Friday, December 02, 2005

Dear Mr. POS

Below is a letter I wrote to DH's EX-boss today... I'm not going to send it, but writing it was certainly cathartic...

Mr. ______ –

I’m not quite sure what good, if any, this letter will do, but I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the way my husband, Scott, has been treated while working for your company. I just need you to see things from our perspective for a moment.

Scott has been nothing but loyal to you and your company from day one. He rarely called in sick to work and really loved his job. After the first lay-off, I was skeptical about him coming back to work for you – since the Decatur store was never reopened. Scott assured me that you were a great person and a fantastic boss, and he was excited at the prospect of helping set up a new store in Athens (which also never happened). Naturally, I couldn’t begrudge him this “great job”. After the second lay-off, I was irritated that Scott waited for you to reopen – agreeing to drive all the way to Huntsville every day. There was quite a bit of strife in our marriage because of it. Still, we made it through, and Scott convinced me that we should give it another shot.

Naturally, we were both thunderstruck by your decision to let him go yesterday. The disappointment on his face when I returned home from work yesterday was heartbreaking. He really looked up to you, and thought, naively, that you’d be as loyal to him as he was to you. He said something about a “misguided sense of loyalty” last night, and it pains me to know that you caused him to second-guess one of the things I love most about him.

I have to tell you, that it looks bad that you hired him back just long enough to get the store set up again, work Black Friday, and then proceeded to let him go just before Christmas. I can’t imagine a smart businessperson deciding in a matter of 10 days to essentially restructure the organization – surely you can see that it looks like you had this all planned out from the beginning – to use him to do the grunt work and then toss him aside when you were done. Scott isn’t angry with you, but I see the disappointment in his eyes, and feel the defeat that he must be feeling – feeling that I was right all along and you didn’t care one bit about how your decisions affected your employees’ personal lives.

It’s quite frustrating that, now that the unemployment has run out (thanks to your previous 2 lay-offs in the past 2 years), and all the local businesses have already hired their Christmas help, my husband once again finds himself without a job. I’m angry that we have had to sacrifice for the past 2 years because of your imprudent business decisions - only to find ourselves struggling again.

I understand that you have to do what you feel is right for your business, whatever that may be. I sincerely hope that you didn’t purposely plan to put us in this situation. Surely you can understand the frustration and heartache that *I* am feeling seeing my husband treated this way. Once again, I’m not sure what good this letter will do, but I need you to know what we’re feeling, if nothing else to get it all off my chest.

Truthfully, I see this as an excellent opportunity for Scott – to find a job where his loyalty and hard work will finally be appreciated. It will be nice to avoid the constant uncertainty hanging over our heads. Not that it diminishes the disappointment, but sometimes you have to try to find the bright side in situations like these

I wish you no ill will. I just hope that none of your current or future employees ever has to suffer the disillusion and defeat that we are feeling right now.

Sincerely-
________________

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