Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Now faith is REALLY a verb

I was terminated from my job today. I should have seen it coming, but I must admit that it caught me off guard - especially the part where I found myself being watched while I gathered my things, as if I was a common thief. My employer and I have had irreconcilable differences in our philosophy on how to run a business and how to treat customers and employees, so this point in time was inevitable. But I thought I'd at least get a week's notice. Don't ask me why I thought that given everything else I know about my former boss. Call me stupid, but I just have this terrible habit of assuming that people will do the right thing.

Ironically, she tried to blame it on me, but when I asked for examples of performance issues, deadlines that were missed, or a single example of an instance in which I didn't do at least 110% of what was asked of me, she couldn't provide a single one. Instead, she told me that she was "restructuring" her business, that she needed to take a more proactive role, and that essentially she was going to be doing my job AND getting her business back on track. She said that she'd been planning to let me go on Friday, but after I pushed back on her refusal to allow me to use comp time to leave a bit early on Valentine's Day (insisting that I had to use vacation time), she decided to do it today. Sadly, if I hadn't pushed back on the performance non-issue, I honestly think she would have let me leave thinking that I could have done something to avoid this.

Again, call me stupid, but I didn't think that requesting 90 minutes of comp time was such a horrible crime, especially since I'd started work 45 minutes early on the day I made the request and I volunteered to work through lunch on Valentine's Day to make up the difference. Ironically, the thing I'm most angry about at this moment is the fact that she was going to make me use vacation time tomorrow, knowing that she was planning to fire me the very next day! The word "character" comes to mind.

God has been so good to me these past few months, despite all my troubles at work. In every other area of my life He has blessed me beyond measure and I am so grateful. That's why I'm convinced that this too is part of a bigger plan that He has for me. As awful as this afternoon has been, I'm confident that He's already opening doors to something much bigger and better, even though I can't see it at the moment. I just need to remain faithful, and thankful, and prayerful. I don't know what the next job will look like, where it'll come from, or how long I'll be unemployed, but I know it'll be better than the place I left.

I know I need to start planning my job search, sending out resumes, letting friends and others know that I'm looking for work, and I'll do all that. Just not tomorrow... or the next day. I have a wonderful Valentine's Day celebration planned for tomorrow night, so tomorrow I think I'll sleep in and then give myself the "home spa" treatment so I'll be relaxed and ready to have a great time. Then, after a wonderful evening tomorrow night, I'll sleep in on Friday and find something fun to do. And then of course, there's the weekend. I'll treat my job search like a job and start the process on Monday, after I've had a chance to rest and recover.

Faith is indeed a verb.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of something I read recently in Joel Osteen's new book Become A Better You:

"When disappointment or rejection knocks you down, get back up and go again. We give up too easily on our dreams. We need to understand that just as God supernaturally opens doors, sometimes God supernaturally closes doors. And when God closes a door, it's always because He has something better in store."

You are so on top of this!!!