"You're Terminated."

"This is a great termination. Everybody knows about the termination, everybody loves the termination.:

The voice on the phone was my boss.

She was actually one of many. There were probably three more people who could claim boss privilege. But she was the one who first interviewed me, coordinated all the back office stuff and signed off on me getting my check. She was also the one to call me and tell me of this decision. So, she was my boss. My job is very physical; lots of bending, stretching, reaching, lifting, and twisting. I am OK with that, I like the challenge, even though it isn’t in the safest of environments. Still, it keeps me active.

Back in March, I was incredibly on the ball. Planning out the year; a long weekend here, then a week, then another long weekend. I plotted it all out, sent my boss the dates as early as possible. She had those dates and I never heard anything back. I was an independent contractor and wouldn’t get paid for those days anyway. Life went on.

In early May, I was hit in the eye playing hockey. A manly amount of blood,

Guys, we probably should stop playing street hockey on ice now.

and within moments I could not see. But my eye looked legit like Rocky,

"Anyone seen that sexy nurse from the last post?"

so that was cool. I went to the ER, which was luckily right down the street. As soon as I showed them my face, they rushed me back. I was in my second room before they even got all my info. Things got scary for a while. I could only see white in my eye. I was bumped up to a trauma to skip ahead the CAT scan line.

From there, a lot of scary words and scenarios. I had truly underestimated the severity of my injury.

Slowly, as the hours went on, blurry objects started peering through the white. A specialist was called in. An eye doctor who was already starting with the, “Well, why weren’t you wearing protective goggles? I bet no one else does, huh?” Yes, doc, I get it, lecture me. But I was getting to go home, though under orders to see him the following morning. Stitches was the last thing I got.

Next day, swollen and more than a bit worried, I went back for another evaluation. It could have been far, far worse. My brow took a lot of the blow, but some of the ball did impact my eye. Thankfully, my hard contact did not shatter. I was literally millimeters away from true disaster. Still, I was not out of the woods, and there were issues to deal with. Wednesday I rested. From before, I am an independent contractor, so If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. There was a lot of pressure on my WA job, as rumors swirling our contract was up January 1. Numbers, numbers, numbers.

I went back to work Thursday and Friday. The follow up eval on Monday revealed my eye had gotten worse. Per doctor’s orders, no worky for Kevy. I immediately told my bosses of my situation, offered Drs notes if they needed to see them, and kept them advised of my progress and appointments. I didn’t keep track, but I did miss a lot of May. My boss would reply to an email offering support, but never anything about how much time I was missing. I came back, as early as I could, and in all probability, too early. But I wanted to be a team player, and not perceived as a slacker. At the beginning of June, I took a long weekend that I had scheduled.

I was feeling better, stronger and doing more. My vision was getting better, though I had never gained X-ray vision like I would have hoped.

I was clear to go back to work, and back to getting active. I was able to again wear contacts. Towards late June, I went for a run, and I felt a slight tightness in my back; like I was carrying a small, but heavy backpack above my shoulder. As the week went on, the pain grew. It radiated down to my fingers. But I kept working; bending, stretching, reaching, lifting. It hurt so bad, when I was driving, I was rolling a lacrosse ball on my back. My arm felt the least pain when I actually had it wrapped above and behind my head. If you saw me driving, it looked like I was trapped in a yoga pose gone bad.

Following Monday, appt with primary care physician. She feels it’s something in my back, refers me to  her chiro that “should be able to fix it in three weeks” and gives me a scrip for the pain. I alert my bosses as I continue to work through it. The pain pills were not working; it felt like I had rings of pain in my arm where the bone was broken and one end was on fire. Unhappy face on the pain scale.

Finally! For once I'm an 8!"

We switched the meds, and the chiro wasn’t really helping, so an appt with a specialist and an MRI were the next steps. I was trying all kinds of things for my back; massage, hot rock, tuning; just nothing seemed to really help. I kept advising my bosses of what I was doing to get better.

New pain meds helped, and I got some physical therapy that alleviated the pain as I awaited the MRI to get a better idea what was happening. I believe I only missed 2 days for all of this. (I am Iron Man!) My boss was supportive, as she was going through something similar. Off I went to my vacation that she had known of for months. I wasn’t in town for an hour when my PCP called and told me I had TWO bulging discs in my back. Not the news you want to hear when you're starting vacation. But I had the specialist lined up when I got back, as well as the eye doc for another evaluation. Now that we knew the problem, we could switch up my physical therapy as well.

After working Monday, I get the above phone call.

“What, I don’t understand?”

“You missed too many days. So far this year, you’ve missed xx days.”

“Yea, and how many of those for when I was hurt? I have doctor’s notes and everything saying I couldn’t work. You know that.”

“And you’re numbers are down.”

“OK, so I had a shitty May, that’s because I wasn’t around. But what rep had the best numbers for June?”

“I don’t know.” Really!? You’re citing numbers as excuse #2 and you DON’T EVEN KNOW??

"So let me get this straight; my employee is hurt, but still working. While he's out, his market sinks. When he comes back, his market in back to number 1. This hotshot needs to be taught a lesson."

“Me. And according to so and so, my route brings in the most money. So that numbers thing kinda doesn’t make any sense. Look, I’ve had some bad months, everyone has. But all in all, I have been competitive.”

"Congrats for being the best rep in June! So for July you win......o boy......"

“Well, they’re not happy with your displays.”

Ok, it really sounds like she’s making things up now. “OK, I admit I haven’t been great with displays, but I make that up with the numbers.”

“Well, that is part of your job, and they’re not seeing it. So and so didn’t even know you were on vacation. I’m sorry, the decision has been made.”

There’s some more to the discussion than that, but I can’t tell all, and it’s stuff that is irrelevant on either end. So, I lost this job because I got hurt, did my best to work through it and took my scheduled days off. that were never questioned. And I didn’t get paid for any of the days I missed. Clearly, WidgetAde is the victim here.

A lot of stuff runs through your head when you suddenly lose your job. Mostly, where do I hire GD ninjas to avenge this great injustice? I certainly wasn’t in love with this job. I was not passionate about the product at all. I am not friends with anyone I worked with. It was just that: “just a job.” Parts of it truly drove me nuts. Terminate me all you want, it doesn’t change the outlook of the brand. Remember when Sobe used to be all the rage? That business is cyclical. The people who are part of the problem are still there, and my belief in karma tells me they will get theirs. Hopefully at the hands of the ninjas.

So-what to do next?

Part 2 of 3. Part three coming next week.