Anymore as soon as I hit work at 6am on Monday it’s just a matter of putting my head down and plowing through it. I want to get past Monday through Thursday so I can enjoy that fresh Friday feeling. Doesn’t matter what plans(or lack thereof) are on the docket for Saturday and Sunday, I’m just glad I’ve arrived.
You know, going through three years of thinking I was going to be unemployed really sort of rewired my brain in how I looked at work. At the time I was obviously freaked out and worried about health insurance, paying my mortgage, and generally just keeping our house afloat. In October of 2021 when they announced our plant’s inevitable closing we still had a kid in high school, and two others in college. Everyone with no job offering health insurance, so they all might as well still been in elementary school because they all NEEDED health insurance through me. It all felt pretty dire.
But now, having gone through those 3 years only to find out last summer that in fact they weren’t closing our plant. The other facilities couldn’t do what we do, so one of the new territory managers had the bright idea of “Hey, we should keep this plant open” and all of a sudden we were supposed to be thankful and kiss the ring for the opportunity to continue to save the corporation’s ass. “Yes sir, may I have another?”
Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful I don’t have to start over at 51 years old. The last thing I wanted to do was to start filling out online applications, creating resumes, and having to go through the job interview process after working for the same place for the last 25 years. It didn’t sound fun. Nor starting over at a big old zero in terms of vacation time, seniority, and just having to learn a new job after doing the same thing for over two decades.
But I’m also not forgetting what this place put me, my family, and all my co-workers through. The idea of us all praising some corporate hack for doing the right thing and “allowing” us to continue working for this orthopedic behemoth seemed a bit too much. A simple “Sorry. We got greedy and screwed up big time” would have gone a long way for me. But admitting wrongdoing in the world of corporate shills is unheard of. To admit wrongdoing is the bow to weakness. Can’t do that.
Besides still being pissed off about the last three years, I’m also a little conflicted about how I feel regarding this job. I had resigned to the idea that I was losing my job and my wife and I had a plan in place. Gotta be honest, I was feeling pretty good about walking away from this world. Taking a warehouse job at Costco, or working at an Aldi or produce dept at a Meijer was sounding pretty good to me. I’m roughly 10 to 15 years away from retirement. I have enough in my 401K to roll over into a Roth IRA and let it sit that once it was time to officially retire we’d be okay. Plus my wife is set up through the non-profit where she works that she will get a stipend to help pay for private health insurance for us once I would have been let go. And with the retention bonus I would have gotten once I was let go would have paid off what is left of our mortgage, with probably $30,000 left over to put in savings.
We had a plan, man. And I was sort of looking forward to it.
So now, with the closing not happening neither is the retention bonus. We’re stuck here until they figure out another way to close this place and pay workers in another country far less an hour to do our jobs. They didn’t say we weren’t EVER closing…just for the foreseeable future. So there’s that.
And they aren’t in any hurry to hire people to fill the voids left by those employees who quit and went to new jobs. We’re essentially a skeleton crew at this moment. We haven’t been all that busy, so it hasn’t been a huge problem, yet. But once it does pick up it will be. We barely have enough folks to cover for vacation time. And they’re still talking about layoffs. My co-worker/long time friend is 10 years older than me. He’ll be 61 in April, so he’s about 4 years away from retirement. If he leaves I don’t see them replacing him, so I’ll be working in receiving by myself. I really don’t want to burnout in my mid-50s.
I’m starting to think this place closing would have been the better option. Maybe not the easier one, but definitely better for my physical and mental health. I’m happy I can offer insurance still for my adult children, but at some point they will have to figure that out on their own. I’m looking at that aspect of this situation as one of the few pros.
So this is why weekends are so sacred to me. Friday afternoons, leaving work and heading to my favorite liquor store and purchasing a 4-pk of a tasty IPA. Going home and cleaning the house while listening to music, then once I’m done settling in and enjoying some brews whilst watching something on Shudder or whatever. Just something to get lost in for a couple hours. Get dinner ready and eat with my wife. Saturday it’s coffee with my dad, then my wife and I hit the Y for some exercise. Run errands afterwards. My daughter and her pooch come over in the afternoon to hang out and have dinner with us. Sundays are up in the air. Maybe workout or do some projects around the house.
I like the loosely planned weekends the most. Leave things open and see what happens. Maybe a trip to Goshen or Fort Wayne. Dinner and a movie. Or peruse vinyl at a record shop. Go shopping for plants or hit thrift stores. Whatever floats our boat. That’s how I reset after a week of work in a place that I’ve lost all respect for.
Sorry for the bellyaching. I’m thankful to still have gainful employment, a consistent paycheck, and insurance. Plus lots of paid vacation. It’s just harder to appreciate and be thankful after essentially having it pulled away, then at the last minute given back(but for how long?)
Enjoy your weekend, folks.
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