…You don’t work here anymore!

Not exactly something you want to hear, let alone expect to hear when you return to work after your Christmas break. But, that is exactly what happened to me! But not in so many words. Before I left to Canada for Christmas my general manager and I had a discussion about when I would be back so he would know when to put me back on the schedule, I told him I fly in on the 29th so I could work on the 30th. I was thinking a day to rest would be nice but since they were being good enough to let me go home in the first place I figured I’d say thank you by working as soon as I possibly could. So, after many, many hours of travelling (1.5 to get from home to Toronto, 7 to get from Toronto to London, 2 to get from London to York, and much waiting in between) I hop in a cab and head for home. While in the cab I decide to call the shop to see what time I am schedule to work the next day. The big boss answers (the owner) and after several minutes of him asking who was calling, “It’s Kat, Katherine, I work for you,” (I should have seen this as an omen) he stumbles out “Oh, I thought we were done with you.” Not encouraging. All I could say was, “Um, that wasn’t the plan, no.” Unfortunately for me, I called him right in the middle of the delivery so he said he would call me back in an hour. I hung up with him and though, “Uh oh.”

If I had learned anything from my previous Richard encounters I should have known that he would not call me back. It was okay though, I unpacked and resettled into life in England. The next day I went into town to deliver boxes of maple cookies to the shops, which I had brought back with me from Canada, and to talk to Richard. When I saw him he acted slightly surprised and then apologised for not calling me back. Then we talked about what can be classified as the biggest misunderstanding in my life. (I am being polite with the terminology “misunderstanding” – I should really be saying underhandedly conniving business practice.) Richard explains to be that he was under the impression that Nick (the GM) told me that there wouldn’t be enough hours after Christmas to keep me on full time but they would call me when hours needed to be filled.  I assured him that this conversation never happened, and if it was supposed to Nick dropped the ball. Then what followed was a bunch of back and fourth of him saying nothing productive and me saying “But that wasn’t the understanding, so how can this be?” Until finally he said, “If that’s not what you and Nick talked about maybe you should be discussing this with him.” I said, “Good idea,” and that was that. I was halfway down the stairs before Richard called out from his office, “Oh, how was your Christmas?” – Uh, it was great, it was really relaxing because I unaware of the royal screwing that was happening back here.

I left, but I still had a box of cookies to deliver to the other store. Obviously, at this point I was crying, but don’t worry friends, these were angry tears. I kept it together while I dropped off the cookies. Luckily, the shop was fairly busy so I couldn’t stick around to chat. I had nothing to do back home since none of my housemates were there so I wandered around town for a bit (actually, I bought my pliers and first spool of wire on this trip). Eventually, I had to go home. I texted some people about my potentially not having a job; the reaction was unanimous, “Damn.” I felt the same way.

Long story, moderately lengthy, I eventually spoke with Nick who stuck with Richard in saying that when I left there was an understanding that I wouldn’t be working much, if at all, when I got back. I stuck with saying that I was never informed of this understanding. Nick did say, however, that if there were hours to fill they would call me. This is the conversation that followed.

Nick: “When hours become available we can call you; but that won’t be until late March.”

Me: “So, are you going to call me? Like, should I expect that?”

Nick: “No, we’re not going to call you.”

Me: “Uh, ok, so what then?”

Nick: “What?”

Me: “So, am I fired?”

Nick: “Yes, I think you have been.”

Me: (WHAAAAAAAAT THE EFFFFFFFFFF!??!?!!) “Uh, fine.”

Then, as much as I enjoyed deciphering cryptic riddles to figure out my job status, I decided to leave. I went upstairs to get my work shoes, which I had left there (possibly a sign that I didn’t know I was fired? Hmm? Nick, did you think about that?) and then met up with Darrell outside, to whom I proceeded to cry to for the next several minutes. Then, to my joy, Darrell said, “No! I’m going to talk to Nick.” (Gleeee!) So, while Darrell was inside being my knight in shining armour, I bought him a latte. When he came back, I was delighted to hear that he told Nick he was unprofessional in the way he went about firing me, and  that was all I needed to hear. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who couldn’t understand how Nick managed to keep his job. After finally getting some closure I decided to go home and be sad for the rest of the day and then start the great job hunt of 2010.

I will find something, the only question is when?

I’m not too upset about not working at the pasty shop any more, and it won’t even be a thought in my head once I get another job. My only regret is not getting to be the one to say, “I QUIT!”