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Michael T. Barrett
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Jan
30
I applied for 7 more positions today, bringing my total for the week to 17. I have continuously checked Computer Jobs, JobServe, Indeed.com, HotJobs, Monster.com, CyberCoders, and Career Builder. I have put in applications with private companies, government contractors, and large corporations. I am willing to work down the road in Atlanta, Marietta, or even North Georgia.
Attention employers: You can start the callbacks anytime now.
Someone sent me this cartoon the other day. I couldn’t help but think of the Big Fat Liar. In fact, that cartoon pretty much summed up the entire time I worked for him.
In December of 2000, he agreed to purchase our small company. He never did. He hired my wife and I and gave us stock options in the company. We never received a dime for our company.
A few months later he called me up to the main office (in Maryland) and told me he had to lay off my wife. He never did tell her. Not in person, not in email, not at all. He told me it was temporary, but it wasn’t.
After September 11th, he called in a panic. Apparently the company was going to fail unless the top executives at the company took pay cuts. So the four of us (including him) agreed to take a temporary 50% pay cut to save the company. It wasn’t temporary, and he never took the cut.
The lies didn’t end there.
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Jan
28
It’s been another busy day around here. Since everything that’s happening seems to be in flux at the moment, we decided to put ourselves on a schedule. Rise and shine with the morning sun, work our asses off til dinner, eat, then sleep. Rinse. Repeat. Of course, here I sit typing this post at 11:45pm. What a nice way to start going to bed early. Any bets on what time I actually get to sleep?
After searching all of the job sites and submitting more applications and resume’s I spent some time researching a couple other leads I had. When I finished the “morning shift” as I call it, I spent the afternoon working on a new website for a special customer of mine. Okay, she’s my wife, but she sure is special. She’s re-launching her business under a different brand, Buttercup 149. It’s more of a ‘local’ service, but we discussed one way it could become quite the service, even for those who are housebound.
I missed a lot of stuff today while I was working, but I had a lot of fun too.
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Jan
26
I hate liars. I mean, I really, really, hate liars. I know I am not supposed to hate, but when it comes to liars I cannot help myself. As you know I have been “let go” from my day job. As of this morning, they still owed me for one paycheck and six months of phone bills. Let’s review.
I first saw signs of trouble back in October of last year when I was informed I would not be re-imbursed for three months of phone bills until the company got “more money coming in”. Paying my phone bill was one of the benefits I had received for ten years so I should have suspected something then, I suppose. Fast forward to January of this year.
On Monday the 12th, I received a call from the now former boss (who we will call “Big Fat Liar”) telling me that I was no longer an employee but they wanted me to complete the current project I was working on under contract. The Big Fat Liar told me he could no longer afford to pay my salary, so he had no choice other than putting me under contract.
On Tuesday the 13th, after he learned that the incompetent fools he hired to replace me (yes I said fools, plural) couldn’t do the job, he called again to tell me that he needed me to finish the project immediately, but that I still wasn’t going to remain an employee. That’s right, he basically said, “You’re still fired, but I want you to work the remainder of the week”. Fat chance you Big Fat Liar.
In that same conversation he told me that my paycheck would not be direct deposited, and they were sending me a paper check. I figured, since they were letting me go, that was normal. No problem.
On Saturday the 17th I still hadn’t received my check. As you know there is no mail on Sunday, and Monday was a federal holiday. When Tuesday (the 20th) rolled around, I still didn’t get my check. That’s when I realized there might be a problem. A big problem.
Jan
23
Just a quick note this evening.
I spent the week doing what a lot of people who are fired or laid off do their first week. I played on Facebook. No, seriously, I did. While I was playing on facebook I also completed sprucing up my resume’ and developed a nice cover letter to go with it. I also created a business card that I can hand out if I go to job fairs or other such events.
Speaking of job fairs, there is going to be one on January 28th and I am thinking of going just to get my resume in more places. I filled out two applications for different jobs at one company and I have had follow up contact already from them. I hope that’s a good sign. I must have applied for 30 different jobs this week. I was shocked there were so many to apply for.
On Wednesday I went down to the Unemployment office and filled out all that paperwork. When it gets started I will be receiving $330 per week, which will help us make the house payment until I get working again. Unemployment in Georgia hit 8.1% and that was before I became a statistic.
Speaking of statistics, the now former employer finally sent me an email confirming I was fired. I hadn’t heard from anyone at the company for 11 days. I didn’t need their confirmation, but I did need their admission that they want to put me under contract, which means they can’t tell unemployment I was let go because of poor job performance. It’s all good now.
Well, I have more to do tonight before I hit the sack. I’ll post something more in-depth sometime tomorrow (if I can find the time).
Jan
20
President Barack Hussein Obama
Category: Our Nation | Comments Off | 2,583 words | Print
Earlier today, Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office and was sworn in as our nation’s 44th president.
Things were a little awkward when Mr. Obama started repeating Chief Justice Roberts before he finished speaking. Both of them seemed a bit nervous, but heck, who wouldn’t be nervous standing there in front of 2 million people?
I did notice one thing, as you can tell by the title of this post. Former President Clinton was introduced as William Jefferson Clinton and President Bush was introduced as George Walker Bush, yet Mr. Obama was introduced as Barack H. Obama. I bet you didn’t even notice. I could care less about his middle name, but I found it odd that all of the others were introduced with their middle names, yet someone felt the need to refrain from using Mr. Obama’s middle name when announcing him over the loudspeaker.
He did, however, use his middle name while taking the oath of office, which is the important part. While I am rather pessimistic that he will actually fulfill any of his campaign promises, I am hopeful that he will succeed in keeping our country safe and doing the best job he can while serving as Commander-In-Chief and leader of the free world.
Congratulations President Obama.
The following is President Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration speech.
Jan
19
Thank You
Category: Our Nation | Comments Off | 524 words | Print
Tomorrow, Barack Hussein Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Mr. Obama’s election to the highest office in the land is truly historic. As he takes the oath of office he ill be the first black president in our nation’s history.
I congratulate him and when he is sworn in he will be my President. I did not vote for him and I do not support any of his policies, but he will get the same respect every other president has received from me in the past.
I have been to a few websites tonight that say we shouldn’t “rush to judgement” if he makes a few mistakes and that we should all be patient while he deals with the problems facing our country. I disagree. While he will enjoy the same level of respect as President, he will also be subject to the same level of criticism as any other president. These people who now call for patience and understanding had neither while President Bush was in office. Where was that hesitation to rush to judgement when he made a mistake? Where was that patience while he dealt with the problems facing our country? These people sound just a bit hypocritical to me.
Barack Obama should not be treated any differently than any other president. Doing so would imply that he should be treated differently, and that’s really not true. His skin may be a darker color than any other president in our nation’s history, but that doesn’t mean he should be held to a different standard than any other president either.
In just over 12 hours President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will board a helicopter and begin their journey home.
Jan
17
I am so disappointed tonight. We have no snow right now, at all. I really shouldn’t be disappointed, no one said there would be any accumulation. I did, however, expect it to be snowing. You know, falling from the sky.
We had a few errands to run today. We saw sleet and a few flakes, but it was all over in 15 minutes. If I am going to have to endure temperatures of 10 – 40 degrees for a week, I expect snow. I guess it’s good it didn’t snow earlier because we had a lot to get done.
We ran a copy of Gidget’s new brochure over to Staples to have 100 copies printed. The kid working in the print center was a genius and helped her make some changes that look absolutely fantastic. He spent a lot of time working with her to make it right, and after printing the 100 copies, we found out the cost was almost double what we were expecting. It was our fault I guess for not asking about the price before he started the final print.
After our run to Staples, I took my mom to Target for the coffee she likes to drink. It’s one of those International Foods flavors and there isn’t a store in our area that carries it. None. The closest store that carries it is 45 miles away, and she doesn’t like making that drive, so I took her.
As we arrived back in town the sleet started again and I got my hopes up. That was stupid.
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Jan
16
The week ended just as busy as it started. You’d think that someone who found out they were unemployed would have a few more minutes during the day, but I didn’t. It seemed the more I tried to get done, the less time I had to finish it. It’s weird how that works.
The biggest shock of the week came when the now former employer called me to mention that he would like me to finish some parts of the project. In the 24 hours that passed since he told me I was no longer “employee material”, he must have realized that the foreigner he hired to replace me couldn’t complete it after all. The drawback, and straw that broke the camel’s back, was his insistence that upon completion of my portion of the project, I still wouldn’t be “employee material”.
Thats like saying, “Whoops, I need you to finish this work, but you’re still fired when you’re done”. I don’t think so. He mentioned making my position a contract position (no regular pay, no benefits, no chance in hell I would do it), but I didn’t hear another word all week.
I’m glad I didn’t fall for his diabolical plan, because my paycheck did not arrive as expected on payday.
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Jan
13
When I said I thought the weekend was busy, I had no idea what busy was. After the past two days, I now know what busy is. It all started on Monday when I learned that the company I have devoted the past ten years to working countless hours for has decided that I am no longer “employee” material.
I first contracted with them in 1998 when our oldest son was just three months old. I was put in charge of developing a new company website and creating a new vehicle tracking website for one of the nation’s major shipping companies. The result of that project led to the purchase of our company and my wife and I were hired full time in December of 2000.
While I enjoyed the benefit of working from home, it also meant I was available 24 hours a day. When the servers went down, I was the one they called. When the president of the company went to Europe to sell a system, I was the one working at 3am to make sure things went smooth during the demo.
My wife was “laid-off” in February of 2001, yes, just three months after we were hired full time, and my pay was cut by 50 percent in an effort to “save the company” after the September 11th attack.
Jan
11
What a weekend. I can’t believe it’s Sunday night already. I have been out of it all weekend but I finally caught up.
Over the course of the past two weeks I have been “catching up” with the television series, “24″. Truth be told, I had never seen an episode before two weeks ago. My mom has the entire collection on DVD and started loaning them to me so I could catch up in time to follow along with season 7 as it transpires.
I overslept Friday night and didn’t get up until after noon on Saturday. I had a million things to take care of, but this sinus infection has been knocking me (and the entire family) on our butts. I started season 4 last night and watched it while I was working on some code for the day job.
Tonight, I will finish up season 4 and my mom will come over tomorrow with seasons 5 and 6. I should be all caught up by next Monday night. Don’t worry, I recorded the season premiere tonight and will record the second half tomorrow night as well. I should be caught up in time for next Monday’s episode.
But that’s not all that happened this weekend.