Same book, another page.
So I got fired.
Well, terminated. The auld mother company untied the apron strings and pushed me out of the nest. I got my last paycheck, but I skipped the exit interview (being thousands of kilometres away). I didn’t say good-bye to my manager, because I never actually met him.
Technically, I’ve been out of the nest for three years. We’ve decided to make it permanent, and at the beginning of March, I signed my new contract in France. Same job, same position, less money, more vacation.
I’ve always felt kind of like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, because I know that a lot of my close friends and work colleagues had this sprung on them. Well, all of my work colleagues in fact — I was one of the guilty survivors of the Vancouver massacre, having cleverly arranged to have a contract when They decided to trim the fat. Now I spend my time sipping coffee on a terrace in France, eating cheese and mixing cocktails and metaphors.
Nope. No more Canadian paychecks. No more CPP, RRSP, EI. Now it’s all carte de sejour, carte vitale, and carte d’orange — and enough passport photos to fill a horse. I’m working for the French now.
And being terminated was a sweet deal. Not as sweet as severance, but being paid out for banked vacation days was a pleasant surprise.
GKarlsen
Holy Smokes!!!
Also, I ate blood sausage for lunch.
A-hole! I started reading thinking that the explanation for your week of silence was that you’d gotten the boot and were now jobless in Paris.
Glad to hear that you are now a cheese-eating surrender-monkey, I mean you are employed in France
I, too, interpreted the first line to mean you were jobless in Paris. I was getting ready to laugh heartily at your misfortune. Darn.
More vacation is ALWAYS good news when it isn’t a permanent vacation! Fun! Now I can still visit you again, maybe next time we should skip the gritty pumpkin pie and my burning down your bathroom…
I am sorry to hear about your job loss – but don’t worry TF – you are young, trenchant, and clever – and will quickly find another job.
Hang on – you have fooled us all – you haven’t been fired – you’re writing about the same job transfer situation that you did before. I declare Foul Play!
Good luck with the new work (which I assume is pretty much the same as the old work?).
They dragged me into Human Resources the other day to sign a piece of paper saying that I neither resigned, nor was dismissed. Just a transfer.
Keep in mind that I gave up the opportunity to return to Vancouver — with severance.
How to fight loneliness
Smile all the time
Shine your teeth to meaningless
And sharpen them with lies
And whatever is going down
Will you follow around
That’s how you fight loneliness
LIke the others, I was worried you had lost your French job! I am glad to hear that was not the case. I am sure you are going to enjoy the extra vacation when you get it!
And eww….blood sausage.
LIke the others, I was worried you had lost your French job! I am glad to hear that was not the case. I am sure you are going to enjoy the extra vacation when you get it!
And eww….blood sausage.
Wilco. And irrelevant.