I was let go yesterday from my new job.

[Laura H1]

It's sad that some of the worst enemies to working mothers are other working mothers.

Well said! I'm so sorry Gayler. I believe there is something better out there for you.... a job you enjoy AND people you enjoy working with...

(((hugs)))
Laura (sending you ++++++++++++++++++++ job vibes)

[val36]

Sorry to hear that

but I have a feeling you're going to find something better.

Hope it happens soon!

[sbdeveney]

Really sorry things turned out like that....if you'd had better management things might have worked out differently. Drats.
Well, I hope something even better is around the corning waiting!

[KathyNJ]

I'm sorry to hear this Gayle

I'm sorry that this didn't work out. I hope it leads to bigger and better things for you.

Wishing you the best,
Kathy

[Troy]

So sorry -- it's not clear to me how "main boss" and you have interacted, but it is kind of strange that she went out of her way to bring up talking about children. It sounds as if, perhaps, she was reaching for an excuse for why letting you go was justified (as in, you are not a loyal company person). Unless you were in the habit of talking about your children all the time, I would not dwell on it too much, but it is true that in some work environments (mine, for instance), people rarely talk about their children except to colleagues they are friends with outside the office.

[jvirginia]

This is SO WRONG.

Have you read the Ann-Marie Slaughter piece about how women still can't have it all? It annoyed the cr-p out of me for many reasons, but there are some really interesting points about career women hiding family obligations, or even the existence of family, in order to be respected.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...e-it-all/9020/

I absolutely could not believe that this woman said what she did; if you are getting your work done then you deserve the job; if you are not you do not. Whether you talk about or "admit" (PUKE) having kids is irrelevant.

Interestingly my sister said she has lied about school events, child illness, etc. in the past (pretended a work conflict, etc.) because where she works has no acceptance of the need for work/family balance. For my part I don't do that at all; no idea if it has hurt my career but I also do not care.

[psilverman]

My experience...

Even when people know you have kids, have kids themselves, like to talk about kids.... they don't like when kids interfere with what they want to get done when. In my case, many of these people are men with wives who don't work outside of the home (or like it used to be for me, their wives DO work outside of the home, but they are stilll the first line of defense when a kid is sick or has an appointment).

My current boss, who is like me when it comes to having kids and having them be first, told me to do whatever I needed to do, but not feel compelled to say why. For example, I need to leave to take ds to his therapist -- I do it as a late lunch -- but instead of saying "I can't do this call or need to drop this call at exactly 12:45 because I need to take my son to an appointment" I just say "I have a conflict/hard stop at XX time" and act like it is any other meeting. She knows I work nights, weekends, and long days and operates from a point of mutual respect and expects me to prioritize my kids and knows I will be professional about it.

I had one partner tell me, when I was pregnant with ds (my first) that it is easy because when you are at home you don't think about work and when you are at work you don't think about home... I don't know what planet she was from or what drugs she was taking, but i think about my kids all the time, and more often than I would like, work infiltrates at home, too.

[Jeannie]

I often make up another excuse when I have a family related issue. I notice men feel no need to hide that stuff though.

[Gayler]

UPDATE

I do not believe I spoke to often of my children but during minor break time when I was trying to connect w/other coworkers or my boss I would mention it. Other then that I worked even during lunch and breaks to get stuff done. There is more and I am partly to blame as well. She was always talking about no one was safe in their job and on Friday before I was let go was determining who they wanted to keep, let go and where they were going to hire. Interesting for a non profit which was more concerned w/the bottom line then their employees. Off my soap box.


I think it was a personality issue but I was surprised that she admitted that her career came first and that once your kids are grown you have nothing to fall back on w/out a career. She even mentioned that she was trying to help other women in their careers.

Could her attitude be more of a baby boomer attitude or is this what it takes to be a successful career woman? I hope not because I have two girls that are one day going to be in the work force and I hope have families as well.

Anyhoo -- I am not upset as I thought I would be. The day it happened I cried a little bit but more because I enjoyed the job. I would work and notice it was already 5 pm. I was salary but never allowed to work overtime (once for a couple of hours). I knew something was up w/the way I was shut out. I feel sorry for her and the others in that environment but everyone is different and I would not flourish there. It was meant to be I guess?

So...I went and got a peach shake that day (I was let go before lunch) and got my makeup done and started calling. First the agency that place me (it was before my 90 day review was up) and then the temp person at the agency. He told me to wait on the phone and it turns out there was a temp job that could be permanent in a water district. He immediately called them and sent my resume and told the HR that I was a good candidate. I went the VERY NEXT DAY for an interview which lasted 5 minutes and then I took about a 2 hour TEST.

I was tested on personality and word associations and fractions, percentages. It felt like a mini SAT exam. I passed w/flying colors.

I started a trial run today. I don't have SAGE software experience but have worked in GL for a long time. I enjoyed it and best of all it is only 23 minutes from my door to their door and I get home A WHOLE LOT SOONER. Before at the other job it was rigid and I would get home w/traffic at about 6:15 at the soonest and it took about 40 min to get there in the am if there was no wrecks on the pass. Today I got home at 4:55 and loved it!

I am praying that this is the job.

Thanks for your support. It meant a lot that day.

Gayle

[fatcat]

Great!! I hope this works out. I still think the other place sounded insane. Some places are just like that - weird dynamic, not productive. And what is with this meeting on who to keep, who to let go and where to hire? Why not hire people they intend to keep and foster to work out in the first place? Crazy making!!

[Billi41]

This is not very good news, but do not be discouraged, if you are really good at something, it will be easy for you to find a new job. It is enough to contact service UK Careers Booster where they will write a resume for you and help with employment