This past Friday my boss had me come in for a meeting at 8 am and when I got there he told me that they were going to let me go. I knew this was coming for a number of reasons, but I did not think it would be so soon. It’s actually a funny story and I will share it with you.
In early March I got an email from some guy saying that he was very upset with this person who works there, MJ. It seems MJ called him to ask if he was still interested in coming in for an interview. In his email he talked about how unprofessional she was and how bad she treated him. He just wanted to get more information and really wanted to know why it took them so long to get back to him (he had sent the resume in January and it was now March). He asked if he could have the name of who would be meeting with him and of the IT director etc. She would not give him much info, and I suspect it was because he was being very rude. Anyway, after the call he did a whois search on the domain name of the firm. This search gave him a technical contact for the domain, namely me. So he sent me the email. I deduced from his email that he was called in to interview for my job since mine was the only IT job in the firm. I confronted the managing partner about this, and he told me that no decisions were being made, that they wanted to see what else was out there, and that my job was not in jeopardy. However, due to the economic issues, they were considering cutting a few positions. He told me I would have ample notice should anything change. From the way he said all of this, it was clear to me that they wanted to replace me with someone who would cost them a lot less money. Next to the attorneys I was probably one of the highest paid people there.
So at that point, I began looking for another job, and got a couple of good prospects, but nothing firm. I assumed that nothing would change until the summer. Then last Monday I was told to compile a list of inventory of laptops, printers, usernames and passwords, etc. Well, this got me thinking that the end was nearer than I had thought. I was continuing my search, but hopeful that I had more time. On Thursday I was told to come in at 8 am for that meeting on Friday. All in all, they gave me a nice severance package (2 months pay and 3 months of the health plan), but I still wish I were still employed. I had a good interview last Thursday (the day before I got the bomb) and I was hopeful that I might not have a long unemployment period.
On Tuesday I got a call from the HR director at this company and he asked if I could come in to meet again. I quickly got on my suite and went right to the train. I got there and they told me that the engineer job I had interviewed for was filled, but they had another position on the same level that they wanted to offer to me. The only problem was that for much of the time I would be on a client site in Brooklyn. I don’t have a problem with Brooklyn per se, but taking public transportation to this location would be horrible and take over two hours. I would have to drive (which without traffic would be about 30 minutes) which would be more expensive than mass transit. The HR director (also the finance director) asked me to give him a salary figure that would make this a comfortable position. I went home, did the math and came up with a figure that was much higher than they wanted to pay. He got back to me later that day with an offer that was $7000 less than I was making in my last job, and with much higher health care costs and a more expensive commute, it would cost me almost $15000 a year extra to take this job. He told me that he would be able to reimburse some of my travel expenses to and from Brooklyn and it would be in the offer letter.
The offer letter came a few minutes ago, and it did not include anything about the travel expenses, so I wrote back to him about that. I am now waiting for more info. I am guessing that although it would be a job, I will not be able to accept it. If I did take the job, I would have to continue looking for work while I was there which would be very hard in a new job. It is also not totally ethical to take a job knowing that you will be looking for something else and it is just not fair to everyone. I need to get at least what I was making if I want to be able to make ends meet (not that we were, but you know what I mean).
So there you have it. I am unemployed and looking for a new job. If anyone has any leads or ideas, please let me know. If you think I should take this job, let me know, and give me some good reasons to take it. I am still waiting to hear back from them anyway.