Sorry this follow-up to my first article is soooo late. I have been in the middle of a move and it got crazy. Back and forth from the old place to the new, cleaning up the old place, getting rid of a lot of stuff – BUT we are now fully situated in our new place. The next step is to get things organized and put in place.
Let's continue from where I left off….
The Downhill Slide – Trying To Push A Snowball Up A Hill
The year is 2007 and we just went through bankruptcy – except for the house that is. We wanted to keep the house as we didn't want to move away from the country and the ten acres we were on. Something about nature and having the freedom to run through the woods and see the kids enjoy the outdoors kinda got to us.
With the bankruptcy behind us, we were a little less stressed and were hopeful to get back on our feet. Even at this time I was still not working full time and although we were up on our mortgage payments, we were behind on our property taxes (which cannot go through bankruptcy).
There's a little story to the property tax issue. Basically, we weren't given the homestead papers when we first moved in and when the tax bill came – it was a surprise to say the least! The township wouldn't correct the mistake and we had to pay it anyway. This put us behind the eight ball from the start – with the property taxes.
Not working a full-time job, I did what I could to make ends meet. Anything from computer repair, programming, etc. so I could pay the mortgage, feed my family and pay the bills. At the same time, I always had my dream in the back of my mind. I built a relationship with a guy who was starting his own company that focused on Managed IT Services called U.S. Teks (If you are in the Helena, AL area, look him up.). He asked me to be a sales rep. for his company for the Michigan area, but frankly, my heart just wasn't in it and I knew deep down it wasn't what I wanted to do.
The Sun Started Peeking Through The Clouds
With funds low, and hope even lower – I started putting out resumes and responding to job offers online and through contracting companies. In late 2007, I ended going to work for a software company that created application tailored toward the healthcare industry. I worked there for six months and ended up leaving due to personal reasons and went back to work for a previous company (also in the healthcare industry).
I was brought on-board due to a good reputation with the people I worked with in the company back in 2006 and because they wanted to implement a Data Warehouse for the claims data they produce for the State of Michigan. This is what I was waiting for (atleast to start bringing in some decent income).
The company needed a lot of re-organization when it came to how they were managing their applications that ran the biggest part of their business – medical claims for Medicaid. I jumped right in and started taking a long, hard look at how things could be improved and how it could be made better, more efficient, etc.
Here Comes The Rain Again
I seemed to run into opposition at every corner…but I figured, I'm the new guy, so it's going to take some time. I continued to do my job and improve the application that I was running for their monthly claims processing. One thing was nagging at me though… I was originally brought on to design and build a healthcare data warehouse.
It's been almost a year, and not a whole lot has been dedicated to that project. I've mainly been doing a glorified operator's job instead of what I was skilled at – programming and database design. At the one year mark, the company hired on a new supervisor – and boy was that a BIG mistake!
I'll spare you the in-depth details, but needless to say this new supervisor was out to get me from the get go. I know, you probably think it was all in my head – but I lived it and it wasn't purty – know what I mean! When someone doesn't take you seriously, thinks you aren't pulling your load and tries to sabotage the work you put in before they arrived – what would you think?
At one point, I verbally lashed out at her while she was at my desk in the 4-space cubicle – although later I apologized – the damage was already done and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be working their much longer. Lo and behold, October 1st, 2009 this new supervisor came to my desk and told me that the Director (my previous supervisor) wanted to speak to me in her office (this was around 5 PM). I got up, locked my computer and followed her.
Walking behind her, I walk past my previous supervisor's office following her further down the hall to the final destination – the human resources office! I walked in with the new supervisor, who then sat down next to my previous supervisor (now the director of our dept.) and the HR person in her chair.
Ever get that feeling when you walk into a room – that something is up?
This was one of those moments. I proceeded to sit down at the far end of the table facing my old and new supervisors and the HR person to the right of me. There was some brief discussion and then I was given the…
PINK SLIP!
That's right! They let me go.
I told my wife a few months before this happened that I was not happy with what I was doing, not only that, the company deceived me because I was not working on the project they brought me onboard for. Eighteen months working for a company and not even utilizing a fraction of what I knew and was trained to do – very sad indeed. More so for them, then for myself.
Needless to say, I was quite relieved that I was let go. I remember vividly, when I got home I didn't tell my wife right away. I waited until later, asked her if she wanted a cup of wine (calm the nerves – ya know!) as I wanted to talk to her. She knew something was up.
I sat back on the couch calmly and said to her that I was let go from my job. She, of course, knew I wasn't happy with my job but now we have no source of income. To add insult to injury, a couple of weeks later I received a phone call from our bank. They stated that I was behind on the mortgage and wanted to know if I was going to make the payment. I told the bank that I wouldn't be making the payment because I lost my job.
Their reply, "That's all we needed to know."
I thought to myself – "What kind of reply is that?" Aren't they going to try and work a deal or possibly reduce the payment until I get back on my feet? Nothing!
About a month later we received the foreclosure proceeding paper work. We had six months (so we thought, if you are on 3 acres or more you have a year to redeem) to redeem the house. Later we found out since we were on 10 acres of land, we had one year to redeem the house. To redeem, we would have to pay up to date the mortgage, interest and property taxes. There was no way we could do it, we knew ultimately we were going to lose our home.
I know that my story has been a rough ride, with a lot of downs and very few ups (a reverse roller coaster ) but the sun will shine through as you keep focused on your dream. I'll tell that part of it next.
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Patrick Whitson has spent more than twenty years in the computer field programming and designing web sites for such companies as J. Walter Thompson, Ford, MSX Intl., White Castle, Delphi and many small to mid-sized businesses. Moving out of corporate America, he decided to work specifically with local businesses to help them market online using their own website. He has worked with many small businesses and is seeing them grow and bring in more customers with Lapeer Website Design.
