The "Business" of Getting Fired

Work lately has been scary.

Work lately has had been scary.

I was fired yesterday. This is the first time in the many jobs that I have ever held that I have been terminated.

I kind of knew that it was going to happen when on Thursday I received an email from my boss saying "Please call the conference line".   However, because I was not feeling very well, I took the day off because I wanted to make sure that my son and I were okay.

Not to mention, he had a Mother's Day Pageant to perform at.  I'm not going to miss that for the world! Watching a whole bunch of 4 and 5 year olds belting it out for their moms is a sight not to be missed. Especially when they cry from stage fright. Yeah!

For those of you that don't know, I was working for an online school for students in the state of Florida, grades K-12.  To spare them their humiliation of firing me, I will not mention this company's name.

I will, however, mention details of their "business", as they call it. It's not a "school". I have heard people and others refer to this job as a "business".  The last time I heard, "teaching" was about caring about the success of their students.

In any case, I worked for these individuals for about a year and nine months.

The day before I got fired, I found out that one of my team mates had gotten sacked as well. She had been there for NINE years!!!  I happened to think, "well, this may be the writing on the wall for me".

I returned to work on Friday. Got an invite for a conference call at 3 pm.  I graded. I made phone calls. I waited. I read a book. I ate a sandwich. I texted students.  And sure enough, at 3 pm, I received a number from my boss telling me to call Employee Relations.

I was "terminated due to performance".

I will admit that a few months ago, my performance was terrible. I had grown close to a family that I was living with. The husband died after a lengthy illness and I was depressed. I tried not to let his passing bother me, but I just didn't care anymore.   However, in recent months and certainly weeks, I was able to bring my performance back up to what my firing boss had called "rock star status".

Several aspects of the "Business" is that you're supposed to have monthly contact with the parents or guardians of your students. You are to grade all assignments on the same day that they are received. You must contact students frequently for oral exams and to make sure they're doing well, etc.

Well...to give you a scenario.  At one point I had 253 students.  If they're supposed to submit at least 2 assignments a day, multiply 253X2.  That is 506 assignments a day, each day. Monday through Friday. 506 assignments X  = 1530 assignments a week.  Now, you will have some students that do not submit work for a while. You will have some students who are overzealous and submit a whole ton of work!

I'm a fast grader on the computer. I read fast. I could grade an assignment a minute. so, if you think about 506 minutes that equals about 8.5 hours a day of grading.  Then you have to answer the phone and talk to parents and students.

Some parents and students want to tell you about their entire lives. One mom told me about her severe kidney issues. I felt badly for her so I listened to her for 45 minutes.

Because they said, "you will be out of compliance if your queue is not graded by the end of the day", I focused more on that and speaking with my students rather than updating parents. I would send out a mail merge via Word and Excel to the parents and tell them to "please respond" to my email. It was very similar to a progress report.

The parents would respond, but their style of response was not to the satisfaction of my bosses.  My bosses boss, who as several coworkers and I claimed sounded like a dog when she spoke to us through the online learning platforms we used to teach lesson. (Think about that!  She was a dog of the female variety anyways.)

My coworkers and I complained at great lengths that we felt this was glorified slavery, even though we got paid for it.  There was no longer any joy in our work.

During my phone call, my immediate boss sounded exhausted. She sounded annoyed. I have to say that I felt really badly for her since I knew what was coming. She kept the conversation short and brief.

 "Hi Renata. You're here today because we are not going to renew your contract for 2013-14."

"Okay."

"You're being terminated effective today. You'll receive your final paycheck and two weeks of severance the next paycheck".

"Okay".

I was non-chalant and blasé about the whole thing.  Because I was terminated, I can never work for them again. I thought it was interesting because some places will fire a person and say, "you cannot work here again for at least a year".  Oh well.  I view it as a learning experience. I was able to learn how to do many things that were technological, so I can at least take those experiences and go somewhere else with those. :D

I told the HR lady, "I would hate to have your job of telling someone they no longer work for (INSERT ONLINE SCHOOL HERE). At least, I know God has something better for me than to grade all day and ignore my son for the mere fact that I work on my computer all day and am unable to take a shower for fear of missing a phone call. My talents were being wasted anyways. I will miss my students and the people I worked with at the school I helped service in Miami. I just don't get it because I had everything under compliance in recent weeks.  In any case, I am going to go ride my bike and smell the fresh air!  It does kind of suck you firing me at the end of Teacher Appreciation Week, so I don't feel very appreciated. Have a pleasant Mother's Day. Good bye!"

I hung up. I was not angry. I was not even sad. I was actually quite relieved and happy!  I decided to do some hula hoops in the front yard.

I rode my bike around the neighborhood. I took pictures of the river from a bridge during sunset.

I will get to see my mom in a few weeks and not worry about being bugged for phone calls!  I am so happy!

One thing that was really funny though was that my students wanted to do some oral exams with me after I got fired, so I gave them my bosses and my bosses superior's phone numbers and said "Here...this person will do your oral exam with you."

I feel that this event was just what I needed to get me started in the right direction. As my mom said to me, "This job is not for you!  God has something better for you!"

Sometimes, I've been told by my friends that I live in Fantasy Land.  Maybe I do, but I am genuinely happy that now I have that push for myself in the right direction.

I have two MFA's in Graphic Design and Creative Writing. I have a BA in Spanish.  I want to teach English overseas.  I've got lots of things that I want to do and accomplish. Now I think I can do all of that!!

Let's see what things are in store for me!

This event occurred on May 10th, 2013.