Jobless

Well, after 3 illustrious years as an office manager, I've been given the boot.  Here's a little background:

I work at a branch office for a big Home Health Care Company in Florida.  Everything was just rosy, sure there was occasional strife, but nothing that really got my goat.  Some of you that have been reading my blog all along will know that we hired a Director of Clinical Services about 6 months ago.  This person while possessing great clinical skills, has absolutely zip in the way of people/communication skills.  She alters processes put in place by our corporate office that would effect how the office assistants did their jobs without telling me, and just generally did not mesh with the established culture in our office. 

3 weeks ago we were told that our company had a new CEO.  As such, my administrator decided to turn our office from a casual work environment where everyone got their jobs done while having fun at it, to a tyrannical, despotic rule.  We lost two office assistants within two months.  When I asked if we were going to replace them she said

"No, you can cross train the remainder of your staff to pick up the slack when they have down time."

Fucking down time?  We are in the middle of season (Florida just crawls with the elderly this time of year, and is our busiest time).  I explained to her that I didn't think now was the appropriate time to cross-train staff as we were so busy, but didn't mind coming in on Saturdays for a few hours to get some work caught up.  She said that wasn't necessary and to start cross training immediately.  Now I understand the importance of cross-training, I really do.  However in my opinion it would be easier to accomplish this when we weren't  in season, and could Stime and really train them well.  I let her know that since we were down two office assistants already, that she would be overloading the remainder of the staff, and that they would get burned out and ultimately leave.  I mean c'mon, these people can't find another data entry job making 10.50/hr? 

Then she drops the bomb on me:

"we are moving to an automated system.  The nurses will be carrying PDA like devices, that will allow them to enter in all the data that the office assistants are currently doing, but their jobs aren't in jeopardy".  Riiggghhtt.  So I asked her what would they be doing then, and she told me that there were other things that needed to be done, but she didn't elaborate any further than that.  So she walked around the office letting everyone know about how the new system was going to do all the tasks they were currently doing but DO NOT WORRY YOUR JOBS ARE NOT IN JEOPARDY.  When someone repeatedly tells me that my job is not in jeopardy, guess what?  Your job is in jeopardy.

So she decides to crack down and it's no more chatting, for anyone.  In fact, she broke up a group of ladies and moved one out back into another area of the office.  This lady was very upset, and was moved to a portion of the office where it is very loud, and is expected to take referral information over the phone.  This is the same area where the nurses come in to get report, stock up on supplies, and tends to be very noisy.  After the move, she over heard  my boss and the Director of Clinical services laughing about how upset the lady was when she found out she had to move her desk. 

Personally, I can take an awful lot of crap, and had been for sometime.  I've witnessed some pretty underhanded tactics that I'm sure if Medicare ever found out, would cause our company to pay a huge fine, and would probably result in terminations.  However, when I found out that these women were laughing because of another employee being upset., I couldn't hold it in any longer.  I confronted the Director of Clinical Services and explained how unhappy I was to hear that this was occurring.  She could not even meet my eyes and was mumbling about she must have misheard them.  LIAR.  When someone can't even look you in the eyes, you know they're lying.   So I call my wife, and tell her I've had about all I can take, and I'm dropping my notice.  She supports me and says go and do what you need to do.  I type my letter up and state that I will work out a three week notice (which is customary for management where I work). 

So my boss catches wind of this and calls me from another location that she manages too.  I tell her I can't take anymore, and the only thing that made this company great was the fact that everyone was like family and treated each other with respect.  Now that this is not occurring anymore, this job isn't any different than any other, and it was time for me to explore other options.  I also let her know about all the underhanded and slightly illegal activities that I witnessed in the office, which she was more than a part of, as well as the fact that the office assistants were fed up and most of them were also looking for other jobs.    She said ok that's fine but needed me to work my notice.  No problem.  Well, my boss comes into the office unannounced and tells me that I do not need to work my notice out and lets me go right then and there. 

I get home, and  SuPimp calls me (who works with me and is my best friend) and says "you know, if you give your notice and they don't let you work it out, I believe they need to pay you out through your notice.  So I emailed my ex boss, the director of human resources, and cc the new CEO asking if this was going to happen.  Sure enough I get an email from my old boss saying that she forgot to mention that to me and I will be paid. What a bitch.

Good news: our pay checks are 2 weeks in arrears meaning I really have about, 5 weeks of pay coming to me. 

Bad News: I have to find a job ASAP as we are going to be moving out of our aparmtent and renting a house at the end of this month.

If any of y'all know of any companies in the Bradenton/Sarasota area and they are looking for Office Managers, let me know and I'll send a resume' out.

Well it's off to canvas the area with resumes'

Keep your fingers crossed!