I don't post on here very often, but honestly I have no where else to go to at the moment. That and I feel that what you guys have to say tends to be very enlightening.
I got a new customer service job with a company called Transamerica in Saint Petersburg, FL back in the beginning of February. Because I thought that this was the job for me, I want ahead, relocated, got a new apartment in Saint Pete's, and got settled in.
They had told me in the interviewing process that the training was going to be difficult and that we had to maintain a 75% average. I guess I didn't know quite what I was in for because I figured it would be like going back to school, and I thought I could handle it.
Well, I guess I was wrong, and I was just terminated on Friday because I could not keep the 75% average. I feel like for the past 3 weeks (the whole training process is basically cramming 12 weeks of learning into 8 weeks because they had a budget cut) all I've been doing is studying for tests because the information they taught was entirely new to me. And trust me, with cutting the training down to 8 weeks, it was a TON of information to learn.
Well, now I'm stuck with a $740 lease and no promise of finding a new job within the next few weeks, even though I live in the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area where jobs are easier to come by. I'm also stuck with an angry and disappointed family, because if I can't find another job within the next few weeks, I may have to move back in with them. (I was living with them in the Crystal River, FL area before I got offered the job). I had gotten warnings before regarding my test scores for this job, but when they asked how I was doing I told them I was doing fine, because I was afraid to tell them otherwise, and I figured I could pull through. Also, this is not the first time I've disappointed them by trying to do something and failing.
Right now I'm just trying to pick myself up by the bootstraps and not fall into depression.
I know this is a long post but I am shocked, worried, and emotionally drained right now and have no where else to go to.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Step One: get out of Florida.
I am completely serious about this. Florida is not a good place to be right now.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
I feel for you Marie, I would hate to change my life for a job and get left behind like that. I was unemployed for four months between two cities back in '07 and Arizona was never known as a place full of opportunities to begin with and I was uneducated with no special skills outside traditional salesmanship. But I have been able to keep to my rule of "make more money than you did last year, and if possible keep ahead of the cost of living increase" it is hard to do without an education and the longer I work in a gas station the shorter my temper gets but I'm doing it, and so can you.
I will not say that it gets better, I can't know that and I haven't necessarily known it to but you have family who love you and seem like they will help you if you need them. Do your best, and if you do feel depressed (it happens when you're job hunting, it just does) go ahead and think of completely serious non-joke stuff like this.
Wow, in reviewing what I've written I really hope one of those enlightening people come along.
Posted by FoolishTook (Member # 5358) on :
Don't have much to offer except empathy. I'm really sorry to hear this.
If your family is disappointed, so be it. It's not possible to navigate through adulthood without disappointing your family at some point.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
As a CS rep myself I can definitely relate to the struggle to get trained up and keep an average up. I'm fortunate in that while our monthly averages need to be much higher (90+%) the scale by which we are graded is manageable, and we have a gifted team of managers who genuinely care about us.
I know what it's like to feel like you've got a gun pointed at you. And it sucks when everybody around you just tells you to in essence "be a better person so you wouldn't lose your job in the first place". Take it a day at a time, spend some time in the morning when you wake up getting your mind in the right place to attack the problem, weigh your options, and choose one.
We're all pulling for you here, and we're happy to let you vent. Best of fortunes. Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: ... Florida is not a good place to be right now.
Can you elaborate on this? Thinking about travelling to Miami.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Visiting is fine. You don't want to try to find satisfying work there.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Marie, I don't think it would hurt you to go back through your contract and see if there has been any violation of the terms there.
If you moved yourself to a different area on the strength of an at-will contract with an unreliable and fickle employer then... well lesson learned.
Posted by Marie (Member # 12686) on :
Thanks everyone for your kind words. Right now that is really what I need
Orincoro - no, that's not the case at all.
I do have a question for all of you though, especially those of you with experience in finances and insurance. On one of my test questions for our last exam, they asked what a key similarity and a key difference between an Asset Allocation Fund and a Target Date Fund was. I answered that an Asset Allocation Fund changes in order to remain static (stable). A Target Date Fund does not. A Target Date Fund becomes more conservative as it reaches a person's retirement year. Also, Asset Allocation funds are considered more aggressive than Target Date funds. My answer was marked wrong.
Thoughts?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
A target date fund is a kind of asset allocation fund. Asset allocation funds include ones that target a fixed allocation and ones that vary their allocation.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Marie, I hope things turn around for you. I can sympathize with things not working out the way they are supposed to... even to the extent of being trapped in Central Florida! Without going into too many of my own sordid details, suffice it to say that these past two weeks my wife and I had countless conversations about places to go and ways to make the best of a crappy situation (a situation which includes living with her parents in a backwoods town between Orlando and Daytona). All of our solutions or better prospects are a bit in the future and not immediately obtainable, but obtainable they are, given some patience and effort. It's just important not to lose sight of those better plans and brighter days all because of some annoying things in the present or past.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Visiting is fine. You don't want to try to find satisfying work there.
Funny....a lot of people I know here, near the Crystal River area, have found things they like recently.
Marie.....good luck!
Posted by Marie (Member # 12686) on :
quote:Originally posted by Kwea:
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Visiting is fine. You don't want to try to find satisfying work there.
Funny....a lot of people I know here, near the Crystal River area, have found things they like recently.
Marie.....good luck!
Thanks!
I actually originally came from Homosassa, which is right off of Crystal River. Let me just say that as far as economic development goes, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon...
By the way, I already have an interview for a job in Seminole, FL. Doesn't pay as much as Transamerica would have, but they are looking to hire by Friday so I'll take it!
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