I adore my mother. She's without question one of the strongest, funniest and most caring people that I know, or ever will know. She's where I get my ridiculous and offensive sense of humor from and I am eternally grateful for that. Not to offend any of the rest of ya'll, but she's probably the best mother out there. We didn't have much growing up but somehow we always had enough, and we always were able to do fun stuff and have nice things. And she loves all three of her kids (who'd have guessed I'd grow up to be less of a problem child than the brother, huh?), regardless of how much we screw up or how many bad decisions we make. And she's been through so much with us; accidents, weeks in the NICU (with both us and the grandkids), substance issues and overall stupidity. She's also probably where I inherited my sometimes misguided sense of loyalty. We're both extremely loyal, to the point where it is sometimes detrimental to our own well being (cue the meltdown I should be having about how I've turned into my mother). For me, this flaw surfaced in my last relationship drama. For her, it's surfacing in her work life. And that's not a good thing at all.
For most of my childhood, mom worked at a bank, a job she did very well and had started long before we came along. Then, she was laid off and ended up at a financial company that also eventually laid employees off and left town. She finally was able to settle in during our teen years in the pawnbroker business, beginning as an employee and then ascending up the ranks to management. It seemed as though she would be managing her own store soon when a customer came in to try and buy a gun illegally and she refused to sell it to them. Her own manager said to do the sale, but she still refused because if that gun was then used to commit a crime, she would be wide open to charges being filed against her. Plus, it was, you know, illegal anyway. She was fired for that and unemployed for a few years, before moving and finding a new job that she wasn't crazy about. A few job changes later, she's at a place she loathes that is a complete fucking mess and has caused her more stress than any other job she's had. As if that weren't enough, it's also now costing her the chance to find a better work situation.
I've discussed this place my mother works at before, the last post being about when they did not issue her a paycheck and "didn't know" when they'd be able to do so. This is the kind of shit that is the norm there. She used to get monthly bonuses that rarely came on time, if they came at all, and recently received a raise that has not yet been put into the system nearly three months after she was promoted. It's always chalked up to being that the one person in the whole company who does the financials is too busy to take care of it or some other crap excuse. She's so jaded by the pay issues that she doesn't even have the energy to fight about them anymore, which is costing her a dollar an hour every single day. There are far more issues beyond that, but we'll be here forever if I list them all. She's wanted to leave and hopefully get back into banking or office work for sometime now, but only got serious about it a year ago. Since then, she's been applying and sending out resumes and getting some interest. But everything has ultimately ended up falling through, which fucking sucks. She had a wonderful interview late last year with a company that wanted her to run a new division of their business (my mom is total management material, she could manage a small country if need be). There was a second interview and she'd been told by one of the interviewers that she would likely be hired as all their other candidates were less experienced. A week went by with no word and then, only after she contacted them, they said they'd decided not to hire anyone at that time. Another job she lost out on went to a far less experienced co-worker who's only talent was for fucking around on the clock, rather than working. Last week, she was invited to test for a job with the city and did so earlier in the week. She didn't think she would get it because of her scores but they asked to interview her and sounded quite interested. Unfortunately, the snow overtaking the country closed other divisions of her company and left her site as the only one open, meaning they're super busy. She's also the only supervisor in town from yesterday til Monday because the scheduling is fucking stupid. They wanted her to interview on Wednesday, but she couldn't and said as much while thanking them for the opportunity. They responded by asking if she wasn't interested or if the time was just inconvenient and offered up other times, but she said Tuesday was the earliest and it wasn't fair to make them wait that long. They need to make a decision before that so they wished her well and that was all, folks.
Sadly, I don't think any of us gets our hopes up when mom gets a lead on a job, even if there's an interview. Because it hasn't worked out yet and it's inevitably a letdown when it doesn't. But I had a good feeling about this one and I think she would've gotten it if not for her loyalty to the hell hole she works in now. Everyone in that places comes and goes as they please for whatever reason they want, including interviews with other companies, but she's never done that. Part of that is because of the money obviously, but the other is just that she isn't that kind of person. Love it or hate it, you do the job you are being paid to do. But that's interfering with her being able to find something better and more fulfilling. I suspect that if she'd called in sick and done the interview, she probably would've gotten the job. We talked about all of this today and I told her basically what I'm writing here, that she should just fuck that place and go for it the next time she gets a lead on something. Surprisingly, she agreed and says she intends to do just that. I hope it works out that way, and I hope she gets out from under it very soon. She's way too good for that place.
