Friday, June 12, 2009

I’ve been leaving the posting to Neve for a while. Too busy. Too angry.

I suppose I ought to edit the ‘who am I’ page. As of two days ago, your author is no longer employed by the EPA or the government of these here United States.

The initial decision to can me came…hell I don’ know. I got into my shared cubicle last week and found that the system wouldn’t let me log in. The IT folks just said that ‘it’s not our fault’ and to talk to my manager.

Administrative review he called it. Since I was gone for more than 3 days without a good excuse (fearing for my family’s safety doesn’t count), they felt I had broken my employment contract. The voice-mails and e-mails I had sent didn’t mitigate things or allow me to use vacation time because they were never received by EPA (what with the wonky internet connectivity).

It took the bureaucracy and union a week and a half to decide that my career was not worth salvaging in their minds. Pissants.

We’re paid a few months ahead of time on the mortgage and we’ve got some money saved. I’m spending more time April-sitting and helping Neve with her new bag-lunch business. I’m hopeful as well on some lawyer contacts who may be able to throw some work my way. It’s not easy. The Globe is saying unemployment is in the mid-teens in the immediate Boston area. Sometimes I wonder how 80+ percent of people can still make it to work and get anything done while living in what sometimes feels like a war zone.