My late winter saga

In December, I started to get desperate about finding a job. Housewifery was just *not* working out for me. Since we only had the one car (my beloved Sylvia) and with the weather so cold and yucky, I basically was not getting out of the house at all. It was very bad. So I started to look for jobs in places I had originally ruled out - not because I didn't want to work for these organizations but because I was sure that they would not want me. See the afore mentioned Clinic was a women's health clinic and most Catholic organizations don't look too kindly on them (go to any clinic that provides birth control during lent and you'll see what I mean). I started looking at Catholic Hospitals and Clinics thinking that they'd never call me back, but at least I had tried. When I got the call, St. Hospital wanted me in for an interview! I was so excited.

The interview went well until the secretary knocked on the door looking for me. "Is this Ms. Bee?" "Uh, Yeah" "Good. Security wants to see you right away!" I ran downstairs coming up with hundreds of scenarios for why security would need to see me during a job interview, each more ridiculous than the first. I got down stairs to find that an employee had driven right into my parked car, then immediately called security and the police. She happened to have amazing car insurance which even paid for me to have a rental car while they fixed Sylvia up! After talking to the cops, I went back upstairs and completed the interview. It went well and a week later they offered me a job. This was early January.

I told them when they offered me the gig that I had a family trip scheduled in February and they assured me that I could take the time (unpaid) off. Perfect. I started orientation and met my coworkers and everything was great. After three weeks I left for my week long camping trip to Arizona (I had a blast!) and came back tanned and relaxed Monday morning. I went up to my nurses and said hi and they said "Did you hear about Boss?" "huh?" It turns out that while I was gone my immediate supervisor was fired and now my 'break-in' period during which I was to have a designated 'peer-helper' to ask questions of and no extra work until I got a handle on my regular duties was over 6 weeks early. It has been a rough month since then with many overtime hours logged.

This week, two months to the day since I started, they called a meeting. I knew nothing good would come of it but I thought they would just explain to us that they wouldn't be hiring a replacement for Boss or a replacement for the coworker who left just as I started to be a stay at home mom. But no. Instead they explained that they were laying us all off and creating a new position which we'd have first dibs at but with the knowledge that there will probably not be enough jobs to go around. Shit.

Now, just two months after starting this job (which I was really enjoying, I have amazing coworkers and I love the work I do) I feel like I am back to the drawing board. I will apply for one of these new positions, but I'm low woman on the totem pole and if they're going to cut anyone, it will be me. The best part is that I haven't even worked there long enough to get unemployment benefits.