Friday I had something good happen to me. I got fired. Let me explain. The company I was with had been looking for a reason for months to get rid of me (I think it’s against company policy to side with the customer against the management). And one of them managed to find their way here, to this website (which means whoever it was just met their “management” quotient for the year). Although most of the management sits around the office all day reading and sending emails, I wasn’t sure they knew how to use a web browser. I mean in order to find this website, they must have hired a PI (or maybe an MP) to figure it out, because, as you know, dustin@thewrightlife.com is a little cryptic. I’m not sure how they got www.thewrightlife.com from dustin@thewrightlife.com, but they did. It had to have been someone skilled in the ways of the computer. I know, it must have been the MCSE guy.
Since then, I have come to find out that I was fired because of a post I wrote on this website a month ago. The thrust of the post was that I was in a bad mood, but had reason to have hope because of what God has done. But, somehow four sentences did me in (read the post in context):
So, now I’m tired. Tired from another week at a job that I can’t stand. Tired of arguing and fighting with people for a paycheck. And tired of feeling unappreciated for making other people rich as I barely make it.
I still stand by those words, and have no reason to take them back, and in fact I will give a little more insight into what was so wrong with that company:
Firstly, the owner of the company doesn’t have a clue about what he is doing. He has no management or communication skills, so daddy has to do all of the talking for him. I think that the only way that they will sell any new deals now (after their sales guy left because they didn’t take care of him) is that if the owner gangstas it out of the customer.
It’s also hard to tell who really owns the company because in every meeting (I think totaling 3 or 4 in my year plus there, which is one of the major problems the company has: no leadership or communication) the owner just sits there and is like “yeah, what pops said.”
And pops has got to have some imbalance in his head as he can be your best friend or worst enemy and change between the two in 30 seconds flat. I think the poor guy is experiencing hot flashes personally, that would explain it.
The office manager has got to be the angriest person I have ever known. She has no problem with the technicians working their butts off, but man o man, try to get her to pay a few hours of overtime, you’d think you just insulted everything that she held dear, which might not be so far from the truth. I doubt she will ever end up reading this because that would mean that she would have to put her personal cell phone down and stop girl talking with her friends for five minutes to read it, and if she puts her phone down, the office phone could ring, and then she would have to answer it, and it would just ruin her day.
The new operations manager comes to work wasted every day (and if not wasted, there is some other huge medical reason for it), and doesn’t manage any of the operations. He told me “dude, we just want your files, it’s not like there’s something shady going on here, it’s not like we’re gonna take the files and then fire you. Whoa.” Which makes me think, either the management thinks he isn’t responsible enough to know the truth of their intentions, or he’s just a liar like the rest of them, because that it just what happened.
The service manager is not a bad guy, but he doesn’t know much about the industry. How can you service something if you don’t know the names of wires or how to hook up a satellite box. So, for him I provide a link: The Basics of Home Theater.
The interesting thing to note is that all of them, except the operations manager, are related. And, management that is clueless is one thing, but hiring all of your clueless family members who don’t know anything about the industry just shows a desire to make everybody you know rich on the backs of those you can manipulate.
I wasn’t fired because of the blog, I was fired because I didn’t meet either of the two requirements that the owner has. I’m not related to him, and I’m not a yes man.
There was really some talent at that company at one point, and there still is, but all of the talent in the world when led by such clueless management will be held back from ever becoming great. Good people (read: not “yes men”) will not stay at that company, because they will find out that the company doesn’t care for them, and for good technicians, like myself, the world is full of better opportunities.
And also, for you technicians, as often as the owner says that he has an open door policy yet is never around or doesn’t care much for talking to the help, at least you know if you post something on your personal site, he will read it. And even if you don’t write the name of the company or the names of its managers, you will get fired.
So, there you have it. I am free from that now. Here are a few images that make me laugh when thinking about the company I no longer have to deal with…
