back to this blog to see that Google has somehow wrapped it's hands around Blogger and I had to restate my user name and password in terms of Google.
Also found that someone in Cyprus was able to get into my blogger and post something. That's rather scary. I promptly deleted that one.
So much has happened since my last post. I did do my Feb 2006 Plush Room show and it was the culmination of lots of hard work and collaboration with some very talented singers, musicians and director. Thanks again to all of you. You truly made my show great. The house was pretty much sold out. Had some very beautiful and clever programs created by my long time friend, Diane Olsen. Thanks again Diane, they were absolutely wonderful.
So it has been over a year now since that show and I am, besides wondering where all the time went, asking myself, "ok, now how do I get back into performing and creating again.
A major event happened a couple of weeks ago for me and it has sent me reeling and trying to grasp onto something that is real and true.
I was fired without any warning at my job with Homestead Technologies...who, by coincidence powers my website.
The truth is that I was just named salesman of the month in May. (Fired in June.) I had thought I had found a wonderful place to work and thrive and create a livelyhood for myself. I was getting back on my feet after having a rather rough patch financially. In fact I was just looking the weekend before at my finances and planning for the future, setting financial goals, feeling secure with the ability to now do that. How ironic.
By all accounts, I was well-liked by my peers and had bubbling responses from my customers. I thought I was well-liked by my management. Then along comes a newly-hired executive who has been brought in to shore up sales and customer service to make them profit centers for the company. (Sales have been paid well but the commission structure (changed 4 times since I was hired) had yet gotten in line with profitable gains for the company. Kinda wonder why no one was held accountable for that one!)
Didn't know much about the new guy previously except the news that he had come from Go Daddy and there were praises that he was a welcomed addition to our company.
(Hmmm...I would now disagree with that.)
Recently, a number of our employees in sales were let go by the whisper of his word and no communication out to the masses was given which lead to lots of rumors and speculation as to why these folks would be mysteriously let go.
In any case, I had a meeting with him on June 14th and in a matter of an hour he had summed up our conversation as my being negative and blaming and not taking responsibility for myself. He had strung comments of mine together to satisfy his goal...to find an excuse, any excuse, to get rid of me. (This is the only conclusion I can come up with since I wasn't given any tangible or plausible reasons from his report, my boss, the VP of Sales, upon letting me go. A part of me felt that there were personal reasons from the two people in that room, him and the HR manager, that this was happening. Again, nothing was spelled out. I mean how do you explain congratulations the month before for a job well done and then say "hit the highway" literally a week later?)
I was stunned at the news, disbelieving the accuracy of the words as they were spouted out to me.
I had been in management for 8 yrs prior to this job and this just made no sense to me. I had performed outstandingly in sales for six months, I had gotten along with folks and had a good reputation with my peers and especially my customers. So what was this based on...and why was I not made aware of it prior to this announcement. It seemed really fishy and not based on reality.
Even my worst employee always got the chance to redeem themselves. Besides being ethical, it was within the law. I had to document everything as well in terms of performance.
This just didn't make sense and was extremely hastefully done. And for me, it was done without any clue that I was a problem. It gave me the sense of what it might be like in Eastern Germany before the wall fell down. I was an American spy in the eighties so this analogy was even more meaningful for me.
Needless to say, my opinion that Homestead is a great company to work for has fallen tremendously. The perpetrators of this act and the folks that sat by while it was happening can not be respected or held in high esteem. The tyrant at the top of this action will surely find his end for this kind of company behavior makes not for a great company where good people thrive but for a repressed institution where fear is the motivator and ethics get easily and conveniently replaced with personal vendictiveness.
Now I must look forward and see what is in my cards for the future and how I must act in good faith. It was said in that exit meeting that I only thought of myself not the company. I found that rather a slap in the face particularly since I had moved from one sales group (Grp 6) to another (LTV) knowing I would be getting an assumed $2-3000 salary decrease but volunteered for it anyway. It was also said that my boss was "tired of dragging me along with every change" that happened. I volunteered for this pay demotion for the chance to embrace change in what I was doing and where the company was going. Go figure.
Yes, it was unjust. Yes, it mostly will hurt the company. Yes, people's livelyhoods are being taken away.
But, perhaps, looking at this with a different perspective can mean everything to me and how I transform it from a meaningful waste of one's resources to a chance to climb even greater walls. It will cause me to look at other ways to fullfill my personal goals and livelyhood and dreams.
I must look to the future and how I will make an impact on other's lives... differently.
One door closes....another window opens. Time to reinvent my purpose.
Rick
I came back to this blog to see that Google has somehow wrapped it's hands around Blogger and I had to restate my user name and password in terms of Google.
Also found that someone in Cyprus was able to get into my blogger and post something. That's rather scary. I promptly deleted that one.
So much has happened since my last post. I did do my Feb 2006 Plush Room show and it was the culmination of lots of hard work and collaboration with some very talented singers, musicians and director. Thanks again to all of you. You truly made my show great. The house was pretty much sold out. Had some very beautiful and clever programs created by my long time friend, Diane Olsen. Thanks again Diane, they were absolutely wonderful.
So it has been over a year now since that show and I am, besides wondering where all the time went, asking myself, "ok, now how do I get back into performing and creating again.
A major event happened a couple of weeks ago for me and it has sent me reeling and trying to grasp onto something that is real and true.
I was fired without any warning at my job with Homestead Technologies...who, by coincidence powers my website.
The truth is that I was just named salesman of the month in May. (Fired in June.) I had thought I had found a wonderful place to work and thrive and create a livelyhood for myself. I was getting back on my feet after having a rather rough patch financially. In fact I was just looking the weekend before at my finances and planning for the future, setting financial goals, feeling secure with the ability to now do that. How ironic.
By all accounts, I was well-liked by my peers and had bubbling responses from my customers. I thought I was well-liked by my management. Then along comes a newly-hired executive who has been brought in to shore up sales and customer service to make them profit centers for the company. (Sales have been paid well but the commission structure (changed 4 times since I was hired) had yet gotten in line with profitable gains for the company. Kinda wonder why no one was held accountable for that one!)
Didn't know much about the new guy previously except the news that he had come from Go Daddy and there were praises that he was a welcomed addition to our company.
(Hmmm...I would now disagree with that.)
Recently, a number of our employees in sales were let go by the whisper of his word and no communication out to the masses was given which lead to lots of rumors and speculation as to why these folks would be mysteriously let go.
In any case, I had a meeting with him on June 14th and in a matter of an hour he had summed up our conversation as my being negative and blaming and not taking responsibility for myself. He had strung comments of mine together to satisfy his goal...to find an excuse, any excuse, to get rid of me. (This is the only conclusion I can come up with since I wasn't given any tangible or plausible reasons from his report, my boss, the VP of Sales, upon letting me go. A part of me felt that there were personal reasons from the two people in that room, him and the HR manager, that this was happening. Again, nothing was spelled out. I mean how do you explain congratulations the month before for a job well done and then say "hit the highway" literally a week later?)
I was stunned at the news, disbelieving the accuracy of the words as they were spouted out to me.
I had been in management for 8 yrs prior to this job and this just made no sense to me. I had performed outstandingly in sales for six months, I had gotten along with folks and had a good reputation with my peers and especially my customers. So what was this based on...and why was I not made aware of it prior to this announcement. It seemed really fishy and not based on reality.
Even my worst employee always got the chance to redeem themselves. Besides being ethical, it was within the law. I had to document everything as well in terms of performance.
This just didn't make sense and was extremely hastefully done. And for me, it was done without any clue that I was a problem. It gave me the sense of what it might be like in Eastern Germany before the wall fell down. I was an American spy in the eighties so this analogy was even more meaningful for me.
Needless to say, my opinion that Homestead is a great company to work for has fallen tremendously. The perpetrators of this act and the folks that sat by while it was happening can not be respected or held in high esteem. The tyrant at the top of this action will surely find his end for this kind of company behavior makes not for a great company where good people thrive but for a repressed institution where fear is the motivator and ethics get easily and conveniently replaced with personal vendictiveness.
Now I must look forward and see what is in my cards for the future and how I must act in good faith. It was said in that exit meeting that I only thought of myself not the company. I found that rather a slap in the face particularly since I had moved from one sales group (Grp 6) to another (LTV) knowing I would be getting an assumed $2-3000 salary decrease but volunteered for it anyway. It was also said that my boss was "tired of dragging me along with every change" that happened. I volunteered for this pay demotion for the chance to embrace change in what I was doing and where the company was going. Go figure.
Yes, it was unjust. Yes, it mostly will hurt the company. Yes, people's livelyhoods are being taken away.
But, perhaps, looking at this with a different perspective can mean everything to me and how I transform it from a meaningful waste of one's resources to a chance to climb even greater walls. It will cause me to look at other ways to fullfill my personal goals and livelyhood and dreams.
I must look to the future and how I will make an impact on other's lives... differently.
One door closes....another window opens. Time to reinvent my purpose.
Rick
posted by Rick at 11:41 AM
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