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Sacked - January 04, 2007
I'm Not Together Yet, But I'm Getting There - January 01, 2007
One and One Half Steps Behind - December 29, 2006
Happy Xmas (War is Over) - December 25, 2006
Is This Really Babar's House? - December 22, 2006

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January 04, 2007

Sacked

I was officially laid off from my job yesterday afternoon.

There was no fanfare. No fireworks. No plaque for a job well-done. Just our district manager speaking to me in a calm and pseudo-sympathetic voice from the back room. "It was nothing you or anyone else did... It was a decision the home office made after considering the option to renew the lease, that's all. The numbers just weren't there."

I smiled, shook her hand, and thanked her generously. I've spent nearly three years working there, and although I'm starting a new job come Monday morning, it still sucked. There are hundreds of memories and stories tied up in the Upscale Retail Store, and it'll be hard for me to ever walk by the space in the mall and remember that our little store no longer exists. I've been through more managers than I care to count, seen plenty of freaks, geeks and crazies, and I've experienced more wild, outlandish stories than I could have ever imagined. Who could forget the bomb threat scare of 2004? The Overly Affectionate Kissing Woman? Or last fall's big number, The Outraged, Recently Fired AT&T Employee who Destroyed Everything in His Path? That was a classic.

I was the last of the three people to be told yesterday, and looking back on it, I should have known something was wrong from the moment I walked in. The Skinny One barely looked at me when I walked through the door, and when I offered her a "hello," she only kind of nodded. Yoga Goddess, who is normally loud, boisterous and affectionate, did more of the same. As soon as I made my way to the backroom and saw our DM sitting in the office chair, red flags were going up everywhere. Although our DM has a reputation for being flighty with her scheduled visits, it's not like her to be early (she was scheduled for an audit visit this afternoon), and very strange for her to look so calm and peaceful while The Skinny One and Yoga Goddess were so zonked.

After the news was broken, I was really more or less stunned and in shock. I still am, actually. I don't know whether to be upset, happy, or just angry about the whole mess. The Corporate Jock Straps that head the Upscale Retail Store have been known to do some pretty shady ish, but to actually close our store? Why us? Why now? Why after Christmas, when everyone's wallets are starting to itch from unwanted Christmas presents and deep-discount post-Christmas sales? Those Jock Straps have a pretty eff'd up sense of timing.

The part of me that's content also feels guilty and rotten. I know that if this news had come in early December, I might be paralyzed with the thought of still having to hit the pavement for a real job, and not being able to pay my bills. But luckily for me, it came after I'd accepted the job offer, so I'm in a much different position than everyone else. I had planned to stay on at the Upscale Retail Store by working Sunday evenings exclusively, just so I could keep in touch with everyone and yet still use my employee discount (Hey, after you've been buying stuff wholesale--50% off retail!--it's really hard to justify paying any more for it), so I'd already begun detaching myself from the store and the people who worked there. I think they'd started to do the same for me, too. But when our DM spoke to me, I almost felt as though the line that had tied me to the store had been cut, and that I was free to move for the first time in ages. The store has been really synonymous with my college career; I started in my sophomore year. So much of what I've done there is related to my time in school and how I supported myself for three years. I've held a few other jobs in that time, but I've always made the Upscale Retail job a priority above others, because it was flexible and very comfortable. Heck, even Bitchypoo became loveable over the years. But now that there's no more store, there's no more of my college comfort to be found. I've been officially admitted into the world of Grown-Ups.

I came into work this evening expecting The Skinny One to jump over the cashwrap and tell me it had been one gigantic prank, a hoax pulled on me right before I was going to start work at my new job. But it wasn't, and she didn't, instead asking me if I had come to terms with the loss. I know she knew the answer to that question already, but as The Skinny One and I have never really been on close terms, I cut her some slack, deciding against mentally giving her crap for her choice of weedy small-talk. I'm going to have to remember to be more empathetic around The Skinny One: Not only has she lost her job as a manager, but she and her (much older) boyfriend will be stuck paying a mortgage on a new home while she tries to make ends meet with her severance pay. The whole scenario turns the phrase "job security" into one nasty joke.

After closing the store this evening, I took a quick tour with my camera and snapped some pictures for posterity. I want to remember the way the place looks before it gets demolished and turned into a Hot Topic look-alike next month. Stay tuned for pictures.

posted at 11:04 p.m.

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