Healingsonghome

This is my healing journal.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Bert's continuing Journey

I'm listening to the project known as "The Covenant". It was one of several CDs that came out as a tribute to Oswald Chambers for his book "My Upmost For His Highest." Often, this particular CD helped me get through hard times. I've had it for eleven years, and it's one I keep returning to.

You ask why I refer to this CD in this post. It's because I know we have hard times ahead. As of today, Bert is no longer working at Vista Grande Villa, and while I'm relieved that I won't have to see him in a presure cooker situation anymore, and while I know God is going to take care of us, and I know that the last time this happened, we only waited about a month before he was hired, there's a bit of anxiety there.

Yes, Bert was fired. The last time he was without work was shortly after we moved here. But, it only took him a month to find a job that was the right fit for him at the time, the job at Vista.

Nearly every guy who has worked in the department Bert worked in, (The dietary department) has locked horns with both the supervisor and her assistant at one time or another. Bert tooke it too far. But, I believe it's only a matter of time, before everyone who worked with Bert there is gone from that place. The main kitchen there was cooking the meals for five different dining establishments as part of the same complex for senior citizens. They had a main dining room, a nursing home dining room, a special dining room, an assisted living center and a cafe all the food for which was being cooked by a crew of three men, (one of which was Bert) and a variety of assistants, none of who stayed very long, except the dessert person. Every one of them was coming in anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half early and leaving at least half an hour late, several times a month.

The supervisor has a degree in dietary management. Her assistant who is the coordinator for hospitality was a manager at Best Buy with no prior kitchen experience. Yet, she was doing most of the stuff the supervisor had been doing.

On Thursday, she came in and told Bert that he needed to clean the hold oven, as there was a drip line of grease on it from the corned beef. Bert said that he would clean it once the beef was done, as it would be easier to clean it all at once. She told him that was okay and then went and got someone else to do the job. He says that maybe now what he should have done was go ahead and clean it. After the beef was done, he was getting ready to clean it when this lady came in and told him that it needed cleaning again, and that someone had had to do it for him the last time. That's when he lost his temper, thus his being suspended, thus his being fired. In the meeting where they told him he was suspended, his supervisor came up with a lot of trumped up charges against him with no written record of them for him to see. She also told him that every evaluation for the past ten years, after he had gone to anger management counseling, mentioned incidents of him being angry. (That I know is a lie, because he told me about four of the past ten, which were all good. But, I also know that his evaluations for the past five years have never been seen by him and signed off on by him.)

I don't excuse my husband, though for the past year, I have watched him become more and more disenchanted with working there. He should have started looking then. But, he felt he should try to stick it out.

Do I think anger management counseling would have helped. Maybe. However, I think it would have been better for him to actually choose his own counselor as he's now thinking of doing.

It's through this that we're finding out who our friends are. Carolyn, who has stood by us the whole time we lived in Jackson said that she would be a personal reference for any jobs he applies for, as did my friend May when he decided he would go to the hospital where she works. Others have asked if there was anything else they could do besides praying. I think my one client might volunteer his services to Bert as a counselor or mentor, if you will, as he had gone through a lot of the same stuff and he was a counseling administrator before deciding to work for himself.

This seems to be the time when people are preparing for something that is going to happen, and in doing so major changes are going on in their lives. My friend and fellow Blogger Tom C. is going through his own struggle. I'm learning how to use new techniques that will help benefit my business and deciding what activities I will discontinue. Bert is facing looking for a job at fifty-seven and not sure he'll find it. But, he's so glad to be out of that place where he had been. There are other people I know who are going through major changes. Yet, each person who is facing those changes is accepting them. A lot of us are trying to use the Seven Decisions talked about in the Traveler's Gift. It's not easy to do. But, to persist without exception is to survive, and my husband will survive.

5 Comments:

  • At May 27, 2008 at 7:36 PM , Blogger Suzanne R said...

    This sounds like an awful place to have worked. I think you know you both have my prayers for a much better future. There is no question in my mind that God will be with you.

     
  • At May 27, 2008 at 10:28 PM , Blogger Ryan said...

    Ever sense I've known you, Bert has been in that pressure situation.
    The few times I remember talking to him when he just got home, he sounded absolutely spent after his work.
    True, that can be common but, you could tell so many things were eating at his mind.
    What they did to him was wrong and we all have situations that bring us to that point of no return.
    I think they were probably trying to get rid of him for a while so they could bring in there own people who they could manipulate.
    I really think that bert chosing his own counceler will be great because it's a lot easier to listen to someone who you know cares.
    Things will be a lot better in the long run for you both but, it's understandable why you'd both feel kind of up in the air.
    Praying for you guys always and also praying that Bert is able to come in contact with the correct people.
    I'm also praying that he can forgive himself because it's over now and at least he will be able to move on knowing he gave his all for 11 years.

     
  • At May 28, 2008 at 8:28 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I really hope things work out. He hadn't been happy there for a long time. Maybe he will find somewhere that appreciates his hard work and he can enjoy, or look forward to going to.

     
  • At May 29, 2008 at 6:43 AM , Blogger Healing Song said...

    Thanks Suzanne always for your prayers. They are much appreciated.

    Ryan, thanks for your comments with regards to the phone calls. Knowing someone else heard everything I had heard for years, even in a few phone calls, really means a lot.

    Linda, you sat in our living room and heard eenough of his comments as well as saw it in his face. It's hard to know what to do at this point. But, I know God is in control.

     
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