Jobless in Seattle

Well it had to happen sometime, especially with all of the signs we had at Place Architects, I and 5 others got laid off. That is 60% of the people working at Place. And it is all because of the bosses lack luster performance/clock out. We could all still be working there if she wouldn't of blown 4 potential jobs, two of which could of kept the firm going for a year minimum.

Now I am jobless in Seattle, during the slowest month for architecture in a recession. Gee, thanks.

You would not believe all of the shinanigans that led up to the day for all of us to get laid off. First there is a dismissal of all the employees so the Seattle supervisor could talk with the boss in Vancouver, BC about there basically being no money to pay the staff come December 15 payroll. Where upon we are told be as billable as you can, right before Thanksgiving weekend, with the implied notion of working on Thanksgiving day, I don't think so and screw you too Heather. Ok, well I come back from lunch that same day to only find out that all of us in the office are going to be interviewed for a job, from some other architect who might hire us all and even take over the office. WTF! But before the interviews the boss calls and says how she is all great for setting this up for us and that she will still be involved, WTF! again.

So we all go through interviews, without really knowing what this architects project is all about or even if he has the job that we would all be hired for. Crazy, just crazy. Of course we will not know anything for a couple of weeks if this other architect has the job (and of course we still don't know, but I am not counting on that job at all).

Of course we are all wondering what is going to happen now, and won't find out until after Thanksgiving, which is a week away. Well, after having a pins and needles Thanksgiving break the week rolls on by and the next monday comes, Heather is there in person to tell us that she is trying to work things out but she will probably have to lay some people off but won't know until Friday. Again, I come back from lunch to find out we are all having individual conferences with Heather down at the coffee shop, were of course she lays off 6 of us. She wanted to lay off 7 people but 2 employees got here to keep one other to help finish up jobs in the office. Our last day is that Friday, but I have had that day taken off for my ceramics fire, which means my last day will be that Thursday, December 4, 2008.

Well at the end of the day we have another staff meeting, were Heather tries to be friends with all of us, even though she is the one who has screwed us all over and wants to take us out for drinks on Friday. Well I am not going to be there, and other people have previous engagements, of course. So she wants to take us out to lunch instead, and gets all bent out of shape when I say I can't make it and wants me to take a lunch break, well sorry I am out on Whidbey Island doing a wood fire for ceramics, which I have planned for months.

I am so glad I had this lined up, because it gave me a great way to purge out Place, I got to start the wood fire with my left over business cards. Being out on Whidbey Island away from Seattle and Place Architects I could just feel all of my bad experiences just burn away.