Friday, October 23, 2009

ranting

Not sure anyone still reads this, but I will rant here anyway.

I got fired yesterday. For real. It came out of nowhere, I walked in to what I thought was my normal weekly meeting with my boss, and there's the HR director sitting there, telling me they're making some changes to the therapist position, and one of those changes is that I'm "dismissed." They gave me a sheet describing what I've been doing wrong, mainly that they think I'm not doing enough to push the kids to work on their issues, and that my skills and experience aren't a good match for the severity of the kids we work with. I've never been written up or given any kind of formal warning about my job performance before this. I got an above average rating on my yearly evaluation in May. However that evaluation was written by my old boss who loved me. But she quit in june and was replaced by a new boss who apparently does not love me and thinks I'm a bad therapist. I had to clean out my office and leave immediately, I couldn't say goodbye to anyone. My coworker, who is black, has also been written up twice in the last two weeks and is about to be fired also. She's convinced the agency is discriminating against non-latino people, and wants me to join her in a lawsuit against them. When I was fired they offered me a $1200 severance package if I sign a contract agreeing not to sue them. The fact that they offered me that shows that I do probably have grounds to sue them, or else they wouldn't be bribing me to shut up. However, I'm not really a vengeful person and would much rather just take the money and move on, instead of putting effort into a lawsuit that probably won't go anywhere. I don't want to work in a place where I'm not appreciated anyway.
Obviously I was crushed when this all happened, but I'm trying to look on the bright side now. I hadn't been happy with my job for the last few months anyway, I didn't like my boss, the commute and the hours were killing me, and I agree the kids deserve a better therapist than me. So I'm excited to look for a new job where I fit in and can use my strengths and excell. Ideally with a much shorter commute, or a commute into the city so I'll have a reason to then move into the city. I'm also kinda excited about all this free time stretching out in front of me, I'll finally have time to go to the gym everyday, clean the house, hang out with people on weeknights, and all the other things I never had time for before. So, I'm kinda at a crossroads in terms of what to do with my life, but hopefully it'll work out for the best. Let me know if anyone knows of any social work jobs.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Really sorry to hear it, Sara. I will keep my eyes and ears open for jobs.

Thom said...

This is sad news. I think it's particularly ridiculous that they didn't even give you fair warning so that you could possibly improve your work according to their stipulations. Anyway, I think you're a great therapist and you'll find an excellent - and better - position very soon.

Michael said...

Wow Sara, that's brutal.

If it's any consolation, I'll be happy to give you my job anytime.

shinysara said...

I just talked to one of my old coworkers and she said I've already been replaced by a new therapist who they supposedly hired two weeks ago. So apparently they've been wanting to get rid of me for a while. But on the plus side all the kids are really angry I'm gone, so that makes me feel a little better that at least the kids liked me.

Also on the plus side, my new purple laptop arrived in the mail, so I'm super excited about that. I've also been dating a new boy since friday and I'm excited about that as well. So overall I'm doing ok, I've already started to job hunt, apparently I'm not capable of just sitting around and sulking.
Thank you for all the support!! It really did make me feel a lot better.

jp said...

Do it! Sue 'em! What jerks. Sorry to hear (late) about this.

If you signed that thing, did it make you ineligible for unemployment? Definitely check into that if it's not too late.

I'll be open for jobs in Indy- Ryan and I would LOVE to have you down here! Not that you'll move, really. Let's be honest- Indy's no Shy-town.

Dang. Well, way to bounce back. If there's one thing you're fantastic at, it's that!