Bingo's Graceful Exit From The Workplace

[Bingo]

I know it is coming soon and I am telling myself I will take it well because after all what else can I do?

I am not the young mother who works in the back who is raising two young children alone. The one who knows that in this economy she isn't going to find a good job like the one she is losing.  I am not the 58 yr old male who works upstairs whose last day is the 3rd. He has recently recovered from a diabetic coma and seizures and still cannot drive to work. He has been taking busses and those schedules aren't easy.

I haven't just bought a new car or a new house. I wanted to retire. I wanted to thank them very much but refuse a potluck lunch to thank me for nearly 20 years of being there for the good of children.

After a couple of shell shocked days, most of us were trying to get back into our routine. We are also fielding calls from clients who want to know what will happen to us if you aren't there?  A call from a young CNA was put thru to my phone in error. She wanted to know who would take care of the elderly in the nursing home where she works because without subsidized child care she and her co workers can't afford to work.

We had a conference call with our CEO at 4:00 today. There was a lot of cheerleading. She went on and on (ad nauseum) about her hard work in our behalf and the advocacy she is living round the clock. But if we don't have contract hints by the first, or the fifth, we are locking the doors on the 17th. There will be a few remaining to box up and arrange a suite of offices for 20 or so instead of the 95 in the building.

I hope I will remember to exit gracefully from the workplace.

[SpiritMan]

Oh Bingo I am so sorry! And I am angry too, for you and all the hard working people in positions that matter to others. The expendable ones whose jobs are axed while people at the top, the ones who cheated and caused this meltdown, go unscathed. I am almost ashamed to live in a neighborhood where no one is hurting, because they are the ones whose tax breaks were part of the drain on the system. People here are traveling to Shanghai, coming back with smiles on their faces, salivating at the opportunities that await them in the downturn and the cheap foreign labor market. 

And just a few blocks away, the crumbling California state budget crisis is also taking victims like you and your co-workers. There is nothing undignified about righteous anger! The rich get richer and the poor sacrifice for the excesses of the wealthy. 

[Guardian Angel]

I am sorry too Bingo,  I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who depend on you and your co workers on a daily basis.  Who will be there for them now?  What will happen to all those people?  They are human beings in real need!  I agree with Spiritman, the cuts should start at the top.  Seems like those are the people who did little but, will lose nothing in all this.

[Bingo]

Our elected state representatives and Senators went to Springfield yesterday and HID from the rally in the Capitol Building. More than 5,000 men, women and children who are losing either jobs or services.

The lawmakers met with with each other for TEN minutes and adjourned until 10 AM on Wed. Today they were in session less than two hours. This is a slap in the face of every Illinois taxpayer. Is that not a waste of tax payer $$ to charge us mileage, food, drinks, and a place to sleep when they worked fewer than three hours of two days?

It shows me how serious they are to pull the pork from the budget that is short nine billion dollars. So they don't want to argue about an income tax increase? Then get serious about looking at the budget crisis. They will return on the 30th. Which is doomsday for most of the agencies in the state. We stand to lose no less than 375 of 750 employees. #3's agency lost more than half their staff. #2's agency is losing four programs next week.

Juvenile probation told us today that next week it is very possible that statewide 600 delinquent juveniles were be released back to the streets.

Yes Spiritman, I am angry. I want to prepare a pink slip for every lawmaker in Springfield. I want to put them on notice to do your job or get out! I want to tell the Gov I am angry with him for using us as he plays politics.

[Guardian Angel]

Bingo......what's stopping you?  Write him a letter and tell him...do it while your mad.

[pesoto74]

I'm sorry to hear this Bingo. It is sad that Illinois plays so many games with the social services.  It is especially sad in that such spending in Illinois is already so low.  Some figures I have seen is that Illinois ranks near the bottom in most areas of spending on social services.  I am kinda in the same boat myself in that I am losing a contract with the state. I thought it might be possible to offer to carry them for a while and see what money came through, however it gets tiresome to go through that every year and I was ready to move on.  It would be nice if people would vote all these legislators out of office, however it seems like they have been playing some form of this game forever with no consequences.  People can complain about the state government, however I think the voters of Illinois should get some of the credit since they keep electing these people.

[Bingo]

Pesoto, sorry to hear you are feeling the effects of the budget crisis too.
Some of my co workers who went to Springfield this week, they couldn't hear the speakers really well so they changed floors. Passing offices and caucas rooms, they saw at least one lawmaker playing solitaire on his computer while he was hiding from his constituents. How can reasonable people deal with the fat cats who feel they are entitled?

GA I sent emails, probing ones, to more than one person who is in a position to help the state work thru this mess.  Not one response. Not even an automatic one. I sent 25 letters by fax last week. Factual letters, respectful letters. Not one response. I realize they are being bombarded now but early last week when #3 called me about her agency, I ripped off those letters quickly.

I have friends at other agencies, and thru them I today learned about a few contracts received at still other agencies. I didn't mention this at work, not wanting to create more upset, but one of the larger child care advocacy groups in the state received their contracts at 50%.  Another program that usually works along with WIC to do case management with the families, providing referrals and resources, their funding came in at zero.

On a positive note, our accreditation interviewers were checking us out since last Sunday. Two interviewers visited with us a day and a half. Great timing. However it was a good thing. They thought we were wonderful. Files were impeccable, we do our jobs.

[Pat Testa]

Bingo...you have been in my thoughts the past couple of days...and you will continue to be...hang in there

[Country Gal]

Bingo.. I've been thinking about you also, just like everyone else.. I just haven't had a chance to post, or email you.. I hope things are looking better for you and the other employee's.. Its one thing to try and make the decision to stay at the job, but its crushing to find out, somone else is making that decision for you..

Just wanted you to know I am thinking about you.. You've been my rock for a long time.. I wish there was something I could say to make things better, but, I'll continue to think of you, and hope for the very best..

[Bingo]

Thanks all of you. I won't quit rallying, I won't quit insisting to lawmakers that we have reform.

But after nearly 20 years, July 17 will be my last day at this agency. I watched lives fall apart today as young workers were handed their layoff letters.

Our programs were cut 30% and a lot of people will need to be laid off. The Program Director asked for volunteers. Spoke to each of us one at a time. I didn't say so then, but I talked to my husband after work. I am volunteering tomorrow and at least one person who hasnt been there nearly 20 years will keep their job.  It is time and it is a relief now that the decision has been made. Overnight will be spent arguing with myself but I am going to do it. (I wish I could tell them which one I want to stay but I guess that is taking team work too far).

[Bingo]

I don't mind having to go to work the next two weeks. I realize the skeleton crew remaining need to squeeze some info out of my head. Sadly much of what I know about the program I won't know I need to pass it on until an issue comes up and someone says what do we do when this happens?

Staying two more weeks is annoying but doable.  Leaving is the part I don't do well.

Workers, Supervisors, and Program Directors walking in and out of the building on Thursday were all saying NO! you aren't leaving. And we will have a lunch or we will organize a big party.  Of course that isn't going to happen. I told my supervisor that. 

TWO of 90 volunteered to leave. Niquita is going back to school, she has a part time job and lives with her mother. Like me, the offer was a win win for her that fit into where she saw her future.  43 other people in our building will not be having going away parties and lunches. Most of them turned down the COBRA plan even with the stimulus help. They need the unemployment to pay student loans, car payments so they had a decent car to do their jobs, and housing. Some of the ones who were terminated are single moms   with  kids to get ready to send back to school in a few weeks.

July 17 will be a good day for me. But I know it is going to be ugly as 45 people leave their jobs behind. Yesterday was awful.  Child care subsidy workers had been told as many as 50% of their staff could be cut but no one thought it would be them. Each person in that large dept. was told one at a time and as each one ran crying upstairs, our hearts were breaking for them. One long time worker was laid off in my department so hopefully I saved a job for someone else who would have lost theirs.

[Guardian Angel]

Bingo, that's so sad, but doubly sad for the people in the community that you helped.  What will they do now?

[Bingo]

Our Redeploy programs in both Madison and St Clair counties kept kids out of jail. It was intensive therapy but it was working. Sending mentally ill kids to jail wasn't doing anyone any good.

Moms who wanted to work could do so because of the subsidized child care grant. If conventional pre school costs $200 a week, she would pay $50 so she could afford to work.

Pregnant and Parenting teens are going to miss Libby who has a check list she follows with the kids before they move, making sure the apt or house is safe and affordable. She makes sure the babies are thriving and that prenatal and post natal medical visits are kept. Even if she picks up the young woman and sits four hours waiting for the doctor who accepts the medical card and driving her back home.There are a lot of 16-20 year old youth who need transitional housing and guidance on independent living. Libby never had children of her own but there are large numbers of children and adults Libby has helped during the past 20 plus years. She poured her heart into her job. When I first met her she was giving her pregnant and her abused clients her home telephone number so they could reach her 24/7.

The runaways and lockouts and throwaways, the twice adjucated delinquents -- they are going to fall between the cracks.

[Bingo]

I am beginning to feel like the nervous housewife who cleans the house for hours the night before the housekeeper comes to clean the house.

I am writing up page after page of how to do this and where to find that. Have turned three binders into how to books along with labeled samples and handbooks for referral and resources.

I have finished paperwork that isn't due until the end of the month. I am so ready to go, now lets hope I can LET GO!!

[Bingo]

Four more days until retirement. I filled one box and brought it home today. Still have at least one more box to fill. I have thrown away a lot of things. Deleting emails and personal files. Sending some emails home. My boss said just one more weekend between work weeks. 

I have to work on my exit paperwork. If I had to fill in that many pages and answer so many 'feel good' questions to get hired I never would have had the job. HR has changed since I started there nearly 20 years ago.