After my last post, things changed. Literally the following
day I got a call telling me I had a new job. No interview, just welcome
to the company. Same pay as my previous job. 22 mile commute.
Actually in the exact type of company that I was looking for.
Smaller, medical industry, part of a team. The technology was right
in my wheelhouse and they needed to start working on upgrading the environment.
They were also just expanding into officially supporting Apple products
in the environment. Sweet.
The timing was excellent.
I managed to keep afloat, pay rent and utilities and survive.
Things looked good. I was low man on the totem pole, and I was
still a contractor with no health insurance, but otherwise good.
About three months
in the commute started to really grind. Mass transit would cost more than
driving, so drive it was. I had to leave an hour and a half driving time
for the morning commute. The evening averaged two hours. Still, it
was a job, things at work were looking good, I enjoyed my co-workers and was
learning new skills. I got a very nice email from the CIO complementing
my work, my attitude and the opinion of me by others at the company
Then I got
sideswiped by my co-worker on one of my cases.
Due to the nature
of the environment, and the total lack of documentation, I asked for help on
something and he put me off for a day. That turned into a week and it
came due for completion. I got it done, with his help, at the last
minute. I accepted that I let it slide and that it was my fault that we
had to rush. I vowed to not let that happen again.
A month later, I
got another case for something that we had no documentation for. I
dislike randomly changing settings on servers and applications without knowing
what those changes will do, so I again requested assistance. The due date
was two weeks out, so the answer was "Yes, we'll work on it
Thursday." Ok. Thursday, rolls around and He delays to Friday.
Then Monday. Then Wednesday. Then Thursday. Thursday I
get no reply and he is out of the office all day. Friday morning I send
yet another email with the reminder that this is due on Monday. I get an
email at 3pm asking if it was completed.
At this point I am
annoyed and reply faster than I should have, sharply reminding him that we were
supposed to work on it together and that he had delayed. His reply was
that it was my fault for not making sure that he had made time in his day to
address the issue. I was dumbfounded. I did not reply. Words
escaped me. Shortly after he called and was very apologetic, working with
me to complete the task just after 5:30. Still, once is an accident,
twice is coincidence. I was not interested in the third time.
Before I left I
packed all of my personal tools, equipment and personal effects and put them in
my car. I then backed up all of my data. I had been very thorough
in my case notes, including his emails requesting delay, but I felt as a
contractor that my job could be undone by this person without my knowledge.
So I played it safe.
Things went quiet
for a while. Money was still tight, but I was saving money and was just
about to bring everything current. I was playing the game of keeping on
bill a month behind, and I was just about to bring everything current.
Then my car got vandalized. Twice in the same week. Two tires
and a new passenger window later I am down over $500. I am steamed at
this point.
Coincidentally as
I am waiting on a tow, I get a phone call from my in-laws to tell me about the
house they just bought. The still plan to live in their motor home, but
they now have a home base. I was not in a good mood and spent several
minutes raving about my hatred of the bay area. At that point they asked,
"Would you be willing to move if we paid for it?"
Leave California
and everything I know? I asked if I could have time to talk to my
daughter. Her answer was "YES!" before I even finished the
question. The following Wednesday I gave notice. Two weeks later I
was unemployed and furiously packing and getting rid of stuff. I was
unsuccessful on both cases despite some very generous help from friends. I gave my truck away to some friends who needed it. We ended up having to pay for the moving
company to pack stuff and I still ended up abandoning stuff. I can still
hear to ghost of my wife screaming at me for that. I wrote off the
deposit on the apartment, since we rolled out 45 minutes after the moving
truck.
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