Thursday, April 24, 2008

A goodbye to a good job

No doubt most everyone will have heard by now through one news agency or another that Dell Computers Inc. will experience a massive headcount reduction in their North American operations. And if anyone knows me, they know that I work for Dell in their contact center in Canada.

It is with some sadness and oddly much relief that I can say that yes, I will be losing my job in a couple of months. After nearly two and a half years, after helping launch what was said to be the best call center in the Dell network, it all comes to an end.

Now as I said, I say this with some great degree of relief. That's because we have in fact been living with this issue hanging over our head for months. When the economy in the United States started falling into a recession, and our own economy surged upwards because of it, unrest began within the company. Ever since then, we've just been awaiting the final word to come down.

I am not angry at Dell, and this post has nothing to do with that. In their service, they've treated me with a great amount of respect, have compensated me more than fairly, and given me new confidence in my abilities as a technician. While I did have issues with some policy decisions that affected me, I still did love the work, and still do. As I told my former site director in a personal email, I will continue to be a professional until the bitter end. And that has a lot to do with the fact that Dell has never been utterly disdainful in their treatment of me.

My wife is panicking, the mortgage is coming up for renewal, there are always bills to be paid, and I will be let go at the same time as a great deal of other staff. All that adds up to taking a job with less pay and putting more stress on myself and my wife. It also will most likely mean less time to see friends online, or to post here.

Not that anyone reads this.

However, oddly, I feel no panic, no fear. I am more positive than I have been in weeks that everything will work out, and I can thank the time spent riding the desk for that. Two and a bit years ago when I started, I was afraid of failure, afraid of doing something wrong. I was scared to mess up someone's computer, or lose what was a big opportunity for myself. Now, I feel confident that I could do this role again for anyone, and do it well.

The only sadness I have is that I will not be able to help the customers who call into Dell for service. That has been the one real pleasure of my job, when I make that connection with someone else and help them out of a tough situation. It also helps that Dell has committed resources to help me transition to a new role elsewhere. It shows that they do respect the work we put in, and I am grateful for that.

The next few months will be a trial for me, I know that, but I go forward with a great deal of hope that I will be alright and that I will pull through this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, sorry to hear that! I wouldn't know anything about saying goodbye to a good job though. ; ; I wish i could say goodbye to this shitty job though!

Unknown said...

as you already know I'm sorry about it, but have confidence you 2 will pull through an come out of it fine...also see you never know who reads this =P

This is Furie btw