So I got fired somehow today...

First time in my life. I've been laid off before; had a few times when my boss and I had to sit down and "reasess the parameters of my employment," but never once actually fired. Two weird and slightly hilarious factors have arisen out of this. The first is that I'm not particularly angry, bitter, resentful or any other emotion so much as baffled. The second--which plays into the first--is that I truly have no idea why.

For those of you that don't know I've been bartending at the Melting Pot for the last six months, paying the bills while struggling to get my fledgling finance company off the ground. About two months ago, the owners asked me if I would consider becoming a "key hourly" or "manager on duty" twice a week, basically something to give the full-time salary managers a day off during the week. It was a bti of a pay cut, but I figured having a steadier hourly paycheck might be a nice change. Plus I still got to bartend four nights a week, so it worked out.

Three weeks ago, our general manager quit. Basically the owners were in a quandry, because they only had one other guy available and he was a single dad living in Grand Rapids and they said they really didn't want to ask him to commute. So they asked me to move up to full-time manager. I weighed the pros and cons and, in the end, it wasn't worth it. I would be taking about a $1000/month paycut, working the same hours, having the ten times the responsibility and pretty much giving up any hope of having a weekend day off again for the forseeable future.

Against my better judgement, I said yes. I didn't want to screw the restaurant and I felt like if I said no, I would be doing exactly that. What followed was two short weeks probably pretty typical of managing in any restaurant that has no clear sense of direction and is not making alot of money: long hours, chaos and stress. No problem, yunno? Thats just part of the deal.

Last wednesday I went into work and the owners, Mark and Lisa were waiting for me. "We need to talk," Mark says, and all I could think at the time was: "Thank God." So followed about an hour of discussion where they were concerned about how happy I was, if I was stressed out or not and if the job was "right for me" at the time. No mention of performance. Nothing that most people might, yunno, consider critical to hiring and/or firing someone. But it seemed to work out at the time; I went in the next day and re-interviewd for my job with the new GM, and reported to work Friday for bartending.

The weekend passed without incident; I bartended Friday-Sunday and made some decent cash, as it was graduation weekend and had a few days off as the new schedule was supposed to come out today. Instead I got a call from Mark today telling me they had to let me go. Again, no mention of performance. Basically something to the effect of, "Well...you know the restaurant isn't doing well right now...and we like you, we really do, but we just think too far away from where we are in the way the restaurant should be run. If the restaurant was doing better, we'd like to keep you on and work with you, but as it is we have to let you go."

Ummm...are you fuckin serious? It's not like I'm your goddam accountant or a public relations manager; I'm a bartender for fuck's sake. As long as I do my job well (I do), don't give away drinks (I don't) and don't steal (I don't) what the hell is the problem? If I'm not sewing dissention at work, how the fuck does it matter if I think you're doing a shitty job running your restaurant? So you're telling me you're firing a competent, honest employee that bent over backwards for you from day one for some esoteric bullshit? Sweet. Good work.

The most hilarious part of all was the end of the conversation where he asked me to maybe give him a call once the economy turned around and they would consider me working for them again. Are you for real, dude? You just fired me without giving me any valid reason and then said it would be cool for me to work for you again "once the economy gets better"? I have no idea if that's gall, lack of anything resembling an EQ, or just sheer stupidity...either way, I can guaran-goddam-tee you that shit will never happen.

I'll find another gig in the meantime, I guess; it just feels totally surreal the way the whole thing went down. Whatever. Time for a beer and a Battlestar Galactica marathon. Cheers, people.