Today I got fired. Sort of, as I'll explain. Certainly it was a surreal and unexpected and experience, but actually a good thing, bringing resolution and certainty.
It started with the Director asking me to meet with him and HR that afternoon. Now I don't know about you, but I have a deep-rooted suspicion of HR, and having them represented at a meeting is always bad - it's just degrees of badness that differ in my experience. Anyway, after a morning of butterflies and anxious thoughts I walked into the conference room to find not one but two HR officers in attendance with the aformentioned Director... Things just went from bad to Hyper-Serious in approximately one milisecond. A brief round of introductions later then things turned to business.
The sinking feeling I'd been nursing rapidly developed to one of bewilderment as the Director began to read from a prepared statement. He looked up occasionally, casting reassuring glances at the wall behind me. Mentions were made of of poor business conditions, changed circumstance and other sundry comments which no longer registering in my increasingly startled brain. For their part, the silent HR's seated opposite provided sage agreeance to the scripted content. Gradually my jaw dropped as began to dawn on me that I was in the midst of the process of being terminated. I was being fired!
Now to be more accurate about the whole thing, I was actually in the process of being made redundant. To clarify for the novice, this is largely the same as being fired except HR hasn't succeeded in finding evidence to incriminate you of a dismissable offence, although they 've probably tried...
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