A Discovery

So this morning, I was pondering prayer, and I noted that one of my most memorable times to pray was when my time at US Cellular was coming to an end. That job was good for a time, but it didn't end well, and I found today that I still have quite a bit of bitterness over it that I need to get past. I guess I knew that already, but it hit me kind of hard this morning when I prayed about it.

The thing with USCC is that I had a supervisor that was terrible. Easily the worst I've ever had and hopefully the worst I ever will have. They were obviously looking to get rid of me as I received disciplinary stuff for all kinds of weird "offenses." My car's transmission decided to crap out on me, and so I was late because I had to limp that car back home, and get the other one along with waking every up so that the Queen could keep it. Written up for being late because "I always have an excuse." I was also written up for being late...during an ice storm and when the highways were completely snowed under.

Anyway, having been written up for this and actually setup on an official company performance improvement plan for failing to take responsibility for my actions (I suppose the transmission failure was my fault to an extent, you know - I should have known it would make me late), I was rather flustered. I prayed now and again about it, but it kept getting worse, and the stress of being on the verge of job death just made me lash out. Finally, I was past the date when it was supposed to have been reviewed. I had switched supervisors. I thought everything was going well, but it was still hanging out there. I finally said, "God, I don't know know what is supposed to happen with this, but thy will be done." I went to work, and shot off an email asking that the improvement plan be put to rest one or the other since it was past the date. I was fired the following day. How do you explain this in an interview? You can't say they were out to get you, because that doesn't fly. Easy answer. You don't. My official reasoning? "They said I wasn't dynamic." Not a lie either. That was part of their reasoning for firing me (along with clearly having issues with a female supervisor - yeah, they accused me of being sexist as well, which I did not include in any interviews). Yeah, I got a lot of confused looks.

But the lesson here is that after struggling for months at that job, I finally left the whole situation in God's hands, and he acted. Now, I'm in a job that is loads better than US Cellular. There is no comparison between the two. In less than a year, I was back up to the pay rate I had before. The hours are better. The management is better. The work I do is better. And here's the kicker: I didn't apply for it. I had my resume out on a couple sites, but this job is not one that I even knew about. I was contacted, interviewed, and hired based on the title of my job at US Cellular. And to top that off, that title actually had very little to do with this job.

God had a plan to improve my life at that time, and all I had to do was turn it over to him and let him do it. I still find that amazing.

But I was still fired for a stupid reason.