Well I am off on a new adventure but my journey is not one that I chose rather one that was force on me. For those of you not in the loop, I have worked as the Outreach Coordinator for the WTAMU Department of Engineering and Computer Science since September of 2008. When I interviewed for the position I was quick to point out that for me Math was a FOUR letter word and NOT the nice kind AND I was technologically challenged..........they gave me the job anyway! They had never had an Outreach Coordinator so not only was I new to the job - the job itself was brand new! I spent the first few weeks searching for information about HOW to be an Outreach Coordinator for an Engineering Department and I spent MONTHS learning about Engineering and Computer Science, I feel like I achieved a level of some understanding, maybe even a step above "just enough to be dangerous".
My position was funded with a one year grant, when I interviewed I was told that the Grant was for that year and that it was a "gimme" that it would be renewed for a second year, then they would get me in the budget and I would be set! One thing lead to another and unfortunately due to some bad communication they didn't get the grant applied for for the second year but they kept me on staff and kept submitting my position to be included in the budget and paying me out of different accounts.
Just before Spring Break (March) our Department Secretary quit and I stepped in to try and fill in the gap until a new secretary could be found. Btw for the record the University does NOT pay these secretaries enough! Jeez, I never realized just how much they did and how much everyone expected them to do! They should be DOUBLING their salaries instead of FREEZING their wages! For three months I did "her" job and mine PLUS I put together the summer engineering camp. I did get some relief in May when they hired one of our students as a student worker and WHOOHOO she is an AWESOME worker!
On June 1, 2012 my original supervisor stepped down as the Department Head and warned me that my position was in jeopardy. Now I must say this warning really didn't need to be spoken, I have been worried about this for some time and it has weighed very heavily on me this past year. I actually have been looking for another position for sometime but I have been pretty selective in what I have applied for and I have not been extremely active in my pursuit.
Engineering Camp ended on June 15th and on June 18th the NEW secretary came to work. On June 21st, well on June 19th my HELL month began. It began with a meeting with the new supervisor, the person helping her, the new secretary, and the student worker (btw she was also a former student of mine). I won't go into details, frankly I don't even want to relive them myself, lets just say it was almost a daily dose of "Let's see how much we can humiliate Rhonda and smile while we are doing it". I quickly gathered that the plan was to put me in a corner where I would eventually give up and quit. In the past month I have used more vacation days then I have used since I have been at the University, partly because I did have some things to do but mainly because I just could not stand the thought of going into the office and enduring anymore.
I would probably have broken long before now if it were not for a special blessing, a friend from grade school felt compelled to come by the office and bring me a gift to brighten my day. That may not seem out of the ordinary to some people but you have to know the rest of the story. I had not gone to school with here since the third grade and I had not physically SEEN her since we were freshman or sophomores in high school! We got back in touch about a year ago through Facebook but other than playing each other in Bejeweled we really don't converse a lot. I had left off some steam (honestly it was VERY tempered down steam) on Facebook and she had read my posts. Her first words to me were "I had to come, you are not a down person and I just KNEW things had to be really bad". She had thought about bringing me flowers but she said she remembered how much I liked to read - and got in trouble a lot for in school, lol, so she brought me a gift card to Hastings. Literally it was as if the sun had broken through a storm sky and God himself had pulled me up to my feet and planted a steel rod in my back bone..........from that point on I felt that I could take anything that they dished out.
Now I want to say something in my defense............you know the old phrase "It's not paranoia if someone IS out to get you". Well I didn't speak my feelings of humiliation to anyone in the office and one person asked me "how can you stand being humiliated like this"? and another one (after the event in the next paragraph) stated to me "It would have been better if they had done this before you had to suffer through all this humiliation and embarrassment, I would have died if they had treated me like that". So again, it's not paranoia if someone IS out to get you.
Last Thursday my new supervisor called me in to inform me that there was absolutely no funding to continue my position and that it was being done away with. Some people might not understand this but this was actually a RELIEF for me, there was some sadness but overall it felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I guess I had not realized just how heavy this looming dread had weighed me down. Two days latter I still feel light at heart and I have slept better the last two nights then I have slept in a LONG, LONG time!
Now I must say, lol, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what I am going to do next! I still have my part time job at Penney's and I am scheduled to teach a class in the Fall (ironically it is a Speech Class for Engineering Students Only) but none of those are going to produce a livable wage.
My new adventure now begins and I am looking for new trails to follow, if anyone had a good map to follow please let me know! I am open to all suggestions, lol, and ideas!
Happy Trails to Everyone out there!
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