They slide from their stools and shuffle off to their rooms, grousing at each other the entire way.
Once again, I’m left to deal with the fallout that comes from Miles spending a day and a half with our kids. Sammy’s sick from all the sugar, and the girls are suffering the aftereffects of crashing down from a glucose high, manifesting as extreme fatigue and crankiness. I won’t be one bit surprised when the nurse calls from school today to tell me my girls need to be picked up.
I reach over as I’m pouring some Aunt Jemima pancake mix into a bowl to grab my phone so I can call my boss. Might as well get it over with.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I’m staring at the phone, not quite believing what I just heard.
“What do you mean, I don’t need to bother coming in?”
My boss’s laugh is decidedly uncomfortable. “What I meant was that we’re going to be doing a little restructuring in the coming weeks, and so you being out with your sick kid is kind of good timing for us. For you, I mean.”
“I don’t even know what that means. Good timing?” My blood pressure is going through the roof and there’s a weird ringing in my ears. “How can my sick child be good timing for anything or anyone?”
His tone turns cajoling. “Come on, Jenny, you know it’s been real tough for us over the past six months. We had a meeting with our investors, and they recommended that we cut a few positions. We had to make some really difficult decisions. Good news is, you’ll be one of the lucky ones who gets to have a little bit of a severance package. In the end, you’ll have some more time with your family, which is always good, right?”
“Lucky? What? More time with my family? What the . . . Are you punishing me because I’m a single mother? I told you, my son is sick, Frank. This is not a joke. This is not me calling in because I’m hungover, like I’m sure George has already done this morning.”
George is single, like most of the people I work with, and a notorious party animal; he’s always the one with the lampshade on his head and his hairy butt on the photocopy machine at the Christmas party. I’ve seen it. It’s not pretty. It could explain why he’s still single. A man with that much butt hair should never advertise it so publicly.
“No, this has nothing to do with your status as a single parent or the fact that your son is sick. Jenny, I believe you. I know how it is with kids; they get sick all the time. Remember, I have two of my own.”
“Yes, Frank, and you have a wife at home who doesn’t work, lucky for you, so none of us have ever actually seen your children interfering in your ability to come to work at six in the morning and leave at ten at night.”
He loses the nicey-nice tone to his voice. “Nobody is questioning your dedication to the job, Jenny. You’re a fantastic engineer. You know your stuff. That’s why I’m not worried about you. You’ll find another job right away.”
My chest feels really tight. It’s all finally sinking in. I’m being fired. Holy shit, I’m being fired! What am I going to do? How will I pay my bills?
“How could you possibly know I’ll find another job right away?” I ask, on the verge of hysteria. “The economy isn’t that great. And you know the startups aren’t paying shit right now.” Great. He made me swear.
“So? Don’t go for a startup. Why don’t you get a job with the power company or something?”
“Do you want me to jump into the Mississippi, Frank? Because you know that’s what I’d do if I had to go someplace like that every day. There could not be a more boring job on the entire planet.”
“Okay, then, do some freelance work. I know you’ve been wanting to try that. The severance will give you a couple months’ pay, so you can relax and give it a shot.”
I snort in disbelief. “Oh, that severance package had better be more than two months’ pay.” He can’t be serious. Two months? The last guy who got laid off got nine. Nine!
Frank sounds nervous. “Why do you say that?”
“Because. I’ll bet if I did a little analysis on the people who are staying and the people who are going, it’ll be the people with kids who are being let go. It’ll be the single parents and people over thirty first out the door. And don’t think I won’t cause a fuss about that either. This is unfair. This isn’t right. It’s illegal to fire people for having kids at home. You’re just using this as an excuse to get rid of us and hire young kids fresh out of school for half the pay.”
“Okay, Jenny, I can hear that you’re upset. And I completely understand, because you weren’t expecting this to happen today. I’m sorry to be blindsiding you with it, honestly, I am; but there’s nothing I can do. It’s out of my hands.”