Just Lynn

One woman. One name. One hell of an attitude!

downsized

Written By: witchypo - Jun• 27•11

Well, today started out like any other…

I got to work on time. The boss dropped by to say he’d ‘run the numbers’ and get back to us, and I joked about ‘not holding my breath’. A friend, sure something was ‘wrong’, scolded me for it but the 6 month ‘pilot project’ we were on was well into it’s 3rd year and I’d long since tired of my teammates’ Chicken Little outlook.

‘This is it! They’re pulling the campaign!’ she hissed, (which in call centre lingo means ‘we’re getting fired!’) just as the boss stuck his head out and started calling people into his office one at a time.

‘You’re always saying that,’ I teased, and asked why today would be different from all the others, but I wasn’t laughing long because, with little preamble, the boss openned by using the ‘C’ word.

You see, one of the first rules of call centre life I’d learned was that ‘change is the only constant’, the second was that it seldom favoured the employee, and the third was that the company’d stop at nothing to coerce people into doing what was good for the company. So, as soon as the Big Guy mentioned ‘change’ I started weighing my need to pay my mortgage against my distaste for ‘screwing’ people.

‘We’re losing 40% of our business,’ he announced., and then told methe team would be cut in half and that the remaining reps would have their hours cut and all work and holliday schedules scrapped. He finnished by glancing at a chart on his desk and telling me I’d likely end up working evenings and weekends.

Still convinced it was all a ‘ploy’, I asked about ‘options’, expecting to to be offered a slot on one of the hard-core collections teams that ‘just happenned’ to be open, but he shocked me again by saying I could hold out hold out in hopes the contract’d get picked up again at summer’s end or take my severence and leave.

‘Sev…er…ence…?!?’ I stuttered, because like ‘union’, ‘raise’, and ‘thank you’, I’d herd the word so seldom it felt alien to my tongue. When he gave me a number, though, I almost fainted. ‘How long do I have to decide?’ I asked, and while he didn’t say anything, his expression made clear that it was a ‘take it NOW or lose it’ situation.

Grabbing my cell phone, I told him I’d be back, and left to make some calls. Hours later, having failed to reach anyone for advice and dizzy from trying to ‘reason’ things out on my own, I asked myself how I ‘felt’ about leaving and was shocked yet again to learn I was excited.

‘Excited?!?’ I thought, sure my gut was ‘off’ because of stress, but when I cleared my head and asked again, my gut was ‘thrilled’…! ‘WTF’ I thought. ‘Really?!’ But then I realized that ,as traumatic as they’d been, some of the biggest risks and changes I’d been through in the past few years had lead to some of the biggest bennefits.

Later, while breaking the news to my BF, I admitted I’d probably end up melting down when the reality of the situation set in, but I’d deal with it when the time came. For now, I’m just hoping that I can put my money where my mouth is and find or make a job I can actually feel good about instead of wasting the oportunity I’m being given.

 

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