Like this:

Last Thursday I found myself at work begging to be laid off.. You don’t hear that very often.. especially the way things are with the economy now. The events that were occurring however at my work were shocking.. to everyone I told…

I worked at a nutraceutical company. We made sex, beauty, and diet products. I had been there three years. There was an interesting melting pot of people there. The owners were Indian, there was a large Boznian population, and a lot of Spanish people. I liked it.. Good diversity at my work amongst everyone. There was one man who could have been Rush Limbaugh himself, another the professor in Back to the Future. I met the first people I have ever known that have really had Botox before.  My job was interesting…for a long time..

Then the dark side began to show itself.. I learned things I would have rather not known.  I learned how the Rolls Royce parked out front and driven by the owner was leased.. and the company was paying for it.. how the company had a condo that “important guests” stayed at.. that the company paid the mortgage on.. I learned the secrets about the products that we make that the public is not to know.. I watched as the FDA came in and raided my work and how shortly after they left the fines came in.. I saw how people in production were yelled at mercilessly and treated in a manner no one should be.. Then I saw that we weren’t buying raw materials as often nor were we paying the vendors for materials we had received. The gloom was setting in all around me…

Slowly for the past six months our paychecks began getting progressivly more and more delayed. At first we would no longer have the checks handed out in the morning and we would have to ask for them in the late afternoon… at the end…I had not been paid for a month.

Not being paid for a month is not an easy thing. It is not easy to see the husband and wife duo’s that work with me that have not had a paycheck for four weeks, they have children, and Christmas is right around the corner. I watched as their expressions turned more and more grim. I could see the pain in their eyes. It is not easy when management never tells anyone what is going on, such as Christmas eve was a payday, instead of letting us know in advance we would not be receiving checks that day.. or even sending a memo letting people know, so they could plan, when people went for their paychecks on what is supposed to be a joyous holiday, the offices were dark, the people who were supposed to give out the checks said not a word and simply left.

My work closes for a week around Christmas. I was excited for the break. Time to de-stress. To think about what to do. I de-stressed. And I came up with a plan. I returned to work that Monday. The look on people’s faces were especially pained. I found out our health insurance had been canceled due to non-payment. Funny when the  money had been deducted out of my paycheck. I wondered where the money had went.

Then I learned the last straw. The owner of the company yelled at our controller because she had given out paychecks a few weeks back ( mind you I was still going on a month with NO check)  and he wanted her to buy raw materials with the money NOT pay us.. SO.. the summary.. the employees are at the bottom of the totem poll..the people who run his company.. allow him to have the shiny Rolls Royce that was still parked out front. Let us go with nothing.

Plan in action time. I went straight to my boss and requested to be laid off… Of course, as nothing is easy at my work, getting laid off was not easy. I was too “valuable.” Not valuable enough to be paid.. but valuable enough they didn’t want to let me go. My anger raged. I tried to start mutinies. I did not work. I rallied people up.. The stress was piling up within me.. I could not sleep at night.. I felt miserable..and I was surrounded by misery..

Then…. last Thursday I got my wish.. I was LAID off.. It was the biggest feeling of relief I have felt in a LONG LONG time.. As I walked out of those doors peace instantly came over me. I felt a huge burden being lifted from me..I felt a new beginning was starting…….oh and how right I was…….

(Here is the article from the St Pete Times about about my work-be sure to read the comments at the end: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/geopharma-lays-off-more-workers-as-cash-crunch-intensifies/1064660)

Advertisement