RareGMFan
New member
Bear with me for this epic tale of failness.
SO.....I'm driving to work as usual Monday morning. Get off the expressway on the usual exit heading north. When I get close to the street I need to head east on, I cut through a mall parking lot to get to it because the street I'm on is extremely congested. At the entrance to this mall, as with most entrances to shopping centers, the traffic coming into the mall has no stop sign, but all other directions do. So I'm going along when I notice a car to my left decided to go, apparently not realizing I don't have a stop sign. I slam on my brakes, start moving again after he gets passed me, and gave it a bit of throttle since the guy pissed me off by looking at ME like I did something wrong. Well the wheels squeal a bit.....and then the car starts to vibrate like mad, and has a hard time moving forward. I pull into a parking space, and even at a dead stand still, it's vibrating like crazy. I put the car into park, it stops. Back into drive, and it starts shaking again. So I leave it in park, and try to figure out what the hell I'm going to do now. Can't tow it home, I need to go to work. Can't tow it to work, and then pay again to have it towed home or to a shop. Don't want to leave it in the shopping center and risk having it towed by THEM. I try again to put it into drive for the hell of it, and the idle is fairly smooth. Creep forward slowly, and it seems OK. Definitely some vibration, but not like before where it wasn't moving at all, and felt like the car was literally going to shake apart. I call my boss and tell him why I'm late, and that I'm going to try to make it down there driving the car slowly, but that I'm not sure it will make it. I was only 2 or 3 miles away, but I wanted him to know what was going on in case.
So I gently make my way down there accelerating very slowly, all the while wondering "motor mount? CV axle?? TRANS?!?!" I get to work (nutritional supplement store) with a million things running through my mind on the car situation. I walk in and my boss asks "it made it?" I said yes, but I had to drive it very slowly, and it's still vibrating noticeably. Something is most definitely messed up. So he says "well.....not to add insult to injury but.....I'm going to have to lay you off".......
:th_wtf:
I knew it was going to happen at some point. I've been there 15 years, and I know the last 6 or 7 have been a struggle, with the last year being the worst. He had warned us several times that at any moment, severe changes might have to be made in the personnel. In fact, I was the last remaining full time employee. The only other person left is one semi-retired picker/packer in the warehouse, who works 3-4 hours a day 2-3 days a week (if it's too busy for my boss to handle on his own), and a couple part timers for the weekend, so I can't say I didn't know it was coming. It's been at least a good 6 years of "any day now", but I was so preoccupied with what just happened with the car that I wasn't even thinking about it, so it still took me by surprise. He apologized up and down, and went over all the figures from the last few weeks, but I didn't need to hear it. I managed the store. I knew what was happening. So I got my last paycheck and unused 2 weeks vacation pay, gathered my belongings and limped the car right back home.
There are some pluses to all this, though. In the long run, I think this is for the best and is actually kind of the scenario I was hoping for because quite honestly, I had been sick of the job for some time now. He moved the business a good 15 miles NE of where we used to be about 6 years ago, so my 7 minute drive became more like 35 minutes each way. The drive just started killing me the last few years, especially with all the construction and dealing with that many miles worth of morons who can't drive. I was also tired of dealing with the public. There is nothing quite like working retail to make you loose all faith in mankind. The utterly stupid questions, the people trying to squeeze you down to 0 profit, the incompetent parents letting their kids run around and destroy the store (opening or rearranging bottles, pulling off or moving price tags, etc) while they just stand there....makes you want to punch a baby sometimes.
So needless to say, I was definitely in need of a change. Problem was I was making "so-so" money, meaning too little to be happy with, yet too much to leave and start all over again somewhere, so I couldn't bring myself to quit. At least by being laid off, I have SOME kind of safety net income with unemployment, not to mention access to paid-for training programs/classes while I take some time to figure out what I want to do/try some other ventures. I had been toying with the idea of selling junkyard car parts for a living for years, and this way, I have some flexibility in giving that a try without worrying about what I'm going to do if it falls through. If it takes off, I have a vision of what I'd like to do with that concept, but one thing at a time.
I know when everything settles, I'm going to be happy this all turned out the way it did. It's just that at this point, it's shock more than anything. When something is part of your life for 15 years, it's very weird to get used to the concept of getting up in the morning, and saying "...oh.....we don't do that anymore". I'm sure I'll get passed that soon enough, but for now, it's a really awkward feeling. Guess that's kinda' why I'm babbling to a bunch of strangers about it.
SO.....I'm driving to work as usual Monday morning. Get off the expressway on the usual exit heading north. When I get close to the street I need to head east on, I cut through a mall parking lot to get to it because the street I'm on is extremely congested. At the entrance to this mall, as with most entrances to shopping centers, the traffic coming into the mall has no stop sign, but all other directions do. So I'm going along when I notice a car to my left decided to go, apparently not realizing I don't have a stop sign. I slam on my brakes, start moving again after he gets passed me, and gave it a bit of throttle since the guy pissed me off by looking at ME like I did something wrong. Well the wheels squeal a bit.....and then the car starts to vibrate like mad, and has a hard time moving forward. I pull into a parking space, and even at a dead stand still, it's vibrating like crazy. I put the car into park, it stops. Back into drive, and it starts shaking again. So I leave it in park, and try to figure out what the hell I'm going to do now. Can't tow it home, I need to go to work. Can't tow it to work, and then pay again to have it towed home or to a shop. Don't want to leave it in the shopping center and risk having it towed by THEM. I try again to put it into drive for the hell of it, and the idle is fairly smooth. Creep forward slowly, and it seems OK. Definitely some vibration, but not like before where it wasn't moving at all, and felt like the car was literally going to shake apart. I call my boss and tell him why I'm late, and that I'm going to try to make it down there driving the car slowly, but that I'm not sure it will make it. I was only 2 or 3 miles away, but I wanted him to know what was going on in case.
So I gently make my way down there accelerating very slowly, all the while wondering "motor mount? CV axle?? TRANS?!?!" I get to work (nutritional supplement store) with a million things running through my mind on the car situation. I walk in and my boss asks "it made it?" I said yes, but I had to drive it very slowly, and it's still vibrating noticeably. Something is most definitely messed up. So he says "well.....not to add insult to injury but.....I'm going to have to lay you off".......
:th_wtf:
I knew it was going to happen at some point. I've been there 15 years, and I know the last 6 or 7 have been a struggle, with the last year being the worst. He had warned us several times that at any moment, severe changes might have to be made in the personnel. In fact, I was the last remaining full time employee. The only other person left is one semi-retired picker/packer in the warehouse, who works 3-4 hours a day 2-3 days a week (if it's too busy for my boss to handle on his own), and a couple part timers for the weekend, so I can't say I didn't know it was coming. It's been at least a good 6 years of "any day now", but I was so preoccupied with what just happened with the car that I wasn't even thinking about it, so it still took me by surprise. He apologized up and down, and went over all the figures from the last few weeks, but I didn't need to hear it. I managed the store. I knew what was happening. So I got my last paycheck and unused 2 weeks vacation pay, gathered my belongings and limped the car right back home.
There are some pluses to all this, though. In the long run, I think this is for the best and is actually kind of the scenario I was hoping for because quite honestly, I had been sick of the job for some time now. He moved the business a good 15 miles NE of where we used to be about 6 years ago, so my 7 minute drive became more like 35 minutes each way. The drive just started killing me the last few years, especially with all the construction and dealing with that many miles worth of morons who can't drive. I was also tired of dealing with the public. There is nothing quite like working retail to make you loose all faith in mankind. The utterly stupid questions, the people trying to squeeze you down to 0 profit, the incompetent parents letting their kids run around and destroy the store (opening or rearranging bottles, pulling off or moving price tags, etc) while they just stand there....makes you want to punch a baby sometimes.
So needless to say, I was definitely in need of a change. Problem was I was making "so-so" money, meaning too little to be happy with, yet too much to leave and start all over again somewhere, so I couldn't bring myself to quit. At least by being laid off, I have SOME kind of safety net income with unemployment, not to mention access to paid-for training programs/classes while I take some time to figure out what I want to do/try some other ventures. I had been toying with the idea of selling junkyard car parts for a living for years, and this way, I have some flexibility in giving that a try without worrying about what I'm going to do if it falls through. If it takes off, I have a vision of what I'd like to do with that concept, but one thing at a time.
I know when everything settles, I'm going to be happy this all turned out the way it did. It's just that at this point, it's shock more than anything. When something is part of your life for 15 years, it's very weird to get used to the concept of getting up in the morning, and saying "...oh.....we don't do that anymore". I'm sure I'll get passed that soon enough, but for now, it's a really awkward feeling. Guess that's kinda' why I'm babbling to a bunch of strangers about it.
