Dear Thea,

Well Thea, to no fault of your own, but rather due to the mismanagement of your department/office/company you will soon be leaving your job of *checks watch* 3 months.

You are feeling a bit persecuted and that is to be understood. With your management skills and know-how and common sense, it is understandably difficult to wrap your head around the poor way that this matter was both handled and presented to you. Your superiors have washed their hands of this matter, telling you that because it is in the contract for this account, the client can request that anyone at the account be replaced at any time. You know that they tried to help, when they put together that 30 day improvement list, but in the end it made no difference when dealing with the client. It's politics, you've annoyed the wrong person, and that was all that it took.

The fact that you were given no details of the incident(s) that led to this decision, nor any chance or opportunity to fix the problem or improve on anything requested is bound to indice some anger. But, as long as you handle the matter smart and professional until it is completely behind you (meaning, can't squeeze another paycheck outta them and not reporting in any more) things should not fall apart. Just think of it as another chapter in your book on how to not run a company that you will totally finish.

Sure, they told you that they would hold off a couple of days before going to HR about the decision, but is that really doing you a favor? They said that you are welcome to apply within teh company over the next couple of days as long as it is in a different location, but they already know that there isn't much open in your area, area of expertise and area of living, open that will really work for you. And you can't guarantee that bad info won't get to the other location before you do.

Granted, they must have some faith in your professionalism. If they didn't, they would have dismissed you right away instead of telling you that it would be a couple of days before filing with HR, and then 2 to 4 weeks after that. It does take balls to keep an employee working after the employee has been told their job is going away and that there is nothing to be done about it. If nothing else, on a purely monetary level, thats one or two more paychecks to count on, and some time to look around.

Push a little harder though Thea. You do need details on what went wrong, even if it is not going to fix the matter. You need some idea as to how you have been doing over the past few months. They've still not provided the promised metrics or idea of the volume of work that you've done well. They said that your numbers are lower in comparison to the others, but you haven't seen anything like that since you started except the one comparison of one measurement that you saw on a workmate's desk. Push for it. Gently but firmly. Don't burn bridges but don't get walked on.

And don't let them sweep their own mistakes under the rug by letting you go without fulfilling their own side of what they said they'd provide. Numbers, facts, documentation. You'll need this going forward.

Yes, "at will" employment is a sucky concept when things go wrong like this. Things that don't fall under any laws such as discrimination, whistleblowers, etc. The situation just sucks.

Not to simply think "sour grapes" (as in the old Aesop fable) about it, but the position really was a step backwards career-wise. Your skills were not being used effectively. And it didn't take long for you to see that this wasn't going to change in the forseeable future. You need to build and grow, and being stuck here really wouldn't let you do either.

So don't panic hun. Don't panic and don't freak out. You'll find something better.

You'll find something better that will still let you get to workouts and walking and staying active like you have been since February. You'll find something more workable with your current transportation situation. You'll find something that will give you time to work on theater projects if you want, and something that will let you get your own theater company off the ground, which is going to be a huge undertaking (but there's 4 of you working on it, and you'll keep it together, so you'll do fine).

I'm glad we've had this pep talk. :)

Thea