hey again
Our trip back home was a bit more eventful for Luca. This time he was able to stay awake for both the takeoff and the landing.
And the landing.. oh my goodness.
We were treated to a beautiful rainbow (with a faint double rainbow above that) when we landed. Probably one of – if not the prettiest thing I’ve seen on landing.
The kids were all given wings from the crew on Frontier which they were super excited to show off and wear.
So what about Frontier? Is it as bad as everyone says?
I don’t think so. We got from point a to point b and didn’t encounter anything negative. We were able to save a bunch of money on airfare as well (the same tickets would have been north of $1500 on any other carrier).
Things to watch out for? Well, we did a lot of research on what you could take, and the size of the “personal item” or small backpack that you could take onboard. We didn’t check any luggage but did some crafty packing for the trip.
That is probably the biggest thing. Only other thing to note: you don’t pick your seats unless you pay for them. We were fortunate to travel with kids so they automatically seat you together. However if it were just me and the wife? She may be on row 5 in the asile and I could be in row 27 in the middle. It would just depend on where they randomly place you.
We arrived back home and quickly gave our car a bath- followed by a surpise trip to take the kids to see Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Shout out to T-mobile for providing the family with tickets for only $5. It was a fun movie for the kids and for us so if you can afford to, I’d go see it.
Elijah now wants to have a Ghostbusters themed birthday. I didn’t see that one coming.
It was nice to celebrate Easter with family and at Church. We even watched the Ten Commandments (with Charlton Heston) that night too.
I finally made my return to work. I want to be as transparent as possible, so I let the new leader of my group know that my desire was to eventually be placed on a role where I was no longer working nights and over the weekend. I previously was working 6 days a week and having zero time with the family, and no time for church. This time off helped me to see that I need to do a better job prioritizing those things.
I ended up telling my manager the same (that I was active in looking for an engagement within the company that had normal working hours) but that I would continue in this role as needed until that time.
I got a call the next day from the new leader telling me that my manager said I was no longer a good fit for the team. They were pulling me from the engagement and until further notice I’d be on the bench. For those that don’t know, the bench is where you still get paid but you have no engagement. What does that mean? You are one step away from being laid off unless placed with a client sooner rather than later.
Not the most ideal situation to be returning to. I guess that there was something to that feeling I was having…
I then found out from a co-worker that they were told to not have any contact with me. What is this mess? Then I found out from someone else on the team that they told people I had worked with that I had mental health concerns and wouldn’t be working with the team.
Uh, say what again?
I will admit that I disclosed to the leaders that this engagement was not great for my mental health as I couldn’t go to church, didn’t get to spend much time with my family, and couldn’t even get out of my house much for things like hiking thanks to the long and extended hours. That information was told to them in confidence.
That information should NOT have been shared with anyone on the team. At all, for any reason.
Apparently they didn’t think it was a big deal. I did, so I contacted HR and filed a complaint.
I’ve never contacted any HR with a complaint before now. This may spell the end, but we will see. If I don’t say something about this, then it will just continue to happen.
I filled out a few forms and sent things across as was requested. HR contacted back and said that this essentially was all harmless and there was no harm no foul. Additionally they explained that there was a “misunderstanding” with everyone. What misunderstanding? That I was telling them that I wouldn’t work for that engagement and demanded something else. Due to this misunderstanding- I was free to return if I wanted to.
I let them know that I would be more than willing to return if there was a change in leadership for that engagement– also that I do not feel comfortable returning with things as is. I do feel that this is a toxic work environment and would have concerns about retaliation upon returning. I am also concerned that the team would be biased learning a snip of privliaged information about me and would be concerned that the client may eventually learn about this confidential information at some point as well, hindering the clients views of my overall effectiveness. All of those things makes my work very hard, and the chance at being successful even harder.
The response was something to the effect of – well since you are requesting to be on the bench, you will be. We will help you in searching for a new client, but understand the bench is not long term, its only temporary.
I was contacted by someone on the team essentially telling me that I could get back in favor with people, but that I would need to “kiss the ring” – apologize and come back to the engagement.
I am feeling all sorts of things with how things are unfolding. I’ve been requesting for people to pray for this situation and for things to improve.
I don’t really know what else to say about it. So for now, that’s how i’ll leave it. This was a heavy post – hopefully I’ll have better news in the future.
just Pray