Now I Understand

So, a couple of days ago I received an email telling me in a round about way that I was being terminated. Instead of coming out with the news, it stated that a correction in my paycheck would be made and then I would be paid an additional amount to “buy out the four weeks notice as your contract calls for and we can call it even.” That means I’ve been canned, right?

For someone who spent thirty years in the same job, getting the axe is tough. The first thing I started doing is asking what did have I done wrong? Surely I erred in some way so grievously that the powers that be had to get rid of me.

My dear wife, a brilliant and compassionate person, sat me down and explained that my firing had nothing to do with “me.” Instead, it was business. She surmises that the decision makers are the ones in control of the purse strings and that they are telling my immediate boss that she didn’t have enough money to keep me.

So, if I’m to be mad at someone, who should it be—corporation, publisher, the damn Democrats, or the damn Republicans? For sure, I’m not happy with the individual who let me go via an email that never directly said it. I gave these folks 2 ½ years and worked hard to make my section of the paper better. In the end, all I got was a message that zipped over the Internet and disrupted my life. What happened to face-to-face meetings, or at least phone calls, that delivered news like this?

Maybe I should rage at the politicians. Aren’t they the ones whose inability to do ANYTHING is dragging this country and its economy down the road of destruction? That economy has been flat-lined for four years. If the politicians would do something, perhaps I’d still have a job.

With all that said, I am still thankful. I have a wonderful wife who still works. I receive a monthly check from the pension into which I invested over my teaching career. I’ll miss the small amount of money I made as a part-time reporter. That income and job made me feel that I still contributed. However, we didn’t rely on my small check to survive.

I’m more concerned for others across the country who have been cut loose from their jobs. Some have been unemployed for years; others were fired at the same time as I was released. These people are in dire straits because those jobs were their livelihoods. They counted on them for money to pay the bills and provide insurance coverage. Now, they’re out in the cold with poor prospects for finding employment that will equal what they had. I worry that they will lose their homes, their property, and worst of all, their hope. These are the individuals who need our prayers.

As for me, I’ll make it. I subscribe to the belief that as one door closes, the good Lord opens another. Perhaps it was time for this opportunity to end so that another could begin. Is it naïve to believe this way? Some will say “yes.” That’s all right. I think instead that it is more an act of faith that a loving God watches over us and wants for us what’s best. On so many occasions, I’ve been surprised with the brightness that comes to overpower some of my darkest times. I’ll keep my ears open and “wait for orders from headquarters.” I’ll also take steps to find something new.

For those who have lost jobs, know that you are in my prayers. Now I understand the low feeling that accompanies a boot in the ass. Remember that you are not you’re jobs. The person you are is separate from the work you do. Keep the faith and allow those of us who are all right to help in ways that we can. To firing bosses, tener cajones to face those whom you let go. It’s the least you can do when you affect people’s lives in such a negative way.