Clarification and Update

After some comments from friends and family, I realized that I probably should clarify one important point in my last post. I guess I was not 100% honest with you, my wonderful readers.
I wasn’t fired. I was terminated. Or rather, my position was eliminated and my employment with the university was terminated as a result.

There! Doesn’t that sound better?

Frankly, I would rather use the F-word. It feels more honest and true to what I’ve just experienced. It must be my father in me, wanting to call something by the most blunt name there is. I also have nothing to be ashamed of, and I dislike cushioning myself in euphemisms.

However, the F-word also implies that there was some justification for the human resources decision made by the institution, and, in fact, there wasn’t. My employment ended “without cause”; my offer letter makes this point clear; and I can get a good reference from my employer as I look for more work. And I understand that within this environment, these things matter. Sigh! Just call me “laid off” and laid back about it.

In any case, I went back to work Monday to meet with someone from HR. He’s a colleague: we’ve worked on joint presentations together over the past 2 years, and I think this experience was substantially more awkward for him than for me. He took me through the University’s offer, helped me pack up my things, and gave me a good-bye hug.

I also connected with my work/study student, who will be retained and supervised from the other campus through the summer. He has been completely lovely through this process, very supportive and encouraging.

And now I have a bit of time to consider the offer, see if there are questions I have or points to clarify, as I continue my days with my daughter (yesterday: granola, baked potatoes, monkeys jumping on the bed and cutting new bunny ears for her puppet). My initial priority is my to do list and creating order in the house, then tackling future considerations.