One helluva an April Fool's Day

[Smitty]

So I show up at my store early as usual, take my gear off (I ride a motorcyle to work) and start my day.

My sales reps trickle in and one says "Smitty, where's the TV?" (a nice 42" flatscreen we use to run loops of company stuff).

I look, and sure as hell, it's gone. I call some other store managers and see if anyone took it as a joke, but they all ask me if it's an April Fool's joke on them. I call our manufacturing guys and see if they did it, but nope, so I call the police. Just as a vendor rep shows up for some training with us.

I then have to interupt her as a criminal investigator shows up, then his boss, then a csi. They get busy asking all kinds of questions, taking pictures and dusting for finger prints...It seems that the back door had been jimmied.

Next the landlord comes by because he'd heard about the break in, and he asks me if I have his rent check. I don't because that's handled by accounting, but I make a few calls. He then says "Well you fellas owe two months, and I want certified funds. The last check I got had a stop payment put on it and the one before that bounced..." That made me feel just great in front of the police, who are asking me at that point if anyone would have any reason to be disgruntled with us. We're in the process of restructing the company because of stuff like this, and have employees and vendors who either haven't gotten paid or their checks bounce.

My boss shows up and the cops talk to him for a bit and they ask him the same questions. When they get to the disgruntled part, he laughs and says "We're all disgruntled!" Smart boss, real smart...

The day goes along fine until about 5:30 when the boss calls from another office, where he's with the owner. The good news? As part of our restructuring, we're closing my showroom, to open in a much better location (it's in a run-down shopping center now). The bad news? I have to lay off my sales reps immediately, and close the store.

One helluva day...

 

[RoryA]

Sorry to hear that, Smitty. Makes the majority of my bad days seem OK by comparison! Hope things pick up for you and your reps real soon.

 

[Smitty]

At least it's better than my last job, where they just cancelled the employee stock purchase plan and are planning round 6 of layoffs...

Maybe I should have stuck around for severance?

 

[Cbrine]

Smitty,
As I was reading your story, I kept waiting for the punchline. Hope that today's a better day for you, but it sounds like it couldn't have gotten much worse than April 1st.

Cal

 

[Von Pookie]

BOOOO. Sucky.

You think that's good? Try being a contract worker right now (I'm not, but I know someone who is). On top of that, try being a contract worker for a company that just declared bankruptcy. It's basically day-to-day right now as to whether or not they're even supposed to come in.

 

[Greg Truby]

Have you checked to see if that ranch manager job in Colorado [it was in CO, wasn't it?] is still open?

 

[Richard Schollar]

Smitty, sounds like you have had a really crud day and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

[texasalynn]

Smitty - sounds horrible, sorry it didn't have a happy punchline.

 

[rconverse]

Hey Smitty - That was bad. I too was waiting for the silver lining. Out of curiousity, what do you do?

 

[Smitty]

Have you checked to see if that ranch manager job in Colorado [it was in CO, wasn't it?] is still open?

They gave it to a local boy...

The good thing is that now I don't have to justify telecommuting.

Out of curiousity, what do you do?

Currently I'm VP of Business Development/Director of Sales, with a strong bend to modifying the sales reporting systems for a small silicon valley manufacturing/retail firm. Apparently I haven't done a very good job.

Actually, my boss and I were both begging to restructure the place back in January and start over, but the current management was too tied to the old ways (that got 'em in trouble in the first place). So now we're doing it the hard way...