For those of you curious as to what happened with my job, I will explain but let me start by sharing an awesome poem Eric wrote about it. I will go into more detail below.
Eric's Poem - Read with the timing of "The Night Before Christmas". This was written February 5th, 2009 the day after Alliance's bank terminated our services.
The Night Before We Were Cancelled
by Eric R. Gavin
Twas only just yesterday, when all through this place
It was business as usual, not a single sad face
Kaycee was working, her keyboard a blazing
Margarita was cooking and it smelled amazing
Tony unboxed some shiny new gizmo
Charity was giggling as she so often does so
Hector was reading, researching and looking
That strange burning smell meant Mike Ross' lunch was cooking
Eric was typing at lightning fast speeds
Tina put a third coat on, so she wouldn't freeze
With Josh dressed in black, and Darla in pink
We opened our E-mails, to see what's the stink!?
Even Jody was shocked, and she's seen it all
But Stephanie had to answer another phone call
Jena sensed danger, she's exceptionally wise
Mike Roth saw that terrified look in Eric's eyes
We all gathered round, the letter held high
We had just been cancelled by our O D F I
All Alliance was silent, you could hear a pin drop
Nobody was talking, even Eric had stopped
What does this mean, all of us then inquired
Are we keeping our jobs, are we gonna get fired?
When all of a sudden the answer came clear
The bank gave response and what did we hear!?
No debits, no credits, no transactions we'll send
We're holding your money, yes this is the end
That was all there was, no questions no fuss...
They said, "All of your monies are belong to us."
So to every one listening, to all of my friends
It's been an honor to work with you up to the end
No job has been cooler, no place felt so right
To all at Alliance, to all a goodnight.
The Story Behind Being Laid Off - Remember how my last post I talked about Hell Week. I said I didn't think it could get worse if I recall correctly... Sadly it did. It was a whirlwind to the end though. We did our best but it all came to a sad end last Friday, February 13th, 2009. I'm not sure what to explain, or if explaining is really all that important. Just that the last week and a half of my employment were some of the toughest in my history at Alliance.
Just imagine this... We debited clients on Tuesday (February 3rd), we had credits scheduled to go out on Wednesday (February 4th)... BUT the bank stopped processing for us, AND put all the money in the account on hold! This didn't just affect a certain portion of our clients, but ALL of them! Can you imagine the calls we got!? We were frantically trying to figure out how our clients could get their money back. The bank wasn't much help to us. Most of the clients were understanding but extremely frustrated. I only dealt with a few belligerent merchants. I heard a couple death threats for the owner. We don't have a lot of local clients or we may have had some show up at our door. It was just non-stop.
The moment I heard the bank terminted Alliance's services I went back to my desk and went to biblegateway.com and the scripture of the day was
I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
Which I repeated to myself every time I felt overwhelmed.
The day after the bank terminted our services, all the girls in support came in at 6am - 6pm so we could field all the calls. We knew it was going to be chaos. It was a LONG day. Friday was just as bad. I prayed every day walking in to work that God would give me the strength to deal with what lied ahead for that day. Every day was an emotional rollercoaster, a possibility of making it through, then not, new hope, then not. This continued through Wednesday (February 11th) of the following week . I went out to lunch with my coworker, Mike(#2), and came back to find out that the other girls in support were being laid off and that the salary employees were going to stick it out till Friday and hope that by then the company had a leg to stand on.
Thursday (February 12th) I woke up with a heavy heart, to the point of it choking me. I called my parents for prayer and they gave me the support I needed. During my dads prayer a song came into my mind which I repeated until the heaviness lifted.
Be strong & courageous, for the Lord my God is with me. Do not be afraid, do not be dismayed. I'm going to walk in faith and victory!
As you all know, Alliance never got that leg to stand on and I was laid off on Friday. I am not afraid or dismayed. I still walk in faith and victory.
Here are just a couple of the pics with me and my ex-coworkers - now friends that I will miss seeing every work day... I didn't get pics with everyone because as you can imagine most people weren't up for pics.
Aftermath - I've been oddly calm about this whole thing. I feel slightly numb. I haven't cried and I don't think I will. I remember with linkLINE I was devastated about being laid off from my job, I was an emotional wreck. I know my walk with God is much different then it was then. I'm thankful to have this peace in knowing God has a plan and a good future. There are moments I've stressed about finances, and as quickly as the stress hits me, it goes away knowing God is in control.
Jobs - Looking out there, the economy sucks for finding work right now. But I have thankfully had a couple job offers. One is not ready quite yet, the other, is a drive to the heart of LA. The commute would be a killer. It's for a payroll client I always enjoyed working with at Alliance. I'm meeting with the owner Monday to see if a job is even feasible with the commute I'd have to deal with. I'm not making any decisions. I'm keeping an open mind and praying that God will show me what He wants me to do. I'll keep you updated.
This Weekend (Cooking, Tango Kilo and Poet Sky) - In the meantime life continues. I'm actually having a lot of fun. Last weekend the band came over to practice two days in a row for their show this coming weekend. I had a good time with the guys. Here are a couple shots from them hangin out and practicing...
At some point during the weekend my brother mentioned my new plan to cook every Friday night with my friend Andie. (She knows I don't know how to cook and figured since I'm in my 30's its about time I learn. haha!) So Chris plans on joining us! If he actually does it should be quite entertaining. Saturday my sister is going to do my hair and my friend Dave's band, Tango Kilo, in playing at the Marina Lounge, which is the first local show they've had in a while. So my brother and I are going to that. Sunday my brothers band, Poet Sky, is playing down at Universal Bar and Grill so I'm going down with him to that.
I hope to visit some of the Alliance crew Tuesday. So hopefully I'll have more pictures to share for that.
Labels: Pictures, Rambling, Updates
posted by Charity at 2/19/2009 09:00:00 PM 
