- Got fired from Big Girl Job #2.
I gotta be honest. I'm really not taking this as well as I should be. But...
I. Loved. That. Job.
The short of it is that "[They] can't afford to keep someone in [my] position full-time. [They] feel that [my] skills are being far underutilized and that [I] would be better off at another job where [my] skills have room to grow."
Here's what you need to know about where I was working. It is a start-up media company that has shifted focus from its own events to the planning, management and organization of events hosted, owned and sponsored by other institutions, organizations and companies. My role as a Conference Coordinator there included quite a large amount of work, and as time progressed, I realized that I was busier closer to showtime than I was a few months prior to an event.
I understand their reasoning for letting me go. For them, it makes sense both financially and for the organization. Easily, they can contract that work out for far less money.
My concern is based around a number of things...
- I was with the company just over a year. When I first started out, I was Director of Content Development (meaning that I wrote articles, coordinated articles with freelance and contributing writers, developed website content, etc. etc.). This role is editorial-based, but once the Show Management part of the company started filling in, we realized that that part of my job needed to be put on a back-burner so that I could help our Director of Conferences with her workflow. Because of being let go and because of the transition from Director of Content Development to Conference Coordinator, I have far less experience in both areas of work. Once I started in my Conference Coordinator role and was working closely with my supervisor, I realized how stimulating the Show Management side of the business was and made a tentative decision that I would continue this work whether I left the company at some point in the future or not. I now only have roughly nine months of experience with Show Management work under my belt. The problem I see here is that those skills that were being underutilized are going to continue being underutilized in another company if I want to continue the type of work I had become interested in. I will end up doing the exact same things I was doing, just in a different office and under the supervision of a different person. But hey. At least they'll be able to afford me....right?
- I'm concerned that the person/persons who the company will contract out won't know the ins and outs of their business and how certain processes and people work. I know that it isn't my concern anymore. I know that I was let go and that it is their discretion as to how that role and the tasks associated are handled, but I can't help that I care about the well-being of the company, the events and the people I worked with. I made it too personal, but I loved my job and I made friends and, to me, that MAKES it personal.
Anyway, I'm sad about the situation, but I can't change what has happened and can only push forward and be the ambitious little shit that I am. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, right? C'est la vie and all that junk, right?
I'll be spending the next week or so updating my resume and taking a chill pill or eight, but then it's go time.
Unemployment never felt like the bottom of the bottle to me, and I won't let it get me down, but the bottom of a bottle of wine does sound pretty damn good right now.
That being said... I'll write to you crazy cats later.
