So, where was I? Oh yeah, I lost my job. Well, I sort-of lost my job...I should rephrase my earlier remark, I was "going to lose" my job. My boss came to me one day while I was in my office and said that I should start looking for another place of employment. He heard the powers that be were going to be letting people go. They had already laid-off the receptionist that had been with the company for the last 23 years. Yikes!
So I looked and I looked, and applied and applied again, posted my resume on Monster, Career Builders and other recruiting sites and interviewed...interviewed some more and then some more only to be told nearly 99.9% of the time, that I was "Over Qualified". I had expressed to many of these potential employers during my interview when the topic of pay and benefits arose, I knew I would not receive the same pay as I did at the current construction company I was working for. Yet, they chose to look past my experience and desire to work as part of their team and deny my employment based on the simple fact that I was over qualified.
This is when I started looking outside the realm of new home construction. My step-daughters mother, whom worked for Jenny Craig at the time, told me that I should come work for JC. With much hesitation I filled out an application and surprisingly, they called me back, interviewed me and hired me all within the same week. I was excited. New career, new attitude and I could lose the weight I wanted to lose all at the same time! Sounded like a great deal...
After working in the environment I had for nearly 15 years, meaning the population of my fellow employees being 99% male, I went back into an environment where I was not the minority any longer. At first, my experience there was great! I had fun in training (they put me up in a hotel for the week as training was over an hour away from home), got paid for the training and made a few new friends! Who wouldn't like that?
But once they placed me in a store, most everything went downhill from there. Now, working in the world of men for as long as I did built up my backbone. I learned not to take shit from people, mostly men, learned to be assertive and learned to hold my own among a predominantly male industry. I had moments when I wanted to cry and fall apart but I never did. Hell, if you were to have cried in front of any of the guys they would have torn me apart like it was a shark feeding frenzy! So I just never did.
But at Jenny Craig things were different. The women I worked with were nice, so I thought, and didn't say a bad word about me, to my face, and were my friends *rolls eyes*. After leaving JC I really could only consider 4 of the ladies I met there my honest to God friends that I don't think talked behind my back or stabbed me in the back.
I know there are two sides to every story but I truly believe that I didn't and couldn't have given any one of the women I worked with a reason to not like me or at least a reason to hate me. Some of my friends told me they treated me this way because I was a strong woman and didn't take their crap. I don't know what the issues were that they were dealing with in their own insignificant lives to have to hurt someone else to feel better about themselves, but I, for one, am glad I am gone from that place of back-stabbing and humiliation.
In March of 2008 I received a call from the school district that I had been applying to for the past 6 years asking if I'd be interested in interviewing for a Student Services assistant position. It couldn't have come at a better time...
So I looked and I looked, and applied and applied again, posted my resume on Monster, Career Builders and other recruiting sites and interviewed...interviewed some more and then some more only to be told nearly 99.9% of the time, that I was "Over Qualified". I had expressed to many of these potential employers during my interview when the topic of pay and benefits arose, I knew I would not receive the same pay as I did at the current construction company I was working for. Yet, they chose to look past my experience and desire to work as part of their team and deny my employment based on the simple fact that I was over qualified.
This is when I started looking outside the realm of new home construction. My step-daughters mother, whom worked for Jenny Craig at the time, told me that I should come work for JC. With much hesitation I filled out an application and surprisingly, they called me back, interviewed me and hired me all within the same week. I was excited. New career, new attitude and I could lose the weight I wanted to lose all at the same time! Sounded like a great deal...
NOT!
After working in the environment I had for nearly 15 years, meaning the population of my fellow employees being 99% male, I went back into an environment where I was not the minority any longer. At first, my experience there was great! I had fun in training (they put me up in a hotel for the week as training was over an hour away from home), got paid for the training and made a few new friends! Who wouldn't like that?
But once they placed me in a store, most everything went downhill from there. Now, working in the world of men for as long as I did built up my backbone. I learned not to take shit from people, mostly men, learned to be assertive and learned to hold my own among a predominantly male industry. I had moments when I wanted to cry and fall apart but I never did. Hell, if you were to have cried in front of any of the guys they would have torn me apart like it was a shark feeding frenzy! So I just never did.
But at Jenny Craig things were different. The women I worked with were nice, so I thought, and didn't say a bad word about me, to my face, and were my friends *rolls eyes*. After leaving JC I really could only consider 4 of the ladies I met there my honest to God friends that I don't think talked behind my back or stabbed me in the back.
I know there are two sides to every story but I truly believe that I didn't and couldn't have given any one of the women I worked with a reason to not like me or at least a reason to hate me. Some of my friends told me they treated me this way because I was a strong woman and didn't take their crap. I don't know what the issues were that they were dealing with in their own insignificant lives to have to hurt someone else to feel better about themselves, but I, for one, am glad I am gone from that place of back-stabbing and humiliation.
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| My poor attempt at drawing in MS Paint |
In March of 2008 I received a call from the school district that I had been applying to for the past 6 years asking if I'd be interested in interviewing for a Student Services assistant position. It couldn't have come at a better time...
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