My former employer

Six months after I sent in my resume, I had a job interview in the last week of October 1998 with Kris Anderson (no relation to Doe Anderson), Nick Ray and Matt Mascarish. I started working 11/4/1998 on a part-time (30 hour) basis for evaluation purposes. Between 12/30/1998 and 1/4/1999 Kris offered me a full-time job at Doe Anderson with a salary that I got bumped up before accepting. In my first five years I doubled my salary, which is unusual within the same company, but I busted my ass and made a huge difference.

Doe Anderson has been in business since 1915. Several employees have been working there for more than 20 years and even more have been there for more than 10 years. I don’t think it would have surprised anyone if I had worked there for more than 20 years. I was there for 6.5 very quick years. Kris has been there since he started (16 years), Nick was there, left and came back (8years), Matt (7 years) has been there since he started. Rich Glasser was fired when they lost Winston then later rehired (4 years).

I bragged about my flexibility. I could take the day off with little or no notice. Nobody in the department really cared because they knew if they needed me they could just radio me. No one was surprised when I took the day off when Halo2 came out (11/9/2004). Nor were they surprised when I sent an email saying I wouldn’t be in after seeing the midnight opening of Star Wars Episode 3 (5/19/2005). It had become a habit for employees in the IT Department to send an email at the last minute saying they would be leaving early for one reason or another. Or you would get the early morning email saying they would be out the next day or that day. Nobody cared because everybody did their job.

Allyson (my daughter) has been running around the halls of Doe Anderson since she was 3 years old and a lot of the ladies there would give her candy or gum. Most of the ladies and few men on the fourth floor (where I worked) knew Allyson and were familiar with her running around the hall. Even the cleaning people knew Allyson. Even though I would never let Allyson run around before Doe closed at 5:15pm she got regular chances to run around since I was regularly there after 5:15pm.

In 2000 when the PS2 was released, Rich, Nick, Matt and I all camped out at Target with about 50 other people from midnight until they opened the next morning to get our PS2’s. I was the first at Target that night and the first inline to get my PS2 the next morning.

In 2003 Rich, Nick and I all ran the Rhodes City Run. They ran other Triple Crown races without me, because I lost interest.

I even spent about 20 hours a few years ago creating a movie for Kris of his trip to Disney World. The last time his wife Carol mentioned it, she said their daughter still watches it. I was constantly being asked to help with personal projects by people in the department.

Rich and Matt were great to work with but Nick was the person that I had the closest relationship with. We lost weight at the same time, and lots of it. We had our Lasik eye surgery done on the same day by the same doctor. I’ll miss Nick the most.

I have in my personal digital photo library more than 500 photos and movies of various things that relate to Doe Anderson over the last 6.5 years. X-mas parties, picnics, birthday parties, a cookout at Rich’s house, a cookout at Nick’s house, my 30th birthday party with all co-workers in my department, Allyson at Doe as a toddler, the time Karen kept Rich’s girls for a week, the Halloween contest, the pumpkin carving contest, me testing Doe’s new digital camera, all of the work that went into the iPod Xmas and random pics of my office. And most recently was Doe Anderson’s 90th Anniversary picnic.

Here is a list of the people I have invited to Doe Anderson just to show them where I work: Shawn Wright (one of my freelance clients), Karen and Allyson (my wife and daughter), Jack Stopher (my Dad), Sheila Stopher (my Mom), my nephews Phillip and Stephen, and a friend (my childhood friend). My friend, a friend (whom I hadn’t seen in ten years) came to the States to visit me after being in Korea for 7 years. We got together and one of the things I wanted him to see was where I worked (6/2/2005) before he left for Iraq.

Karen would regularly get me candles for my office because knew how much I enjoyed burning them and Allyson would make me things that were just for my office.

The IT Department was a funny group. At one point we all laughed at the fact that we all had the same electric toothbrush. I was very influential when it came to electronics. Rich currently owns a personal digital camera that I picked out for him. Matt asked for a TiVo for X-mas after I bragged about mine so much. Nick owns a personal scanner that I helped him pick out as well as his new TiVo. As a matter of fact employees throughout the entire agency would call me asking for personal advice about electronics, computers or personal projects. In December of 2004 118 Doe Anderson employees were walking around with iPods that I picked out. Doe could have saved $6000 by choosing a different model but I recommended against it and Jim White decided to go with my suggestion.

I was blown away and honored when Jim White came to me last year to handle the purchasing, branding and distribution of what would be considered the best Doe X-mas party ever (12/2/2004). Every employee received an iPod as a X-mas gift but only a handful of people even knew about it before it was announced at the party because it was a huge secret. This is why all of 120 iPods ($33,000 worth) were shipped to my house where they were prepared and stayed until the night of the party.

I was even part of the X-mas party presentation (12/2/2004) where they made fun of me for wearing shorts. Everyone knows I wear shorts even in the winter. I was in the Company Meeting presentation (12/7/2004) where it was pointed out what a good job I did with the iPods. And most recently I was in a Company Meeting presentation early this year where I congratulated for a very good idea about bad weather call-in number.

One aspect of my personality is telling it like I see. I don’t hold back and never pull my punches. Anyone who has ever gotten to know me will tell you that I tell the truth.

After six and a half years of cookouts, playing video games, birthdays, PS2 campouts, meetings, Triple Crown races, pictures, movies and parties all those friendships ended the day I was let go (June 2005). Not the typical co-worker friendship taper off, a complete and sudden end. Of all the friends and acquaintances I made in my years at Doe, none that still work there ever contact me. Many former employees have echoed my sentiments exactly. Working in IT I experienced many let-goes and layoffs and it wasn’t always this way. What has changed? Has a fear been created that associating with a former employee could make you a former employee? And what would cause such a fear?

You can do your own google searches for Doe Anderson to see all of the business they have lost since 2000, examples such as R.J. Reynolds, National City, Shoney’s and Valvoline. As listed on their website they currently have 85 employees. At the end of 2004 they had 118 employees. I always knew the number of employees because of my responsibilities of managing the phone system. They have laid-off nearly half of their employees since 2000 and approximately 30 in 2005 alone. They are also making interesting choices of letting people go then asking them back the same week, sometimes only part-time or freelance.

I was quite naive about the political processes. Especially when it came from the very top. You know that phrase “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” I think Doe may continue to decline and may require replacements in it’s decision making executives before they see improvements.

I’ve been running my own tech support business for 10 years and now it’s full time. Nothing compares to working for yourself.

I am still doing what I love to do, but now it’s on my terms.