So, I got laid off today...note to self, don't work so damned hard

[The Straight Story]

Wish I had got laid on, but that was not to be.

I got into work at 8am, the owner called me into his office and told me he had to let me go.

I asked if there was a problem with my work, the customer I handled was a difficult one but really liked me a lot. No. That was not the issue.

Simply put, they had hired 3 people full time in the last month, moved into new offices that cost a ton more money and the customer I handled had pre-paid for 2 years tech work so the work I did for them was non-billable - and since I got the main work done and they were happy, keeping me around would lose the company money.

I shit you not. I wish it had been something I did, at least that would be a good reason to me personally. Heck, yesterday I was on the phone with the CEO's wife of said customer and helping her out, and we she was pleased as punch with me and we spoke for about 20 minutes on things. And I was at home at the time, so it was work for free (I remoted in and fixed her issues, and the we talked about her own business and web site).

To make it all worse, they (the company that laid me off) called me this afternoon to make sure her issues were fixed, and I made sure to tell them that not only were they fixed (yesterday afternoon on my own time) but that she looked forward to working with me in the future (and other folks at the customer site were not happy with the previous techs they sent out, but they loved me).

And I know now that the new guy they hired will get laid off soon - they brought him in to help out with setting up 130 pcs for a client and centralizing how we manage them. Once that is all done, he will be gone next as they can handle things without him.

I quit a job making twice as much to work for them locally (less stress), and they promised to make me full time soon and I would get health insurance, etc. Two weeks after I quit my old job and threw myself into their projects, they laid me off because I got them done way ahead of schedule.

Try as I might this morning, I could not get the owner to tell me I did anything wrong. It was just a matter of money and they could not keep me. He told me he would give me a good reference and that I had done very well at what they asked me to do.

Something, anything, would have been better than that to me. "Hey, you do a great job but we can't keep you anymore as we don't have the work" after I left another job because I believed that they had a big future here and I wanted to grow along with them.

Fire me. Yell at me. Tell me I messed up something. Give me a reason you canned my ass so that I can work to improve myself - but don't tell me that I got all the work done and there is nothing else for me to do.

I am still stunned. I am getting my 401k and pension from my last job and will be ok for a spell, so it is not the money I am worried about right now. And I have already applied for two jobs locally and have a good prospect next week from a brother-in-law who is good friends with the owner of a big local company.

It just sucks - in the last few days my uncle died, celebrated my 9th year with the woman I loved and was excited about the future, then got laid off.

I need a break. The wife told me to take a month off and chill. Part of me wants to, but the provider part of me wants to snag the next job that comes along from gas station to data center manager.

Sorry for the rant - just needed to bitch to someone :)