It has been a minute since my last post and much has transpired. So let me catch you up on things. ***Read at your own risk***
In my previous post I wrote about the things I encountered on my last to jobs…(or shall we call them assignments) and the mental, emotional, and financial toll they have taken on not just myself. But also the effects within the home and my marriage. See because contrary to popular belief it is the marriage that takes the biggest hit when it comes to work and the lost of finances. Now within this last week something was brought to my attention about the last position at Potomac College. Let me share with you what my ears heard come from mouths and the actions after the fact.
On the day of April 7th or 8th it was told to me by the HR person that April 12th I was going to officially become a permanent employee of Potomac College. Now this was really exciting news because I saw a great opportunity for some major career growth on the personal level, and also a great opportunity for the financial support of my family. Now my newly hired director Jay did make sure I understood this position was not going to pay me what he felt I should be paid, but I responded by saying to him as much as I understood that, I was just grateful for the opportunity to get back to work. The money was no big issue because I felt inside that it would get better. I was even more driven knowing this…not that I wasn’t before. I had (or at least hoped) already shown that I would be a great addition to the IT department just by some of the things I had already taken initiative to do.
Now mind you, I was not seeking to be Director or Manager of IT. I just wanted to be the other technician. I saw that Jon alone could not cover everything and based upon his response to what I had brought to the table, even he felt as though he had help and could focus on some of his own task because of that. But as much as he felt that way we didn’t know there was a whole nother plan being created. Now leading up to my last day (once again) we had encountered the network being hacked into and IT rights were taken away, staff members were resigning/quitting/being demoted/or let go. Basically it became a very crazy environment all across the board. And all of this centered around the upcoming accreditation audit. One thing I was very much aware of was the fact that the newly hired Director was NOT going to be able to to know anything about where IT was because he was going to be in more meetings than he needed to be in. This was a known fact because of how I watched PEW do Arthur.
But as a technician you continue to do your job and let the manager handle that. One thing you can bank on is in one of the meetings something IT is working on will be brought up. At least this seemed to be the way it was looking based upon how much the president of the school was utilizing and calling on Jay. I mean there were time when Jay would come to me and have me do something that was a directive from the president. Some of it was not COOL at all but considering what was going on, and what was coming up, COOL or MORALLY right was NOT a common practice. Come to think about it there were very few MORALLY right situations there. I mean it was a school enviroment so I guess it was me that had higher expectations…aw well.
Anyway I had forgot to get my timecard completed on my last day. So I email it to my former director for signing a few days later. Of course I had to email him again to get his attention so he could sign it for me to fax to the company. He was like a day or late returning it. I sent it by email and fax to my company for submittal. Here is where it really gets crazy…the other day I was on the phone talking to my recruiter and she asked me if an offer letter was presented to me for the supposed permanent conversion that was supposed to take place on April 12th. I responded by saying no letter was presented at all. And she responded by saying that the company had taken me off the books on April 12th because it was discussed and agreed between both parties that it was going to take place. But sometime shortly after that things started to change.
I guess I should have seen it coming right after the biggest issue I saw happen there. It was a Friday and I had just finished my day and made it home knowing everything was fine when I left. That next day I get a phone call from one of the staff members telling me they were having issues getting email and connecting to the network. Of course both Jay & Jon were also contacted. Turns out there was a issue with the Verizon connection. Well the network was down the whole weekend and Monday when I arrived (because I got in much earlier than I normally do because of this) Verizon was there resolving this issue. But little did we know what we were going to be greated with afterwards…
The network is back up but for some odd reason none of us (IT Department) has any of our admin rights nor can we log into any of the servers. Now just based upon what I saw as it pertains to the network, shared drives, & files…we had been hacked into. But not just by some random hacker, we were hacked by a former employee. This kat deleted files & emails that were connected to themselves, IT task & funtions, business accounts, and a couple former employees. Clearly this caused major issues. Once we confirmed what we needed I got on the phone and called one of my resources. They provided me with information and links to software that would allow us to resolve the issue. It took 1 1/2 days but we resolved it.
Shortly after that Jay began to exclude me from many of the IT conversations, responsibilities, and duties and that did not sit well with me. Upon realizing that I figured it would be best to just remain quiet. This was really a task for me because I knew this was gonna have an impact on my work performance. And my biggest concern was I did not want to step on anyones toes by just doing what I wanted to do. So on my last day Jay decides he wanted to talk to me after this impromtu helpdesk meeting. We go into one of the classrooms and he comments he noticed for the last 2 days I had been quiet…was there a problem? Remember the setting…he & I in this classroom, alone, I didn’t ask to speak to him. He chose to speak to me. The ideal setting for a 1-on-1.
And just like he pointed out my being quiet for the last 2 days, I pointed out his all of a sudden excluding me from conversations, task, duties, and work. I comment “how can we be a team if I am being excluded”? I let him know that I was sick of being excluded. He response by first saying if he would have said that to his boss (GOD is my BOSS) he would have been fired. The he tells me I AM NOT PART OF THE TEAM, I AM A CONTRACTOR. But a few days ago I was a vital part of the team according to what came out of his mouth. Of course I was blown away and really pissed to hear that. So he stutters and stammers in the conversation and quickly reminds me again if he would have commented about being sick to his boss he would have gotten fired. So now I call him out…”You keep saying it, so are you gonna fire me“? One thing I don’t take kindly to is THREATS…in any form.
So after all the fire fanning I not only apologize but also explain to him exactly how it made me feel. He tells me all is fine. The 5 minutes before the end of the day he tells me they are letting me go. He says it has nothing to do with the earlier conversation, it was an issue of money. And then reminds me of how he was gonna take a cut in pay to help create a slalry for me to be hired. I mean he really tried to come off as if I was gonna owe him something. When I go back and think about that…it burns me up because he had no real intention of doing anything except covering his own ass.
Taking food out of my children’s mouth, clothes off their backs, and jepordizing losing the roof over their heads…THANKS A LOT PASTOR!!!! Needless to say those actions taken by this place was not MORALLY right by any stretch of the imagination. What a helping hand that was. And I take my hits for where I may have misunderstood but, I stress when there is no communication we as people will respond to what we see. You that saying “For every action there is a reaction“. I wonder is that why Jon went to the gym.
