The month of January brought my recent tumultuous employment career to a head. My current employer at that time was Circuit City. On November 3, 2008, Circuit City announced the closure of 155 stores and to lay off 17% of its workforce in attempts to regain their footing of their fledgling financial woes. Unfortunately, only seven days later, on November 10, they filed for bankruptcy. Now I don’t know about you, but that's like being told you’re going to have to have your toe amputated in order to stop the spread of gangrene, only to come in a week later for a check-up and your doctor cuts off your entire leg, and then tells you that the test results (which they had had the entire time) stated it had spread throughout the entire appendage. In hindsight, it was completely pointless.
Now I know I’m not the first individual to work through the entire holiday season wondering if I’ll have a job come January 1st. However, I think the hardest part was accepting the fact that our jobs would soon be gone, even though all of our managers kept trying to put on the positive spin that a buy-out was going to happen, saying ”we’ve been in business for far too long for us to just close the doors” or "remember that K-mart filed for bankruptcy and they're still around." With a lengthy background in retail, I should have seen the rats scurrying off of the sinking ship. So when they announced that Circuit City would be liquidating all of their assets and closing their doors in February, it really came as no big surprise to me.
I think the hardest part was trying to put forth the amount of effort to coming in day after day, with a smile on my face. As the days grew closer and closer to February 16th, the more difficult it was. Do you know how hard it is to swallow your pride and attempt to be as courteous as possible to customers who get pissed off at you, I might add, as to why the clearance prices aren’t cheaper than during Christmas? Eventually you let these emotions slide, and sometimes you blow up at the customer, but all you really want, is just five minutes alone with all of the goons up in corporate. Unfortunately, they’d been let go right after the announcement, so there were a few things to be thankful for those last two months.
For some amusing personal anecdotes related to the liquidation, please click here.
When something bad comes your way, like being passed over for promotion, getting laid-off or even fired, the most you can do is make the best of your situation. Only do you discover that as much as you are in control of your own life, you can always see the hand of God gently (or sometimes not so gently) guide you down a different path. My wife always says that when God closes one door, He often opens up a window. I’ve started believing that when God closes a window, He redirects your sights on the doggy door. How you get through it, however, is entirely up to you.
February… March… April… and then May came and went. I rediscovered that I am my own worst boss when that job is searching for employment while unemployed. As grateful as I am for unemployment benefits, all they do is reinforce an apathetic attitude towards finding a job. Hey, if I can’t find anything that’s going to pay more than what I’m pulling down weekly with the State of Tennessee, then why should I even try? Unemployment benefits are a blessing and a curse and I wouldn’t wish them upon my worst enemy. This is the biggest reason why I don't support goverment programs to the likes of Welfare and Food Stamps. A nation of entitlement creates a nation of apathy--and that's not good for anyone. Alright, I'll get off my soap box now.
Then the month of June arrived; and with it, sheer unadulterated panic and desperation. My unemployment benefits were quickly evaporating and if I hadn’t landed some kind of job, even part time, they’d be dry as a bone by mid-July. More and more applications and submissions of resumes went out and by the second week of June I had received three callbacks within 48 hours. (Ironically, 2 of the 3 had nothing to do with the added volume of applications I was sending out.)
One was for a very large retail establishment that wanted to pay me twenty-five cents over minimum wage (with my 12 years retail experience, mind you) slinging boxes and stocking shelves at three o’clock in the morning. The second was for a warehouse supervisor position that called me back almost two months after I had submitted my resume I the first place. The third was from a temp agency that had seen my resume online and wanted me to come in and take some tests for a customer service representative position for a logistics warehouse.
Now I was desperate mind you, and $7.50 an hour, as much as it was an insult to my ego, was better than nothing and that is exactly what was biting out there on my job search fishing line. I went down to the store, signed some documents and waited for my background check to come through. At the very same time, I was trying to acquire employment through the other two job opportunities, because both of them paid more than minimum wage. To make a (what could very well be a) long story short, I politely turned down the retail box-slingin’ job and landed the customer service spot via the temp agency instead. The warehouse supervisor position, even though it was a well-paying job, that required working overnights four days a week and in a freezer, turned out to be a dead end; and although I was brought back for an unexpected impromptu second interview (apparently being one of their four finalists), I wasn’t truly satisfied with how the interview went anyway.
So, after free falling for several months out of the unemployment airplane, I discovered that a parachute was attached to my person and then--YANK! I slowly and tenderly float back down to the earth’s surface. I sighed in relief and I began my first full work week, not realizing how agonizing it is to work until six o’clock in the evening for someone like myself. For close to a decade I’ve continuously worked early morning shifts. When 3:30 PM made itself known every day, I was almost always headed out to my car or already on my way home. I never realized, until now, how two and a half hours can literally drag on into eternity. I’m still not under the umbrella of permanent employment, and it's definately not my dream job, but I haven’t been without a weekly paycheck since June 19th and I’m pretty thankful for that.
At around the same time, I reconnected with a very good friend and that good friend brought with him a short film script that he had recently written. James and I, for the better part of a decade, had long desired to make a movie--or rather, a short film. As you know from previous posts of mine, filmmaking has been a dream of mine since I graduated high school. There was a short stint somewhere in there where I wanted to be an accountant, but that didn’t last very long.
James and I spent the next two months writing and re-writing his very thin 12 page script into a very dialogue-heavy 33 page script. By the end of the day, we were pretty happy with what the final product turned out to be. Now the question was: How in the world are we going to get the money to shoot this? Thankfully, James was the money guy. Not in the sense that he was funding this project, but he knew of individuals who would be able to put up the funds in order for us to shoot this project. Even better.
Thanks to the ever-resourceful Craigslist.org, and the all-consuming filtering process one goes through when trying to find cast and crew for a film shoot, the next two months were spent with cast and potentional crew interviews and auditions—all of this while we were still working our 9 to 5 jobs (or in my case, 9 to 6). When the dust had finally settled during our Pre-production phase, we had acquired a full cast and crew. And while everyone we brought aboard really liked the script and had a passion to make the film, most worked for either peanuts or a deli and fruit tray provided by the local grocery store during our three-day shoot. James and I are forever in their debt for the time and dedication they put forth in trying to make our film the best it could possibly be. I thank James Falcon and his ever-faithful friendship. Thanks for your faith in me, your determination, and your never-ending flow of ideas while giving me the power to veto 95% of them.
Only time will tell, as well as the resourcefulness of our other editor (Andrew Hobbs, you're a lifesaver; thank you for your dedication to this project), whether what we have will be of the likeness of film festival material. This will be a topic that will be address at an undisclosed future date next year. I'll keep you all posted on how our short film, PUNCHBUG, is progressing.
So, suffice it to say, 2009 has been quite the eventful year. It was a rollercoaster, full of life’s ups and downs, but in the end, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. And none of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of my amazing, wonderful and beautiful wife.
Lisa,
Thank you for always being there. I know things haven’t been the easiest this year for us financially or emotionally. We both held on to things a little too long before placing them on the table for open discussion. And I know it was hard for both of us to admit where our faults were and how we could overcome them. But I thank God everyday for putting you in my life and being the wind in my sails, but also my anchor to keep me from drifting out to sea. Thank you for believing in me and helping me accomplish my dreams. None of it would have been possible without you.
And that, dear readers, is how you end on a high note.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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