Day 2

I didn’t mention this yesterday, but starting yesterday they began some sort of construction in the front of my apartment. I should say – specifically just the length of the front of my apartment building. These last two days I have been awakened by some sort of post-apocalyptic concrete-smashing vehicle cracking and bashing the sidewalk out front which has the added benefit of shaking the foundation of the building to the core, and my bed to boot. I’m not saying that I need to sleep all day, but do I really have to get up at 7:30 in the morning? Is this karma twisting the knife?

Anyway, I’m going to keep the update short today. Last night, I got an email from my past assistant. I shouldn’t really call her an assistant because she didn’t do errands and the like. She basically did the same work I did but also the filing and research and other things I didn’t like to do. I’d love to reprint it in its entirety, but that wouldn’t be quite right. Suffice it to say, she’s devastated and horrified by the situation. And without saying it, she seems a little scared for the direction of the department and scared for herself without me around. The most interesting thing she said was that after I left, she had a meeting with the crazy boss and kind of stood up to her regarding the mistake she was making. She made clear to the boss that I made our work better in more ways than the boss realizes and that things are going to get worse without me there. (The ironic part of the problem is that I used to do a lot of work on my assistant’s work and then let her turn it into the boss directly. This made the boss think that the assistant was doing everything great, and as such they could just do without me. I thought I was being a good supervisor by letting her take credit for things but it ended up getting me fired.) The interesting thing about this conversation is that no one ever stands up to the crazy boss, so for someone in essentially the lowest position in the department to do so took some real courage. And for whatever small consolation this might be, it feels good to know that the person who worked for me really respected our work together. Despite all the times I corrected her or was short with her because of irritation with the boss, or even sometimes irritation with her, she still liked working with/for me. She’s dedicated and motivated – she will do well in her career.

My “you’re fired” papers just came certified mail. I guess they know I’ll be home. For the rest of the day, I’m going to get in touch with my references and perhaps flip through job listings just to get an idea of how things look out there.