.
Yep, after 6 1/2 years I got fired today for the internet activities I mentioned here.
And it was specifically mentioned that the theme of my blog surfing being religion was against their diversity principles and that someone somewhere in the company might become offended. I usually went to Catholic blogsites when at work. They also sited my involvement with Lonelygirl15 as an issue. But I never went to any site of hers. I posted a comment to a Catholic blog (BettNet.com) about her and read a news article discussing her. My department head said that that was age-inappropriate.
I asked her what she meant by that and she said something about them not allowing girlie magazines in the workplace. Gawd! If she only knew what she was talking about! Bree has nothing in common with a girlie magazine.
Does anybody know what age-inappropriate means? Would it have made a difference if Bree was 32?
Ah,well. So, another bump in the road in the life of the Lonely Man. I guess I was doing personal stuff on company time. But my time on the phone with customers was within guidelines (I spent the most time on the phone on my whole team) and my collection activities were high enough last month when I did all the blogging to earn me a sizable bonus.
Do you think I can get paid as a professional blogger? Heh!
Okay, gentle reader, you know what this means. This means I need your prayers. I want God to guide me in my career decisions. I want wisdom.
Thank you.
18 comments:
Ouch! So sorry to hear that Tim. I will keep you in my prayers. I will pray to St. Joseph for you.
Good night.
Ohhh Tim! That really bites. If we trust that He will lead us to a better plac than we can imagine, He always has a purpose. I guess I didn't see LG15 as a thing...hmmm go figure with all the real pervies in the world.
Sorry to hear about your job. BTW LG15 turned out to be a hoax. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14833332/
Tim- I am so sorry! Prayers going up!
You have my prayers.
It's Las Vegas and there are plenty of jobs around. I'm sure you'll bounce back soon enough.
God bless.
Tim: This sucks. I'm taking this to heart. I probably spend more time then I should online while at work too. I better watch it from now on.
I pray you find work soon.
I will pray, Tim.
I'm so sorry.
Donna
Prayers your way-
so sorry! You are the third person I know that has been fired for blogging at work...
!!!
oh gosh - i am so sorry -- i was just cautioning one of my servers about his myspace - future employers look into those, too. it's a scary place.
prayers going up, tim.
Did they give you an employee manual, in writing, where this policy was discussed and detailed? Did you have to sign to acknowledge?
If the answer are "No", get a lawyer and sue. Also, you are over 40, and a therefore a protected class.
-signed employment practices insurance guy
Yikes! I guess "diversity" means "conform to our ideology or else".
Which is what it always means...
Tim -
So sorry to hear about this. I, too, was fired last summer for blogging. It was the beginning of a very long and very painful road, but God was faithful (even as I failed to be). Just over a year later, and He has restored my life to me and then some, a la Job.
I share that just to encourage you to keep your head bowed and your spirits up. God will lead you through this time of turmoil if you will only follow Him.
God Bless.
Tim, man, hard to know what to say. Please know I will be in prayer. If you've followed any of my story you know I have been un to underemployed now for a year. I resigned but the end was the same. I left my day job as a Protestant minister to become a Catholic. I have missed out on a number of hires now and I am fairly sure some of them have been because I am Catholic. Listen, I will be praying for you.
Tim,
I didn't comment before but I just want you to know you've been in my prayers. I hope all is well--and I pray this was really a blessing in disguise for you!
Well that sucks! I'll pray you get a better (higher-paying job)!
First of all, you worked for a collections agency, people who are notorious for being lying, bullying, thieving, threatening pigs. I fail to see the loss. Maybe this is God telling you that your job was pretty sleazy to begin with.
I know what these people are capable of even when they're wrong. I was harrassed physically, verbally and financially and my family members were, as well, all over something that was never mine to begin with. Even after proving this debt was some other woman's, living several states away, I was STILL harrassed, because the agency in question just sold the debt to someone else.
Sorry if I don't weep for your loss. If you had the kind of job a grown-up, decent, honorable person has, I might feel bad, but I don't because you worked for pond scum and probably did some pretty scummy things yourself along the way.
Secondly, forty year old men who are dicking around discussing "lonleygirl15" while someone else is paying them for their time ARE being age-inappropriate.
Blogging and reading your personal interest blogs while being paid to work for someone is age-inappropriate, no matter what that personal interest is. If you want to read Catholic blogs 24/7, then go on welfare and sit at home and read Catholic blogs 24/7. No less honorable than working for a collections agency and at least you wouldn't be harrassing decent, hard-working, good, honest people for a living.
So, um, whatever. Get a clue, get a life, get a real job, and lay off your personal interests on the 'net while you're at work.
Congratulations, Anonymous, you are my first detractor on this blog.
Of course, I think it interesting that you did not post your name. My respoect for you would be higher if you had.
Ok, first of all, I won't delete your comments. You make some points that give me an opportunity to describe myself more to my gentle readers.
Let's address them.
I never lied, bullied, thieved, or threatened anyone, let alone one of my customers. I am a Christian and a professional. My job was a God-given blessing.
You seem to have had a bad experience with bill collectors. I am sorry that happened to you, you did not deserve that.
I still fail to understand what age-inappropiateness means. Honestly, I think my dept mgr was a little nervous and at a loss for words when she said that. She seemed to be trying to say there was something lewd about my discussing lonelygirl15. She’s British and maybe just couldn’t come out and accuse me of some sort of sexual wrongdoing. You have a point when you say I was doing all this on company time. I was. But, I wasn’t taking any time off calling my customers, it was all done in between calls, as I said, I was the only one on my collections team that was meeting the time requirement of actually manning the phone line to be available to call our customers. Furthermore, I earned a fat bonus last month when I was doing all this blogging on company time, which shows that it didn’t effect my effectivity in collecting debts.
I thank you for your input. It has proved quite illuminating and may even help me in the future. I hope you come back to respond, but since I am not set up like Bettnet where you can get notified when someone responds on the comment section then I doubt you will. You may be one of the trolls who just leave an inflammatory post and never return.
God bless you, sir and thanks for sharing.
Age-inappropriate means that it is beyond immature for a man of your age to be discussing some sexed-up little bimbette from YouTube while you're on the job. Actually, that kind of activity is the stuff that most human resources people and legal departments totally freak out over. It's a lot more likely that a female employee can build a successful sexual harrassment suit against your employer because of material you may have discussed or had displayed on your computer terminal than it is for you to build a successful wrongful termination suit because they fired you. You bring up age, and they bring up the fact that you were making the environment uncomfortable for the female employees, and they win, hands down. Your true motivation doesn't count. It's all about perception, and if you were perceived to be pursuing a sexually-charged interest, you're a huge liability to any company.
That the blogs you were frequenting were mostly religious in nature doesn't make the fact that you were essentially using company time to read online diaries (for all that most bloggers think they're serious journalists, they're not). It's unseemly. And religious stuff, again, can make other employees feel uncomfortable. Rightly or wrongly, the current atmosphere is going to side with your employer if he can show that another employee felt that your religious interests were oppressive.
I'm serious about the blessing from God in disguise. Collections agents are not respected people in this society, and, even if you're a nice person who plays by the rules, the truth is that the majority of collection agencies are pretty sleazy. You don't know where those debts were purchased from or if they're legitimate. You may be the third or fourth company that's purchased them.
Why not use the time you have to find a job that adds something positive to society rather than one that preys on people?
And next time you have so much free time on a job, why not use it to study something that would further your career? Think of all the time you spent blogging or reading blogs, or formulating theories about lonelygirl15 - you could've studied for a course you'd signed up for, or pursued a creative writing project (on yellow legal paper and with a ballpoint pen - can't be traced like your internet activity can...).
Sorry to be so harsh, but I hate collection agencies. I know too much now.
And ALWAYS stay away from ANYTHING that can be construed as sexual or sexist in an office situation, no matter how casual and relaxed the environment seems to be.
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