theoldwolf: (Default)
theoldwolf ([personal profile] theoldwolf) wrote2009-12-16 04:43 pm
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Writer's Block: Take this job and shove it ...

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Well, it was a cross between getting fired and walking out. Under the circumstances, I couldn't have stayed at any rate.

I was working for a small software company that had opened an office in Europe. Under the terms of my contract, I was guaranteed a two year stay if I transferred to the Swiss office. Unfortunately, that promise was never secured in writing. Once I had moved my family over there, I found the soulless, amoral - no, immoral - manager took great delight in changing the terms of my employment at every turn, as well as bedeviling me and my family personally because we belonged to a faith for which he had nothing but contempt, and because I wouldn't kiss his ass. Example: I don't smoke, and he knew it well. Driving him back from Geneva to Neuchâtel, this drone took immense pleasure in hauling out a huge cigar and smoking it on the drive, insisting that we keep the windows in the car closed. After about 5 months of this kind of crap, he told me that I'd need to start spending evenings and weekends in the office, this despite spending over half the month on the road away from my young family. I simply told him that I wasn't going to do that. 2 weeks later we were back in the states.

I sued the company for breach of contract and hardship - they had the arrogance to tell me that I was the one who broke the contract, and said it was nothing more than a nuisance suit - but they settled. They settled for a dollar amount that basically made us financially whole - the escapade probably cost us more than what we recouped, and we took away many great experiences - but working for that particular individual was like working for Satan incarnate. As a postscript, it was only about 6 months after we left that this sub-human was fired for malfeasance, but I never got an acknowledgement from the corporation that this guy had screwed me over. This is one instance in my life that I've had a really hard time getting out of resentment, resistence and revenge, and moving into forgiveness. I do better when I just don't think about it.

[identity profile] ccdesan.livejournal.com 2009-12-17 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
I take comfort in the fact that at some point there will be divine retribution (Secoh you can plug your ears now). And I'm OK with the fact that it may not even look the way I'd like it to. Since I can't look on the heart, people that I cheerfully consign to Bolgia 10 might find themselves better off than I in the eternal scheme of things... but I know whatever happens, it will be fair. Which is a lot more than we can expect in this life.