Bad News, Good News

So this past Monday I got the official, "Thanks, but no thanks" email.  I was bummed, but not surprised.  I figured those personality tests were going to be my downfall.  My personality is somewhat different at work than it is outside of work - while I prefer to be a face in the crowd outside of work, in the office I don't mind at all speaking in front of groups or making calls to strangers to ask them for something - so when I take those tests and it asks me what I'd do in a party situation and then in a conference situation, they aren't going to jibe. 

Then this week we had 2 open houses at the office to get more candidates in - personally, I felt it was a clusterfuck and no one is looking at what is going to happen AFTER the open houses because now we have to get most of those people to come back in a second time, which, good luck.  Of course, if this isn't a big success, my customer will blame me, just like they blamed me when we went to a job fair and we got a load of pre-applications filled out, and when I tried to call people to come into the office to fill out a full application over half of the phone numbers given to me were either disconnected or the person who answered didn't speak English, and then when I finally got people to make appointments to come in, only 2 managed to make it in, and then only 1 came to the facility tour and was hired. 

Yesterday I was part of a conference call with my manager, regional manager, and people in corporate.  Starting Monday, we have to completely change the way we do business with our customer - it is basically like starting a whole new job, just with the same old employees.  It made me upset because I felt like I was the only one who was looking weeks and months out and could see that things weren't going to work, and I was bitter that a customer could come in and change the work procedures that our company has in place for every office around the country.  So as I'm fighting back tears of frustration my regional manager finished up the meeting but asked me and my manager to stay on the line.  At this point I thought I was going to be told how my customer hates me and what I needed to do to get back into their good graces.  I really did.  My stomach started turning and I felt like I was going to throw up. 

Regional manager then starts off with "I don't know what [manager] has said to you about this, and I think he knows what I'm about to say." And my manager said, "There are a few things I think you may be saying right now..." which made me just sink into my chair, ready for the 1-2 punch to my gut.  Then regional manager says, "We think you are doing a fantastic job, and when we hired you last year we had every intention of putting you on full time, but then the economy got all messed up, which I think you know all about, and things got put on hold, but I have finally been able to get my manager to approve your hiring full time, and she is going to corporate now to get them to hire you on full time.  I'm hoping that this will get approved in the next week or two." and then my manager chimed in with, "And until that happens, we've given you a $2 an hour raise."

!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god, what a wonderful way to end such a craptastic week!  Seriously, this had to have been one the worst weeks I've had at work, where I've actually had to take sleeping pills because my mind couldn't stop racing, thinking about all the shit going on in the office.  Such a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!  I stopped off at the store on my way home and bought some sparkling wine to celebrate.  I left work early, like I usually do on Fridays, and was home by 4:30, when I got a call on my cell phone from my manager.  He wanted to start off my weekend with even better news - corporate just approved my full time hiring!  I should be getting all the hiring paperwork early next week! 

Everything worked out!  Now I feel like I can do all this stupid stuff my customer wants me to do with a better attitude, since I now know that I'm not just going to be dumped with no notice. 

And tomorrow is my 12th anniversary - what a nice way to celebrate!