You Know I'm Not One for Mincing Words...

I was fired today. In case you're wondering why I keep my employer a guarded secret, this is why. I've sensed this coming for three and a half years now; when you get a job somewhere and one supervisor tells you, "Yes! You will be trained to do anything you can here, and you'll have the opportunity for advancement!"

And that supervisor's successor says, "You were hired on here to do one job, and one job only. Your training will not be renewed when this quarter is up, and your job does not allow you the opportunity for advancement," you know something is terribly, terribly wrong.

So, I've filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in Frankfort. I'll be getting my ducks in a row, and talking to several people over the course of the next couple of months. I'm going to put up a fight. This workplace deserves it; I am not the only one who has faced that sort of treatment. I may be the only one preparing to do something about it. And, if rumors are true about the nature of my former employer, that somehow they're so immune to lawsuits that no judge, or even lawyer will listen, I'll be posting their name wherever I can and telling my story to whomever will listen.

In the meantime, I also plan on filing for unemployment; I was told that I'm eligible for that. (They told me in a tone that suggested concern for my well being. If that were truly the case, I would not have been jerked around for all these years. I left a job at which I was perfectly happy, but didn't have the pay or benefits or advancement opportunities that the newer job had, and would never have left had my recent ex-employer been forthright about my position.)

On another blog I write (the one at deviantArt), someone said something about how they had something similar, and I add much worse (being told that he was going to be training his replacement the day he told his bosses that he needed a week off for his honeymoon), that he went into a temp job that worked out for the best for him.

Temp work is something I view with great suspicion. I don't know how much things have changed in the past 23 years, but when my father went through a temp agency in '82, there was actually a clause in the contract that prevented his employer from ever hiring him permanently. I know I'll be moving on, but I quite simply do not wish to encourage temp services if they're going to use that sort of wrangling.

That's a low-down, dirty trick to pull on a 29 year old man -- with a 9 year old son and 7 year old daughter -- who had no hope of ever doing anything more than work at a factory through a temp agency. Those folks at that factory really wanted to hire him, but couldn't ... thanks to that contract! Just like in my case, though, things did work out for the best. When Dad was about 7 or 8 months older than I am right now, he went back to college. He told me recently that the only thing that kept him out between 1971 and 1986 was financial aid; sometime within those fifteen years, someone turned on a spigot. Sure, college was cheaper in '71, but my grandparents didn't have the money to send him, and financial aid was only in the hundreds of dollars. (Dad even had a class schedule that fall. When he saw that the aid would leave a gap that his income and his parents' combined wouldn't fill, he had to withdraw.) But, in '86, he wound up getting a couple of thousand in aid; the rest is history. He went from struggling working stiff to struggling High School science teacher. (You can guess, though -- the struggling wasn't quite so bad once he became a teacher. But, then again, a full time job -- with full pay -- at a factory would probably have been better. Dad and I are a lot alike, though; I couldn't see either one of us being happy with seeing the same situations day in and day out, year after year.)

Miss Me?

Hello, everyone! ..... pausing to let the echoes die down here ....

Quick updates;
I'm medically cleared to go back to work on regular duty come Monday. Good thing, because I'm not allowed to do light duty at work. They'd rather send me home than send me to another department perhaps to answer telephones or do paperwork.

Tomorrow is my first advising conference at the University of Kentucky since 1997. I'm going back armed with self-knowledge and a lot more wisdom. (That means I know now just how unwise I can be.) This time, I feel a lot more certain of success. I am a little preturbed about the math placement test--those have never been required before--but I'm certain it will reveal exactly what it is supposed to. That revelation is that I can handle math at just about any level I'll need in my chosen degree (B. A. in Geology.)

The movie is going quite well. (I don't know if I've even mentioned that or not--being a production assistant on a low/no budget supernatural thriller. I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience ... with a caveat or two hanging about, but I'm ignoring them. There are always little and not-so-little snags when it comes to producing a film.) It is slated to be complete before the middle of August with a (local) release date around October or early November.

Well, that's all for the updates. How about a

Humpday Quote

of the

Week?

Well, I knew you had crap for brains. But the crap in your brains has crap for brains!
-----Strong Bad from Homestar Runner

Interesting News...

Before I get started, note how late it is in the year. In other words, we're nowhere near April and I'm not predisposed to practical joking anyway. (When I joke, I'm even less practical than usual.)

I now have a second job. I'm a production assistant on a movie,and perhaps even a short film, too -- both being shot here in town. It's on a 'point system' -- for those of you who don't know what that means; when the movie makes money, so do we. And by we, I mean everyone from the actors to the directors and writers ... And the production assistants. Needless to say, that director is going to be promoting the heck out of this movie. (Before anyone starts, and I'm not saying any of my readers will; yes, I do know that a couple of years could have passed when -- if -- I see money from this project. It is still something I can put on a résumé. And I'm going to be enjoying the experience, I can tell you that much already.)

Now, as for my left arm ... That could take a while to heal up properly, if it does at all. Ulnar nerve is pinched at the elbow -- probably from repetitive motions. Surgery has not been ruled out. In fact, the way the neurologist talked, it seems that this problem could go dormant and stay that way for several years only to flare back up to be even more crippling that it was before. (I'm opting for the surgery in case you're wondering. I want to avoid the flare ups -- or even the possibility that there will be flare ups.)