Freejon of the Jobless

I pulled into the driveway around 11:40 AM. I walked in the door and the dogs as always are very noisy and excited. I place my now very light computer bag on the floor, take out the severance package information and place it on the dining room table. I grab my lunchbox, and go to the Kitchen to heat up the wings and get a drink.

My wife walks down from her home office where she has been grading and preparing for tonight’s classes. She is an adjunct professor for the community college system here in Indiana, Ivy Tech. She teaches writing. She also has taken on working for the grocery delivery service Shipt. She said she needed something to keep her active after returning from her 6-month hike of the Appalachian Trail. Running around a grocery store and meeting new people really seems to meet that goal.

I sit at the table and open the white envelope containing the paperwork that will guide my financial life for the next few months. What should I expect for severance payments? There is a paper for that. How will I be covered for health insurance? There is a paper for that. What will happen to my (401)k? You guessed it, another paper for that. Was this age discrimination? Yes, even another paper for that.

Once my meeting ended, I hung up and was able to say a quick goodbye to my office-mate and wish him well. I walked out into the cubicle area and another co-worker had come in. She was in tears over our desktop support lady being gone. She said “I just got off the phone. Two of the best people on my team are gone.” “Wow!” I reacted. I blurted out “What are they thinking?” I stepped back to my desk, and plopped into the chair.

The realization of the scope set in. It appeared the company was not doing a surgical purge, but swinging a giant axe at least in the IT organization. This cut was not concentrated on IT alone. Employees from all salaried areas were being removed. As I sat thinking about this, I heard the IT Manager call come get my crying coworker. Damn.

It was finally my turn. The manager came in to get me around 9:30 am. He walked into my office, said “It’s your turn.” And shook my hand. This man was watching almost all of his staff being removed from under him with no input to the process. He oversees three sites, so this experience was triple for him. I actually felt bad for him. I don’t know that I have the fortitude to walk person after person to their termination, knowing I still have to provide the same level of service for production.

I was escorted to the Human Relations conference room where our HR department head told me I was terminated, thanked me for my contribution to the company, and passed me off to her underling to walk through the severance package. One good thing in this situation is that there was a severance package that would continue my income for the next couple of months. It also included three months of services from an outplacement firm to help us “update our brand” for the job hunt. Hopefully this will give me enough time to find a new position.

I was escorted back to my desk to pack up. Luckily, I had taken home most of my mementos and other knick-knacks at Christmas break so I had more to turn in than to take home.  We were told we could keep our company cell phones if we wished. I did not. We kept a high level of security on them and it always frustrated me, so I said no. I was leaving the job behind. Just after 10:00 AM on Monday, February 4, 2019, it was time to go home.

I was greeted in the hallway by my best friend at work who I ate lunch with almost every day. He and the other Materials department folks were watching this bizarre parade all morning. Their faces were as stunned as ours were.

Once the project at the Fort Wayne plant was complete, I began working at my home plant in Marion, Indiana. This drive is 55 miles instead of 95, thus I got to sleep in for 15 minutes. I have been working at the Marion Plant for 30 years. The team there is like a family and that helps make the workdays more enjoyable.

There are 8 people that work in the Information Technology office in Marion. This is down a little from the 30 or so that were there when I arrived in 1991. I worked for three separate companies performing the same job over that time. I hired in to Electronic Data Systems, then they were bought out by Hewlett Packard, and finally General Motors itself after they in-sourced the HP folks. Seeing people leave wasn’t new, but this time it was stunning.

I walked in to see the IT manager speaking to our Network support person as they placed items into a box used for copier paper. My office-mate greeted me as I walked in and told me our desktop support person was already walked out. I settled in to what was going to be a very uncomfortable workday.  

We had known people were about to lose their jobs for a few months. A voluntary severance package was announced in October and many took the deal. It was not enough, so an involuntary Severance plan was initiated. We each wondered during the holidays who would go and when it would happen. Today was the day.

I toyed the other day with tracking my recent employment status change and sharing it for others to get reassurance if not a good laugh at my experiences as I seek work. I thought about a book, but who has time for that when I am trying to find a job? So here is the beginning of my journey. I will try me best to catch up to present day and post daily updates. If I miss, I likely have a good reason, but will be back soon. I am expecting a total life upheaval so enjoy the ride. 

“5:00 AM. Well at least it isn’t 4:45 anymore!” I told myself again as another Monday morning started. For most of the past two years I had been getting up slightly earlier to travel from my little town of McCordsville, Indiana to an assembly plant in Fort Wayne, where I held a job installing network infrastructure for two new buildings being added.

I try to quietly turn off my Bi-PAP breathing machine I use to help with my sleep apnea. I always try to turn it off without waking the three dogs sleeping in our room. We have two Australian Shepherds, Lucy and Mercedes. We also have a German Shepherd-Australian mix named Stella. All three have wonderfully evolved hearing that over the years have learned to determine what could be threat and what isn’t. Apparently, my machine is a threat. They all jump to their feed and sometimes start growling. “Guys, I just want to take a shower. Calm down.” I whisper, but with no effect.

I take off the mask and waddle into the bathroom in the dark. I close the door, flip on the light and fan, and start the water. As I wait for it to warm up, I weigh myself. “Down 39 pounds today!” I say to myself. By this time the water is just the right temperature, and I jump in.

I underwent bariatric surgery known as a “sleeve procedure” on December 18, 2018. I had been overweight since birth, and I lost my right big toe to complications from Diabetes. I needed to make a drastic change in my life before I lost other bits and pieces of myself. I also want to live to see my family grow and to be a part of their lives for a long time to come. My job was getting more physically demanding and so having this surgery would help me perform better.

My wife Julie had the same surgery performed on her two years prior and it went very well. The results were great. She is a hiker, and usually spends a month or two over the summer hiking the Appalachian Trail. In 2018 she through-hiked the entire 2190+ miles of it from May through November. Losing the weight relieved pressure and strain on her knees and enabled her to physically accomplish her dream.

I dried off and got dressed. By this time the dogs have calmed down and are eagerly awaiting the opening of the door like horses at the starting gate racing in the Kentucky Derby. I gather my watch and phone and open the door. Like the Tasmanian Devil spinning on his path, the three dogs jump and bark and intertwine like a blurry sphere of motion. How they don’t just tumble down the stairs in all of their activity I do not know.