Does anybody read these?

Exit Interview...

I forgot this in my last post, but it's so good that perhaps it needs its own. I am supposed to have an exit interview at work sometime this week. I am not exactly sure that I'll say what I'm thinking.

This past week, in addition to folks acting like what I affectionately called f#$%heads on Friday, I saw the administrative assistant tell one employee (how he's essential, I'll never know...) that there is NO administration budget for next year. And why was she telling him that? She needed $8 for his 2006 planner because the company couldn't pay for it. This is why I could do no good there. I was trying to help them plan for the future not realizing until 3 days before it was due that what they really needed was money for the light bill. It's just amazing people can do business that way. My favorite hightlight was the computer person telling us how he had crack codes for all kinds of software so we could operate it illegally and get around buying licenses. I think it's nifty they've got all these grants to do all these great programs, and maybe they should focus more on doing that work than trying to power this big administration that they can't afford and probably don't need. That's why I wasn't devastated to lose my job. I've been saying for months that I wasn't necessary. They really need to figure out where they are going as an organization and worry about the present before they can think about the future. I'll always appreciate the year that I was there, but they need a lot of work to get where they'd like to be. Before I went there people told me about how they would get all these great ideas and start them, run out of money and abandon them. Once I got there, the chief complaint from donors and community members was that they get all excited about projects, start them, run out of money and move on. I tried to quell those fears in others as much as I could, but let's face it, I've known for months that my position and the program I was working on was one of those crazy ideas. So, what exactly do I say in an exit interview? Nothing's going to change anyhow. Obviously it's been going on for years.

And for those who care, I've decided what to do about the sizeable pledge I'd committed to them. Whether I have a job or not, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to meet the commitment I made. However, I just don't like the way I was treated. And the reality is that if I'd pledged the money anywhere else and they hadn't acknowledged it, I'd have moved on without paying it. They knew they were laying me off, assumed I couldn't pay it and that they'd never see it and treated me that way. And they were wrong and it's an expensive mistake that they've made. What I am trying to figure out is if I just simply never pay it or offer my boss constructive criticism so they never do this to anyone else. I knew I was going to either quit or lose my job when I made the donation, and I factored that in. They chose not to find that out before they assumed they weren't going to get the money. All they had to do was ask, and I have told them straight up. I donated it with a plan and they assumed I didn't.

And what I'll do with the money? I'll probably give it to the church.

posted by Laura at 4:17 PM