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Job loss, and how it sucks
Momerath
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, the breakdown of events thus far in wall of text form:
Some friends of mine decided it was time to get married, good excellent fun. In the course of the event's aftermath, some marijuana got involved. Move forward a day and I'm back home and at work, sitting in a meeting and generally pleased with life all around. Pleased up to the point that the meeting's purpose is revealed. 100% random (errr...) drug testing. Internally I had a full on melt down at this point, but kept a lid on it outside all rational thought probably going out the window. I honestly couldn't tell.
My reaction to this was to try the honesty route after conferring with someone I trusted. I marched myself into the director's office and just told them what had transpired, essentially throwing myself on the mercy of the court as calmly as I could. These people rather like having me around, but are not the corporate office decision makers, just the people in charge of this particular location/contract. I was told to go ahead and take the test, which I did, whether it was a good or bad call I don't know (judgement potentially compromised as noted above).
Calls between the director and the corporate office were made through the course of the day. I was pulled back in for conversations about four times. The end result was that I was put on leave without pay pending the results. If the results are positive I'm out with a big pitcher of zero tolerance liquid finality. I won't see anything out of them other than my remaining pay and my vacation time cashed out, with the insurance my wife currently relies on for medication burning out at the end of the month. If it's negative, due to the aforementioned liking having me around, I get to take drug tests for the next who knows how long but I still have a job. I am not in any way banking on a negative result and view the possibility of it happening as asking for divine intervention.
I'm not even sure what I'm looking for at this point, other than as much information as I can get my hands on to give me a better picture of what I can do to not end up in the poor house, where I should head from here and so on. My resume is at least mostly up to speed, though I think it needs work beyond just adding anything I haven't put down yet. I'm considering trying to find a local service and getting it professionally done, does know if such services are truly useful or are they generally a waste of ~100 bucks I should be saving.
It's been ages since I had to look for a job. I was very secure in the position I had, and this was completely unexpected. In that nine year span there was never so much as a peep about drug tests, even after we had someone come in drunk. I took employee of the year twice over those nine years, and a few other similar awards (month/quarter) multiple times. Are any methods currently the best way to go? Still firing resumes off to anyone with an address? Recruiting firms? Head hunters? Smoke signals? I'm looking in the St. Louis metro area which is where I currently live, and in or around Indianapolis as I'd be interested in moving there.
Here's the current un-updated resume that I'm working on: mmm.. documenty. The formatting got a bit borked when I put it up, and after I changed the header to take out the personal info. Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome here, looking at many of the IT job listings I've seen to date I feel woefully underequipped. The MCSE is from the NT4 days and I have no useful experience or even much knowledge of the current programming/scripting languages (.net and such). The job kept me up to speed on operating systems other than vista as it didn't play well with a good amount of the software we used, and general office applications in addition to the stuff that was site specific.
I also have to deal with having to find a way to dodge around having gotten tagged with a drug test when I go for future interviews. I'm really uncertain as to how I should handle this part, and it's preyed on my mind the moment that meeting went sour. I know my former company can't tell them much of anything other than confirming I worked there and the from-to dates. The only really solid thing I've come up with is to tell them the position got eliminated as the communications group at this particular installation has steadily been taking over functions that I had been performing in years past. There was real concern on my part before this incident that the described scenario would actually come to pass, and they had been discouraging other groups from getting their own in-house tech support as I understood it.
That's all I can think of to say at the moment. About the only thing past this I can think to add is I don't have much in the way of expendable resources, so professional legal assistance is probably out of the question unless it's a surefire way to reverse the situation. I'm really not intending to invest much or any effort in fighting that part of the problem barring any new information. My focus here is on getting a new job as quickly and painlessly as possible. I don't really expect it to be quick or painless, but something will have to work out or we're (the wife and I) pretty screwed. Our time frame before our resources run dry is about two maybe three months. Yeah, it's ugly.
Thanks much in advance for anything you've got.
Some friends of mine decided it was time to get married, good excellent fun. In the course of the event's aftermath, some marijuana got involved. Move forward a day and I'm back home and at work, sitting in a meeting and generally pleased with life all around. Pleased up to the point that the meeting's purpose is revealed. 100% random (errr...) drug testing. Internally I had a full on melt down at this point, but kept a lid on it outside all rational thought probably going out the window. I honestly couldn't tell.
My reaction to this was to try the honesty route after conferring with someone I trusted. I marched myself into the director's office and just told them what had transpired, essentially throwing myself on the mercy of the court as calmly as I could. These people rather like having me around, but are not the corporate office decision makers, just the people in charge of this particular location/contract. I was told to go ahead and take the test, which I did, whether it was a good or bad call I don't know (judgement potentially compromised as noted above).
Calls between the director and the corporate office were made through the course of the day. I was pulled back in for conversations about four times. The end result was that I was put on leave without pay pending the results. If the results are positive I'm out with a big pitcher of zero tolerance liquid finality. I won't see anything out of them other than my remaining pay and my vacation time cashed out, with the insurance my wife currently relies on for medication burning out at the end of the month. If it's negative, due to the aforementioned liking having me around, I get to take drug tests for the next who knows how long but I still have a job. I am not in any way banking on a negative result and view the possibility of it happening as asking for divine intervention.
I'm not even sure what I'm looking for at this point, other than as much information as I can get my hands on to give me a better picture of what I can do to not end up in the poor house, where I should head from here and so on. My resume is at least mostly up to speed, though I think it needs work beyond just adding anything I haven't put down yet. I'm considering trying to find a local service and getting it professionally done, does know if such services are truly useful or are they generally a waste of ~100 bucks I should be saving.
It's been ages since I had to look for a job. I was very secure in the position I had, and this was completely unexpected. In that nine year span there was never so much as a peep about drug tests, even after we had someone come in drunk. I took employee of the year twice over those nine years, and a few other similar awards (month/quarter) multiple times. Are any methods currently the best way to go? Still firing resumes off to anyone with an address? Recruiting firms? Head hunters? Smoke signals? I'm looking in the St. Louis metro area which is where I currently live, and in or around Indianapolis as I'd be interested in moving there.
Here's the current un-updated resume that I'm working on: mmm.. documenty. The formatting got a bit borked when I put it up, and after I changed the header to take out the personal info. Any suggestions and recommendations are welcome here, looking at many of the IT job listings I've seen to date I feel woefully underequipped. The MCSE is from the NT4 days and I have no useful experience or even much knowledge of the current programming/scripting languages (.net and such). The job kept me up to speed on operating systems other than vista as it didn't play well with a good amount of the software we used, and general office applications in addition to the stuff that was site specific.
I also have to deal with having to find a way to dodge around having gotten tagged with a drug test when I go for future interviews. I'm really uncertain as to how I should handle this part, and it's preyed on my mind the moment that meeting went sour. I know my former company can't tell them much of anything other than confirming I worked there and the from-to dates. The only really solid thing I've come up with is to tell them the position got eliminated as the communications group at this particular installation has steadily been taking over functions that I had been performing in years past. There was real concern on my part before this incident that the described scenario would actually come to pass, and they had been discouraging other groups from getting their own in-house tech support as I understood it.
That's all I can think of to say at the moment. About the only thing past this I can think to add is I don't have much in the way of expendable resources, so professional legal assistance is probably out of the question unless it's a surefire way to reverse the situation. I'm really not intending to invest much or any effort in fighting that part of the problem barring any new information. My focus here is on getting a new job as quickly and painlessly as possible. I don't really expect it to be quick or painless, but something will have to work out or we're (the wife and I) pretty screwed. Our time frame before our resources run dry is about two maybe three months. Yeah, it's ugly.
Thanks much in advance for anything you've got.
Momerath on
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Best of luck.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I'm afraid you might've prematurely shot yourself in the foot by "coming clean".
I don't smoke, but all of my friends did in high school (just wasn't for me), and though they were careful about drug tests, if the odd chance happened that they were caught with marijuana in their systems, they played stupid and requested a re-test. Which, by that time, they had flushed the stuff out of their system with whatever the latest cleansing product was available at the local head shop.
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In response to the question regarding my knowledge of the test, no. They put out word of the mandatory meeting, but these aren't unusual at this time of year just as part of our normal activity cycle. This came out of the clear blue sky. Even the diagnostic lab we were sent to was taken aback. The tech handling my sample collection said they were all added to their schedule just that morning. It was their equivalent of getting slammed.
Ultimately I'm not concerned with finding my way around the admission and test, I very likely don't have the resources to throw at an attempt to make that part go away even if there was a path to do so. The test will be either positive and I'm out due to zero tolerance, or negative and I get to come back to work. Even if I had stayed quiet and played dumb if the results come back positive, I'd be out. There may be some legal issues here, but as I said I probably don't have the resources to challenge something like that. I'm more concerned with things I can do to replace the job, things I can do to make the process not suck too much, things I can take advantage of, or just really what anyone reading this would do if they were in my position, including already having made the admission.
My apologies if the OP doesn't make any of that clear, as can be guessed I'm rather in panic mode, and just doing everything I can to hold things together and repair damage.
Barring some weird complete fluke (read: divine intervention), it won't. Maybe they were banking on this, maybe they weren't, I don't know.
I will most certainly make an attempt at this. Unfortunately the way it was described to me, they will be doing no such thing as per their zero tolerance policy. I'm trying to discern (via looking things up, and attempting to get a favor from a friend who's cousin is a lawyer) if that's even legal, and it seems like it might not be, though I was told when I brought up the question of the legality of their test that it's in the employee handbook and other such documents I signed when hired. I don't have a copy of this on me right now so I can't verify that.
Pretty much if it's in your employee hand book and with your admission you don't have a legal leg to stand on. I don't want to kick you when your down but what this means is that you are going to be fired for cause. Which depending on where you live may mean that you can't get unemployment.
Zero tolerance rarely means zero tolerance. Its not zero tolerance "oh you did it once well we'll let it slide" but simply put most drug tests are in no way, shape, or form, accurate enough to fire you on the first wiff of a positive test. Most companies will probably require an immediate retest of some sort. However, double checking with your employee handbook and anyone who may be knowledgeable of your companies policies would be quite wise.
And with that being the reason for the firing, not looking good for anywhere else. I hate to bag on you, but damn, losing 9 years because of some pot? Well, hopefully lesson learned.
So damage control. Best you can hope for at this point is getting the company to as mum as possible as why you were let go when asked. Something other than "Fired for 'zero tolerance,' or 'not re-hireable' would be preferred. Ideal would be "Downsized due to economic situation." Work with your boss or whoever is most symptethic to you to see if they'll talk to HR for you.
Note I'm not suggesting they lie to the government about you, just any future employers.
my problem with this logic is, he already "owned up to it", and it cost him his job. how in the flying fuck is that fair?
sure, marijuana is illegal, probably not a great idea, but he was in no danger from it before hand, and it only hurt him in his own actions.
i don't see how this could be counted as a 'learning experience' except not to tell on yourself and work for people who don't do douchey things like random drug testing.
Normally you might be able to fight the initial drug test. Maybe. However, you already admitted to recreational drug use to your boss. Assuming you work in an at will state anyway, you're probably boned there.
- I wouldn't waste a lot of energy on fighting the drug test. That ship has sailed, and you have a lot of preparation to do.
- Everything you do, keep your wife involved. This situation can be hell on a marriage. Lean on each other - the one upshot of my unemployment was it made my marriage stronger.
- You are making the right move planning for the worst. Get your finances in line as best you can. Make plans around the loss of your benefits. Do you have coverage through your wife? COBRA is damn expensive. Figure out how far you can go on the money/income you have if you don't find new work.
- Not knowing your financial situation, this may not apply. Not trying to scare you, but I work in IT too and it's rough out there. Think about your house. Seeing we would lose it in 12 months, we sold it and that move really saved us. However, we made a nice profit from it which kept us afloat until I found work again. In the current market that may not be the case.
- Your coming clean may have screwed the pooch, but it should be enough to get you a good reference from your local bosses. Get on Linkedin. Most IT jobs go to someone who is known rather than a cold hire. Use your social network to your advantage.
More thoughts later. The key point is, don't sit on your ass 'woe is me'ing. You need to attack this situation if you are to survive it. The phrase 'time is money' is key here. Once you are out of work, each day is money you can't get back.
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There is at least a glimmer of hope regarding the prospective loss of 9 years over something like this. Though I haven't had any conversations or contact since the initial day where all of this hit the fan, the reaction from those I was dealing with was at least sympathetic. All of the management types that were directly involved have stated willingness to give me letters of recommendation, and knowing them along with their thoughts on the situation (they were unhappy with the proceedings) the letters should be good ones.
I have yet to be contacted by the HR person but in my last conversations with her and the others involved I brought up the fact that it'd be tough as nails to get anything done if I have to deal with a bad rap when it comes to seeking new employment. My memory is a bit hazy of her exact words, but they all seemed to be in agreement that what happened is something they want to keep under wraps at least as far as calls from prospective employers. When I go in for the last time I am going to be telling them the things I intend to say in response to the why I left/was let go question. Your thoughts there mirror some of my own in this respect. As I noted earlier, the local communications group at this installation had started taking over more and more functions. There was real concern on my part that the position would be eliminated in the course of time. Whatever the case, it is my belief that I will have flexibility in what I am able to say without having to worry about my soon to be ex-employer making me into a known liar. I hope.
No worries about the kicking. I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm likely not going to be getting any sort of assistance other than the quiet support of those in management at this location that I worked directly with.
Yes indeed. I think I spent way too much time in the OP telling the drug test part of the story. The preparation and getting myself back into a fighting stance is what I was concerned with. I actually considered deleting and reposting so I could retool it so that the drug test/admission was just a quick note so posters would know what I'm up against, and get the focus onto what I can do to help me get a new job.
This is one of the areas we are really going to feel it. Due to medical bills and some admittedly bad prioritizing, we have very little saved. I figure we have enough to maintain our current living situation for another two months with what I will be getting from my soon to be ex-employer. This being time I've already worked and cashed out vacation time. My wife doesn't work, and relies on my coverage for some critical thyroid medication as well as welbutrin (anti-depressant).
Ultimately, we live mostly like hermits. We don't go out, if I could keep my wife from spending money on eating out we'd pretty much be down to regular bills, some medical bills, food and two WoW accounts. Oh, and smoking. Really scared of that one as it's obviously a big bad expense, and shutting it down obviously has some repurcussions that won't play well with the current situatin. We rent one half of a 520/mo two bedroom duplex. I'm sure there's more information I could give here, but I've spent the last 10 minutes staring at that last sentence and I'm drawing big stress induced blanks.
This is another area I'm weak in, and looking for every suggestion under the sun on. I've never engaged the social networking sites, and I'm not a strong networking type in the real world either. I've always known I wasn't doing myself any favors, and this just puts me further behind the curve. I'm good at what I do, though my skill set isn't as broad as I feel it needs to be to not be intimidated by position descriptions I'm finding on various job listing sites, but I never really networked and made this directly known to others that would be the most help in a situation like this. People would usually end up finding out about me through other people I'd helped. I gave lots of people free help with their computers, sadly the people that come to one for such things usually aren't those that you want to know about you when it comes to getting a job. So again, any and every tool anyone has ever heard of in the history of forever that will help in this department, I probably don't know about it and desperately need it.
I look forward to them, and thanks for what you've said so far. Right now the only sitting on my ass that's happened has been from simply being stunned that things have gone so far south so quickly. I get myself moving as soon as I note that I'm... not moving, my big problem right now is not knowing where to move and how to use my time most effectively. I've sent messages to everyone I know telling them what's happened and to keep their ear to the ground if they can. I've said I'm willing to relocate even if that means leaving the wife at her parent's for a bit while I pack up the truck and go wherever I need to.
Thanks for the words. While I'm quite aware I did this to myself, when you have little sympathy for yourself, sometimes it makes things not seem so stark for a few minutes. The more important part, though, is which thread that is. The most recent one regarding getting fired for daring to take medical leave, or was there another? I've lurked here for many years, and jeffe is a pretty smart guy. I'd like to see anything he's had to do in relation to sudden unemployment. I know my situation is different, but any information is better than no information.
Well.. I tried to add a reply to this, and then it got eaten. Price I pay for not listening to my own advice and typing stuff up in notepad and then posting. The overall point I was going for was that this would be most awesome of you if you find time. I worry about my resume to no end and freak out at about 90% of the job postings I find because I fear I just don't have a broad enough skill set. I've been thinking about trying a professional resume service, but I don't know if these are really worth it. Any thoughts anyone has on these would be great.
I've yet to get so much as a call. I know one is coming, but I don't know when. I was supposed to get one from the testing center before my soon to be ex-employer, though I think they may be trying to use the number I had at work. I'm going to ask them if I can do this, and I think they'll be willing to work with me as much as they are able. What you suggest is a very viable reason, actually. My office was one deep, just me taking care of everything with a circuit board, and the only advancement possible was when they did a regional wage survey and adjusted mine to reflect the average.
That said, you're not alone.
First thing : Stop fucking posting and go re-up on your/your wife's meds before you are fired/quit. Do this now. Call your doctors and ask them to max out any refills because you may lose your job & insurance and paying for both an appointment and meds would suck.
If you only smoked once, you're probably fine and the test should come back clean. Google for drug testing and you'll see that it takes more than a few tokes to raise the markers they look for enough to show as positive. Tests typically take about 10 days to two weeks to come back. Depending on your state, drug tests may not be enough to keep you off unemployment. Look into it now.
I say I left for personal reasons. And it is personal because their only reason you'd be fired is they don't like what was in your piss.
No one does. Be honest about what you do and don't know. You've probably had to learn stuff on the fly before, it's the same everywhere you'd go. From a hiring standpoint I preferred critical thinkers to people that had taken a few week long courses. If you brushed up on powershell it would look pretty good on a resume.
You generally cannot collect unemployment benefits if you quit. However, if you are on good terms with your supervisor and this is really just following a procedure from the top, talk to him/her and ask them if you may use them as a reference.