I apologize in advance for this lengthy post, but I’ve been wanting to write this story for a while.
My best day ever: October 5, 2010.
On that day, I lost my job. It was a job that I grew to hate. A job that cost me time away from my sweet, sweet baby boy. A job that caused me to be a miserable wife to The Texan. A job that cost me my best friend.
Background on how I came to be an employee of my BFF: My husband received a wonderful job offer from a Massachusetts based company while we were living in Florida. It was too good to pass up and we packed up and moved. The Texan went first, I followed two months later. (Yes, that was hard. We logged a bunch of frequent flyer miles during that time!)
I was hanging out in the big city, setting up our townhouse, finding good restaurants and places to shop. But, I was bored. Mainly because I hadn’t discovered blogging or Facebook so there was nothing for me to occupy my time. Enter BFF who was a mere 80 miles away. She offered me a position implementing a new computer system for her family’s business. The salary was excellent and there were fun benefits too (like weekly manicures and pedicures). The job was three days per week, I would stay overnight at my mother’s house (another fun bonus!) two nights so that I didn’t have to commute so much. It was supposed to be only for 16 weeks.
A year later, I was still there. At this point, I should have seen the writing on the wall. My salary was cut by 25%, and by this time I’d (obviously) taken on new responsibilities. Oh, and when my salary was cut, I was 22 weeks pregnant. She trapped me. And she knew it.
I gave birth to The Boy and took twelve – unpaid – weeks of maternity leave. I returned to that awful place, sending my itty bitty boy to daycare three days per week. I hated being a work-at-an-office mom. But, lucky for me, exactly one year after I returned from maternity leave, she eliminated my position. She cried when she told me. I did not.
I felt nothing but relief.
I’d wanted to quit for months, but didn’t have the guts. I was afraid that I would hurt her feelings and we would no longer be friends. In the end, it didn’t matter because we haven’t spoken since. And, most days, I don’t care.
Have you ever worked for a friend? How did it end up for you? Did you lose your best friend? Did it bother you? Please feel welcomed to share your story here, I’d love to hear them.
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