I was just let go yesterday. The reason was simple, but as I review the short time that I was with the company, there were tremendous factors that were involved with that eventual demise of my employment for this company. I certainly am to fault, but just as much, if not more, is the company and management.
I was interviewed last October, extensively, for a position with Z3NC0N [EMAIL PROTECTED] (the alphanumeric was added to keep this out of the search engines), later to become P30PL3 M3D1@, running 37 dating websites. I was described a position for a company that was moving to Los Angeles in Mid November, but would continue having an office in Arizona for a few months. The office is an open and friendly environement that viewed productivity above all else. I was told that I would fly to Arizona 1 or 2 times during November and December for training, but would be posted out of the Los Angeles office the rest of the time. After discussing this with my wife, we agreed that 1 or 2 times would be an okay sacrifice, for the upside potentials that the position would give me. (We have a 'troubled' son, so we discussed the travel at length) I took the position and asked many, many questions regarding the street address of the LA office, along with other questions, but was given no response to the location of the LA office. The friday before I would start the position in mid-november, I caught the bad flu that was going around. Even though I was very sick, I decided to go ahead and take the flight and start the new job, instead of postponing until I felt better. When I arrived at the job that following Monday, I was not received with open arms. My direct manager did not, at any time during my time there ever, look or sound happy to see me. I was immediately given project to work with and it was, if not said, intoned that I was now to prove myself. (By the way, the flight made my flu much much worse). My office was 1 of 4 fullsized 'teacher' desks in a 10x10 room. My boss sat behind me and to the left, my co-worker (his younger brother), sat directly behind me. I wasn't allowed to plug in my earbuds to help me to focus on the work at hand. I was expected to be 'up to speed' on their systems almost immediately. I was expected to know what was in my bosses head. He would give me a task to accomplish, not respond to my questions, or if he did he acted 'put out' that he had to deal with me. I was also informed that the 'deal' for the LA office had fallen through, and even though I could work from home on fridays (my flights had been arranged for Monday thru Thursday), I would be required to fly to Arizona every week until an office was found. Due to the increased plane travel, my flu symptoms lasted until the week prior to the holidays. I had been told in the interview (undocumented) that those weeks that I flew, the Friday's would be mine, since the interviewer understood the extra hours involved with flying back and forth. My new 'boss' did not mirror that consent, he actually considered the 'flight time' to be on my time and when I came in around 11am on Mondays and left at around 4:30pm on Thursdays, I was 'ill-preforming'. My home life severely decomposed as my son started acting out at school and at home with my wife. This along with my severe lack of feeling appreciated at work started me to look at this position and company with disgust. I felt that if I could make it to the Los Angeles office, I would be out of his direct influence (he indicated he was probably not moving with the company) and I would be able to concentrate on the work at hand (not having to worry about my home, my next flight, my hotel, my rental car, etc, etc). At no time during my employment did my supervisor ever give to me any positive or constructive criticism. The last conversation I had with him about my performance (before being removed), was my asking him how he felt my progress was. He said that it was 'good'. Then five minutes later he took me into a private room and began to drill me down on all of the work I had been doing. At the end of the meeting, I asked him, 'So does this now cancel out what you had just told me on my performance a few minutes ago.' His response was that his head was full of some other issues he was working on and hadn't had a chance to really process my question. The very next morning, they terminated my employment, citing that I wasn't 'fast' enough for them. I was asked by the HR representative (my bosses #1 fan) if there was anything that she could do for me. I asked her if she meant, 'Can I give them any feedback?'. She replied that she would be interested in some. I started by saying to her that the next time she hires someone for the LA office, actually have them work in the LA office. I started to continue to talk, but my supervisor walked into the room and broke up the conversation. What I wanted to say: 1. Send my manager to 'manager training school', with various descriptions of the work environment (concentration camp) that I had been exposed to. 2. Don't misrepresent your company to new hires. If their place of work changes 2 weeks prior to their start date, tell them, it might not still be okay. And several other remarks that I can't remember right now. But here's the thing. Today, I can't figure out a single good reason for me to send this information to the company. I can't figure out how it would benefit or further my career. Today, I am actually relieved that it is all over. I do see a reason to send this off to as many ColdFusion programmers as I can reach. Please understand, I have no interest in 'sabotaging' their future ability to hire programmers, but at the same time, I am part of a community that can benefit from my knowledge and past experience. This company is doing some really great things with coldfusion. Their sites can be used as a text-book for security. Their databases can be used as examples of 'best-practices'. Their setup it very 'tight'. I had a problem with the people, and your 'mileage' may vary. My circustances were not conducive to the environement that I encountered. (this was doubly depressing as I had a good job and was being 'very' selective about any prospective changes, trying to research as much as possible before entering into my next position... If I had known, I would never have taken the position.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:3571 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11
