Hi friends! This scene is from when I first realized that my job just down the road from the townhouse I'd paid way too much for was probably not a long-term situation. Ahhh, memories. I mean, excuse me if there are a few blips on my resume. Companies contract, markets plummet, and $hit happens, right?
-Jane
“I’m not yelling because of
anything you did,” Barbara Morris hissed at my boss, Larry. “I’m yelling
because nobody’s hiring us anymore! How are we going to continue working if
there isn’t any work? Why the hell should we go to conferences that we can’t even
afford to attend if nobody’s going to hire us?”
Apparently Larry had asked to go to
a conference to drum up some business.
“Half of our clients aren’t going
to the next conference,” she added. “They won’t be there for you to even
approach.”
“Well, I’m sorry I brought this
up,” Larry shot back at her. “I was trying to help!”
I had the dubious honor of working
in the office next to Larry’s. The good part of that was that I could approach
him and his staff easily since they worked nearby. The bad part of that was
that I could hear Barbara’s frequent meltdowns in stereo, since she felt most
comfortable yelling at Larry.
Maybe the bad performance review
wasn’t entirely personal, I thought. Maybe Barbara and her rich uncle can’t
afford every member of the staff anymore. They might be too embarrassed to fire
me, but they wouldn’t mind chasing me off.
Happy holidays, indeed.
I stopped enjoying the holidays in
my twenties, so it wasn’t a surprise when the 2007 holidays passed in a blur.
Yes, there were some good times with family and friends back home, but I knew I
had a cold, sad, mostly-empty townhouse in Winterville waiting for me when it
was all over.
Welcoming the New Year in 2008 was
more of a challenge than I’d imagined. I made a list of what was happening in
my life:
-Townhouse down payment was gone,
and the purchase price of identical homes was trending downward. I was locked
into owning it for the first year of the mortgage, until mid-2008.
-My love life was just a memory.
Most guys in Winterville were married and/or repulsive. But to be fair, guys
elsewhere hadn’t rated too well, either.
-Place of employment was in
financial trouble. Official “job performance rating” was low, although the
actual reason for that could be debated.
-Group of “local professionals”
seemed not very professional and not very nice, either. Networking seemed a
fool’s errand when people everywhere were losing their jobs and no one was
hiring.
-My other investment balances were
about 60% lower than they’d been the year before. The savings account was still
there, but for how long?
-Thank
goodness for Diva.
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