loracs | Good News/Bad News (Reply)

Today was THE DAY of layoffs and their aftermath. As of a few days ago, I was told my position in IT was okay - at least for this round of layoffs - there will be another round in June/July for the next fiscal year. A little after 12 pm I received a call from my boss to please come upstairs to her office. I knew in the pit of my stomach this was not going to be good news. A few days ago we heard they were asking for 3 or 4 more position cuts city-wide and they wanted them in administrative classification. Last night my boss got the news that they were cutting my position. That's the bad news. The good news is I have been in this classification long enough to have bumping rights and in two weeks I start work at a different department It will be with the Community and Economic Development Agency. I'm not even sure what the do, but I know it's a much more political department.

What I really, really, really, hate is leaving my boss and co-workers. The Best Boss Ever (TBBE)has been so great to me. My first year with her included so many family emergencies, including my own hospitalization for gallbladder removal, that I was sure she was second guessing her decision to hire me. But she never blinked at any of it and was really supportive each time something came up. Recently, with very short notice, I got a week off for puppy maternity leave when we got Pippin. When she assigns a new task, she is very clear, but there is always room for my input. She compliments me often - not in a gushing way, but will let me know she appreciates my work.

And she appreciates my sense of humor, even when I have to explain the joke to her. She is from Switzerland, her English is excellent, but some idioms give her trouble. Last Dec. we were in a supply closet getting the boxes of xmas decorations. She got a call on her cell. I hear her say "Carol and I are in the closet". I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but TBBE kept repeating "Carol and I are in the closet" - each time getting a little bit more perplexed at the caller's response. Finally, in exasperation, she said "We are not coming out of the closet until we are done" and hung up. I was smiling through the entire exchange. TBBE said IO (the caller, a friend/coworker) was so silly because she told TBBE to come out of the closet NOW. I explained the joke and the look on her face was so funny and then she started to crack up. Just then IO came around the corner and started to tease her. IO is from Nigeria and we all had a great laugh on the dangers of slang in communicating across cultures/languages.

I like almost all my co-workers and I don't really dislike anyone. My cubicle neighbor (CN)started last Feb. and we hit it off from day one. We are only a few months apart and sometimes we seem to share the same brain. We both come up with the same obscure references. She's a technical writer and I'm a writer wannbe; we have some fun word geeking conversations. I will miss her very much.

This has gotten way too long and I haven't even started in on my fears of walking into a new job. That will just have to wait. I'm exhausted now.