A Job Loss

My daughter lost her first professional job Friday.  She had been searching for a year after graduation and had been delighted with her new job.  She took it seriously, putting in more hours than she probably should have, and was totally invested in giving it her all.  In other words, she started this new career with the honor and intensity of so many recent college graduates.

For that, she was unceremoniously ushered in to a meeting at 4 p.m. Friday, and told that she would be given two weeks' severance, and then watched as she cleared her office and escorted out.

In the interest of CYA, she had some six weeks ago, during her first employee evalution, been told that, while she was otherwise doing an excellent job, there was one area in which she was deficient.  She was too embarrassed to tell me what exactly this deficiency was, but took it upon herself to do everything within her power to repair this problem.

Meanwhile, for the past eight weeks or so, she was doing her own work plus that of her immediate supervisor, who was out on maternity leave.  For that, she was told to leave on the day her supervisor was due to return to work.  She does not believe her supervisor was even aware that this was going to happen, and of course, therefore, was not at all involved in advising or working with my daughter on how she could remedy her problem.

She liked her supervisor, and felt badly about leaving without the opportunity to say good-bye.  For that matter she was also unable to say good-bye to co-workers she had become friends with in the five months she was employed.

She had been hired as one of two new employees, for similar positions, in different departments.  The young man was fired also, apparently for the same deficiency, on the same day.  Which leads me to believe that either this employer sucks at hiring, or feels free to try new employees on for size rather than actually be committed to an employee because there are so many potential employees out there.

My guess is the latter.  Potential employers today have the attitude that people in the workforce are a dime a dozen.  This has pretty much always been the attitude for low-wage workers, but now has been adapted for all levels of employment.  The American employer needs maintain no loyalty or commitment to their employees.  The workforce has been sold out by management, with the blessing of the government, since 1980 and the sainted Ronald Reagan.  As a result, workers are spread too thin, given too little, and dumped at the first hint that the employer stands to gain from the dumping.

We hear Congress pontificating about the American people acting like grown-ups, while they are being treated as inanimate objects, to be used as cheaply as possible, and then discarded.

My heart breaks for young people believing that hard work will provide them good work and a secure life.  My heart breaks for my daughter, because she is a victim of the greed and hypocrisy by which we have allowed this country to be ruled.