Last Day

I got the call about 10 am. "The boss wants to see you in his office". I never get calls like that. Something tells me this is not good. It takes about 15 minutes to get there, and when I walk in, the boss is there with a corporate HR person. They explain that some "benchmarking" has been done and many positions are being eliminated, including mine - and because of bankruptcy - there will be no separation package, only outplacement service will be provided. Then they asked if I had any questions?

Will I get paid through the end of the month? No. Your pay stops today - but you will get paid for unused vacation.

Is there a cash value to the outplacement service should I choose not to use it? No

Can I clean out my office? Yes, but your security card and email account will be deactivated this afternoon.

I had no other questions. So we went into another office to meet someone from the outplacement service - we'll call him John.

John was a nice enough person. Said he was sorry we were meeting under conditions like this. To which I replied, "if not for this situation, he wouldn't have a job". I meant it as a joke, but John didn't laugh.

John carried on with typical conversation, How are you doing? Did you see this coming? We will be here to help you. Your wife will probably be upset, she can call me at any time. To which I replied, you know she's going to ask if she can call George Clooney instead. John laughed this time, said his wife would appreciate him being compared to Clooney.

I decided to clean up my office. I'm a pack-rat and I really wanted to get things thrown away so no one else would have to. When I got back to the office, I told my secretary (we had worked together for 32 years) and then sent a few emails out to let folks know how to contact me in the future. Filled two trash cans up (I told you I was a pack-rat), boxed up what I wanted to take, made a few calls and left to return that night to pick up my boxes.

I returned about 7:30 pm - and everyone wanted to talk. Made it extremely difficult to load up the car and leave.

I found 4 newspapers that I had kept from an explosion 10 years ago. Don't know why I kept them, but I did. I laid them out on the table where our morning meetings are held and wrote the following on the white board:
Read the Newspapers
Lock-out and Burning Permit Violations Contribute to This
Don't Take Short-cuts.  Good Luck!  JBV


My task was completed in about 30 minutes, and I took a slow drive home from the place I had spent more time than with my own family. I'm sure it felt like a divorce, and there was no turning back for me. I stopped and bought a lottery ticket hoping my luck would change.