Today was the 21st anniversary of my husband's hiring with his current employer, a public employer (our county), union job. 21 fucking years there. 21 fucking years of putting up with being demeaned by management while getting rave reviews from his immediate supervisors. 21 years of sucking it up to provide for his family. 21 years of being denied promotions. 21 years of having one asshole waging a personal vendetta against him, the same one who happily helped my husband celebrate his 21st fucking anniversary by sitting there and grinning while they laid him off. Am I a little bitter? Yea, I am. So is he, in fact, he is devastated. And my heart cries for him.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband took this job. At the time, we were barely surviving. He wanted to provide for his family. He endured mistreatment and humiliation by his employer, because he wanted to provide for his family. He wanted to do the right thing. In the 90"a he stayed with his job because this job had health care and a retirement. The private sector jobs had higher wages, overtime and bonuses, but his job had security and retirement. But he wanted to make sure his family was provided for.
I watched him go to the bottom in trying to achieve the security this job provided. The the only way he could deal with the job was to drink. But he got up every day and he went to that job. And he is proficient at his job, always has been and always would be. The job where his supervisor left derogatory photos on his desk. The job where he was denied every promotion he applied for. Nevertheless, he kept working. He trained all of the people that got those promotions and were "more qualified" than he was. He taught them how to do the jobs he wasn't qualified to do. And he kept working.
He is a good man. And recently, he quit drinking. He wanted to be there for me, and to enjoy the remainder of our life together, the few years we will have together.
And they gave him two options. He can be laid off and go on unemployment or he can take someone else's job. Of course, the job they have offered him is not in the same pay grade, he would have to take about a 50% pay cut. And he would have to take someone else's job. And that is what is killing him.
He cares. He does not want to put that person out of work. He doesn't want to hurt them.
At times like this, I wonder, why.
Why care? Why try? What the fuck is the purpose of our daily grind? Is karma real? And really, when are the bastards going to pay? Cuz god dammit, they owe us a lot.
Last night we were planning for our retirement in a few years, just had to get that daughter through college. Now, we don't now what we are facing. Hell, I can't even get a grip on my emotions. They are all over the board, the wall, the rainbow.
Now, we have to decide, do we fight it? We have been told by his union to fight it. A friend, a judge, has told us to fight it. Personally, I want to go fight the motherfucking county surveyor, that lives just a few shot blocks away, that laid him off, mujor a mano. I'd take him down, believe you me. Really. Bastard won't stand a chance.
But, maybe it's life's way of telling us to move on. Maybe we need to find a new chapter. Not like we haven't done it before, but good god, last time that was painful, didn't really want to revisit that. But we might. Maybe that lady won't lose her job after all. I don't know.
So, thank you great orange keyboard for letting me vent and rant. You and me baby, we will make it. We got love. And as to those bastard, let 'em rot.
Obligatory update and heartfelt thank you to all of you. I just got to work and logged back on and at the moment am feeling rather humbled. I have been here a long time and obviously this is the first ride on the rec list. I appreciate all of you comments and support, I hope I get a chance to respond to them but as you can imagine suddenly my job is much more important than it was 24 hours ago.
And to answer a few of the comments I did see, yes he has fought back in the past, he actually came out on top, once. But when he left today to talk to HR he told me again, he can't take that woman's job, she has young kids and if he doesn't take her job he will probably breach the contract and have no other recourse.