I have split up the very long October update into two pieces starting with…
Now to the big news in the family – I lost my job. My boss has kept me on a short leash for nearly two years while trying to figure out what to do with me. I was reorganized multiple times (in 2009, 2010 and 2011) further away from my primary job responsibilities into a limbo world. Priorities changed daily and paperwork was more valued then technical achievement. Meanwhile, I’ve tried finding another position both inside and outside the company without success. To make a long story short, I made several procedural (and one or two technical) mistakes which reduced my standing from a leading member of my team to a choice between resignation and firing. I chose resignation. I regret my mistakes, but I’m much happier now that my family and I no longer have to deal with the stress of an impossible situation and a “bring me a rock” style of management.
We applied for all available forms of government assistance. Thanks to Obamacare, our health insurance now costs $2,000 per month with some $2,000 – 3,000 annual expenses in copays and prescriptions. Yep, all those predictions of disaster came true. Anyway, we have elected to pay one month of insurance because TI cut us off on the day I quit (instead of extending our insurance to the end of the month like other companies have done in
the past). Meanwhile, Medicaid denied coverage for us in September (because we had income that month) leaving a gaping hole in our coverage for refills for Julie’s feeding supplies, a doctor’s appointment, etc. When the government experts fix a problem, they sure know how to make it worse!
So far we haven’t heard back from unemployment yet. We rejected welfare payments since both Sarah and I would have to attend classes and look for work. With her physical limitations and the limits on payments here in Texas, we didn’t feel it was a prudent move (although we may review it sometime). We received approval for the food stamp program, but haven’t received the card in the mail yet. I haven’t put in for unemployment for decades and never applied for any welfare program before. I find the process interesting in many ways. Our benefit of $668/month is much more than we ever spent on food while working. I can’t imagine how anyone has problems with hunger in this country. Sarah and I were shocked at the savagery of the EBT card problems over this past weekend. We can’t imagine anyone acting like that.
I made a simple mistake on the second week in September. While setting up a new system, I mistyped a IP address and when the computer rebooted, it interfered with a production server. Instead of allowing me to change the IP address before shutting down my errant system, I was told to crash it immediately (making the change would only cost a couple of minutes).
I now faced five sets of reports and at least that many one hour meetings to explain why I mistyped the address. It didn’t matter that I had done this process hundreds of times in my career without incident. It didn’t matter that we caught the problem before the customer noticed it. It didn’t matter…
Then, to make matters worse, I rebooted the system the next day in order to correct the problem, but for some reason, the network started and caused the problem again. So, now I had doubled my problems.
To make a long story short, my apologies were unacceptable, my boss gave me a list of unacceptable behaviors and told me to sign an ultimatum with a list of steps I would take to fix the behaviors. After a couple days of prayer, I chose resignation. I would have gladly chosen to fix the problems, but I didn’t understand how. For example, I was accused of not following directions, but I maintain that I did everything within normal operating procedures and instructions (I made two mistakes, I didn’t disregard the rules).
After all the heck I had put up with for the previous two years, Sarah urged me to quit. She had prayed for several weeks that I would lose my job because of the pressure and unfair treatment I received.
I went in Wednesday and (apparently surprised the bosses) by resigning. Ironically, the servers I was originally hired to support had a problem at the same time as I resigned. Although I offered to look into the issue and offer my suggestions, I was told to stop. The fellow I had trained the spring and summer would look have to resolve the problem.
As I mentioned in the update, I truly regret my mistakes and missteps. I realize I made two mistakes back-to-back. However, I readily admitted my faults, helped to resolve the problems (both times), and prepared to face the humiliation of TI’s resolution process.
I could not understand why my bosses didn’t work with me to move me into an area more attuned to my skills and experiences. I didn’t understand why my boss perceived mistakes as insubordination and misunderstanding as defiance.
Applying for benefits took quite a while. By the middle of October (when some of this update was written), we had qualified for food stamps, but not for unemployment. The initial amount worked well for us at first, but slowly degraded as food prices rose dramatically in 2014 and our benefit was cut twice. Still, we budgeted our expenses and found we had enough to try some new things we never thought to try before. (I felt very sorry when I heard of another family trying to feed 2 teenage boys on the same amount we received for our two small children – yes, they would have a problem. Especially after the rise in food prices in 2014.)
Health care turned out completely different. We found out afterwards that TI cut us off on the day I resigned (although I had paid for the entire month). That was very dirty! We got bills as long as a year later for appointments we scheduled before we understood what had happened.
My jibe at Obamacare gave my audience a real world example of actual costs of insurance. Medicaid didn’t cover all of Julie’s expenses either. We spent hundreds of dollars buying supplies when Medicaid refused or delayed approval. Normal folks need to know how their tax dollars are implemented so they understand why so much money still can’t bring about utopia.
Anyway, after coming home from my last time to work, Sarah smiled at me, handed me Adam, and took a nap. Was it too late to change my mind?