Y'all may not want to read all this and that's OK. I'm not one to post lengthy threads, but I feel the need to share all that GOD has done.
For the last 18 months, my work situation has been bad. I have been at the same job for 12 years, since graduation, and have gained a lot of knowledge and experience. I do my job well. My father was the manager of this store where I worked for 37 years. The store is part of a corporation of about 200. The way many companies do, they had started the practice of hiring young managers and paying them much less than my father was making. Four managers making my fathers salary were cut from their management positions and offered a very low paying position in each store. My father refused the offer to maintain a bit of pride and I don't blame him for that. After that point, my mother (who was assistant manager) and my brother in-law ( who had a sales position) retained our positions hoping to find something else soon. With the condition of our local economy, my brother in-law has been the only one who has found other work. My mother and I were forced to stay on. A new manager was hired that was horrible. He treated mom and I (the only women in the store) terribly....told us we were useless as women, didn't know why a lumber yard would hire women, etc. He constantly yelled, ran customers off, etc. I made the decision to contact upper management concerning our managers behaviour. I had many witnesses to his behaviour, had documention, etc. to back me up. The manager was demoted to Outside sales in another store instead of being fired. We had proven that theft, among other things, had taken place while he was in charge and upper management didn't seem to care.
After I went forward, things really went down hill for me. Every new hire was brought in at a much highter rate of pay than me...I hadn't recieved a raise in YEARS, etc. So many things started happening it was ridiculous. I have been miserable, but I felt like I needed to stay as long a possible for my mother. My schedule has been horrible. I am the only emplyee at the store who never gets two days off in a row, I work EVERY single Saturday from 730 to 4....UGH. My co-workers only work one to two Saturdays per month. I suppose I could go on and on, butI think you get the picture.
The last straw for me was about two weeks ago. I was offered an assistant manager position (I think I mentioned that here) and I reluctantly accepted the position. In fact, I took 10 days to accept because in the back of my mind, something was gonna happen. Always had before, why not now? Finally after talking with Travis, we decided that if I had to be there, I might as well be paid fairly-I already handled most of the job responsibilites anyway. So, I took the position, signed the new hire paperwork along with my manager and had been working in the position for about a week. I still had a feeling something was wrong, so I ask my manager when my new position had actually taken effect and the look on his face told me everything I needed to know. Upper management had not approved the promotion. I had not been told this and all the while my co-workers were congratulating me and all of my long-term customers were told of my new position. To be honest, I was infuriated. I marched back to the office and told my manager that I was not going to put up with the mistreatment any more. I ask that he call the district manager (or I would) and advise him that I was extremely upset and he needed to look for someone to fill my position. Travis supported me 100% percent, but I was fearful. I kept asking God, God, why should my family suffer financially for things that were not my fault!?! In reality, we need for me to provide some income and I was just at a loss. I have been interviewing and interviewing and have had no luck at all.
All this happened on Good Friday and let me tell y'all, I thought I wasn't going to make it. When I work up that morning, before work, I was emotional.....I had Jesus and Mary on my mind and scenes from The Passion of the Christ were litteraly flashing through my head. Loren and I leave super early every morning and we travel through some very, very backwoods road on the way to daycare. It was dark, stormy and flooded...I had a dreadful time getting her there. She was emotional when I dropped her off at daycare because she wanted her momma when it was storming. after dropping her off, I have a 20 minute drive to work and let me tell ya, I was absolutely in tears. I was crying out to GOD that he help us in some way have more time together and show me how I needed to make it happen. More than anything, I wanted the last couple of months off with Loren before school and I could just see the time slipping away from me. August will be here soon and honestly I was about to give up on that even happening. Little did I know what GOD already had in the works for us.
Back to the situation at work. My manager (who is truly a good man), contacted upper management and made them aware of what was up. My manager had been told by UM to promote me...I had not ask for the position or thrown an expected salary out at any point. My manager was furious over the treatment and began to try to help me. UM wouldn't budge, they began to twist the story around on our manager too. It was started to get really nasty. At the end of the day Saturday, my manager told me he would have an answer for me by Monday. On Easter Sunday, we had the most amazing service at church. We had interpretive dance, baptisms, a powerful sermon and amazing praise and worship. Being real honest here, I have only felt the holy spirit strongly a few times in my life and I felt it that morning like never before. I just couldn't get enough......I still didn't know that GOD was trying to build me up.
When I got to work Monday morning, my manager was really not himself. He told me that our district manager would be at work first thing Tuesday morning to take care of our issues. I was a nervous wreck and sooo not a happy camper. All day I just kept repeating Jeremiah 29:11 to myself and telling myself GOD was in control. I didn't fully understand why I was being put thru all this but, I had come this far and would see it out. Tuesday night I had another interview and it was at a local church. The position was only 20 hours per week and minumum wage. Considering gas expense and daycare, I really couldn't afford to take the job, but knew I needed something...and fast. My interview was at 7 and I got there early. I was sitting in the parking lot and praying and right before I shut the car off, my favorite song came on K-Love. The Revelation Song. The first line is "Worthy is the lamb who was slain, holy, holy is he"......as I listened to that, I felt immense peace. It was like I felt the Lord telling me "Until you love me ENOUGH, you will never never experience the love I have to share with you." WOW! I walked right in that church and felt completely at peace. I knew everything was going to be okay.
Sooo, yesterday morning as I got ready for work I kept noticing I wasn't nervous in the least. I was unsure of what was ahead, but not nervous. When I pulled into my parking spot at work, my manager wasn't there. He is ALWAYs there super early and opens up.....then, I got nervous. I texted him and he ask that I call him after the meeting. My mind was racing. For one, I couldn't believe that he was going to leave me alone....I had no one to cover the store with me.....I had a DM on his way to say and do no telling what....my ally had deserted me. I didn't understand. I went on about my business of opening the store and in walked the DM. I told him I would not got behind closed doors with him and meet for both of our protection and he became infuriated. I could see the writing on the wall. He proceeded to tell me our manager had quit because he had made a promise that he couldn't keep and couldn't handle that. Things were still not right.......I litteraly turned my back to him and cried out inside "LORD HELP ME!!' Our discussion continued and without going into details, he was telling me to get past the things that had happened, that I hadn't been treated wrongly, etc. I told him, I would not stay to be mistreated again and didn't think my family deserved to suffer financially for their wrongdoing. I told him I wouldn't talk with him anymore, to make a decision and let me know. Supposedly my new position was not possible because our sales are so bad and the store cannot afford the salary. My hours have been cut for over a year.
A few minutes later, the DM came out of the office and told me he was going to lay me off due to lack of work! I couldn't believe my ears. He had made the right decision.....Now, I realize he felt compelled to do so because of obvious legal issues, but this could have been drug out for a very long time and would have been miserable!!! So, praise GOD, Saturday is my last day and I will be able to draw unemployment until I can find something else. If this isn't a GOD thing, I certainly don't know what it.
Ma Betty