adair

You know what sucks?

This:


That's right after a year and a half, I now get to join the thousands of unemployed.

I lot of people say that they "don't get it" when they are let go. I am fairly honest with myself, and others when it comes to my strengths and weaknesses, but this, I have to admit, completely blindsided me.

I work-er-worked for a newspaper production company and I thought everything was going pretty good. I knew that my three papers I had been assigned happened to produce fewer ads (through no fault of mine- they just weren't selling many), and it had been mentioned in passing that likely I was going to have one of the lighter papers replaced with a heavier one, or, I would work on a fourth paper.

I got a positive review, and a raise less than six months ago and had numerous achievements under my belt professionally.

So when I was called to the boardroom upstairs almost a week ago, I thought it was because they were telling me that, in anticipation of a few of our designers going on vacation this month, and the launch of a new paper, they were going to have to give me another paper to temporarily (or permanently) work on, in addition to my own. Not the case.

Instead, they let me go, and if it wasn't enough to do that, made me feel like crap about it. They told me that they didn't believe I was capable of taking on a heavier workload, and terminated my employment. No warning, no prior hints, nothing. To make matters worse my bosses told me they believed that maybe the newspaper industry wasn't right for me and I was "better off in a smaller design studio environment".

So of course, they had some stuff for me to sign, and being the smart business woman that I am- I didn't sign it until I had a lawyer look it over.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do in terms of getting my job back. all I can do, is go in and talk to them about why they dismissed me.

Of course, I made friends in the time I was there, and was contacted by a lot of them, wondering WTF happened. Including the owners of the papers I worked on. I found out the Production Assistant we hired- is now working on my papers. Someone who didn't do close to the amount of work I did- so how my bosses thought she would do a better job- is beyond me.

This is when I realized that Canada's employment laws SUCK.

Your employer doesn't have to give you a reason for dismissing you, and they don't have to talk to you about potential problems before doing so. They can even fill your position right away. All they have to do is give you "appropriate" notice, or pay. I say appropriate with a note of sarcasm.

I am lucky enough that I was taught common sense when it comes to money and I have some savings, and I'm not in debt, and, I still live at home where I pay minimal rent. But the average person my age, lives away from home, has student loans to pay back, car payments to make, and probably, a bit of debt.

How the hell does the province of Ontario, expect someone to live when if you have been employed for a year, you are given only two weeks notice?!

If you have car payments, rent, and student loans to payback, I don't know how anyone would survive.

So now the question is- what do I do?

I realized that being secure in my job is something that is really important to me, and the one thing that always bothered me about being a Graphic Designer- was not do something to help other people in anything more than a superficial way.

So I am really thinking- I may go back to school, and get my Bachelors Degree, and become a teacher. Maybe I'll freelance on the side, or take another job for a year while I work towards this.

The more I think about my former job, the more I realize all the downfalls it had, and though it sucks that I'm stuck looking for work... I think I'll be better for it.