Going, going...

I just had my exit interview.  Let me first say that anyone who is an HR professional, please look away.  I had a horrible experience with my exit interview.  The meeting was kicked off with an opportunity to give any feedback and to explain why I was leaving.  We would then follow with an explanation of the benefits (of which I didn't need as in a previous life I was a benefits analyst) and COBRA.  So I started to explain that the reason I was leaving was because of the unprofessional, rude and otherwise undesirable behavoir by my director.  That was when she turned the meeting around on me.  Why didn't I say anything before?  Why didn't I tell the director that his behavoir was rude?  WHAT?  Oh sure, that would have made it a more comfortable workplace when I'm telling the director that he's rude.  How could they make it better if no one complains.  First I don't think they have the power to "make it better".  This is the ass' nature.  There is no changing it.  What's HR going to do about it?  Put a note in his folder?  What she did was make me feel unreasonable for being uncomfortable enough to look elsewhere without talking to her first.  I finally told her that I don't care whether so and so is bothered by his behavoir, the 4 people before me were unhappy enough to leave and so am I.  Whatever.  I'm done.  One more day.  Its not worth the energy.

In happier news, I checked out Tutor Time this morning as the wicked early time of 7AM.  Eew.  The center is gorgeous.  The security is phenomenal.  The program is wonderful and I think the kids will be happy there.  It is also quite a bit more expensive than the current place.  I'm beginning to seriously think that I'd been getting a bargain price.  I'm happy enough with the place that I'll be canceling the appt. I have for tomorrow afternoon at another center a bit further from home.  I crunched the numbers and can definitely swing it, but I will be knitting from stash more.  A new austerity budget regime is about to commence.  Two more years until public school.

Thanks to the help of the other bloggers on this wonderful internet, I finally found what I'm going to do with all the leftover sock yarn!  I saw this first when Beth posted about seeing one here.  Okay, I'm a hooker too.

I've been crocheting technically longer than I've been knitting.  Mom taught me to crochet first.  Probably a granny square then too :)  I have nightmares from the 70's of brightly colored ack-rylic granny squares being seamed together for just about everything under the sun.  No thanks.  But.  One big honking granny square blankie of quality sock yarn, count me in!  Is it bad that I'm looking at sock yarns to see how they would fit in to the blanket?  That center blue stuff?  That's the leftover of the Lorna's in the Jeans colorway.  Leftover after getting two socks from one skein.  He he.  Okay, anyone got leftover sock yarn they don't want?

What else?  Oh yeah, the first sock is definitely done (and there's a goodly amount of leftover ;) and the second is well begun though I won't bore ya with progress shots of it as they'll look alot like the first one.

As to the larger quantity leftover, I'm torn between adding it to the blankie or making pairs for the monkeys.  Grrr.

Anyway, beloved SnB tonight!  Woot.  Can't wait.  Tomorrow?  Last Freakin' Day!  woooooot

Craft on!

Comments

[Deborqah]

Oh HR exit interviews can just be so much "fun". I've learned it doesn't pay to be so forthcoming about things. Always comes and bites me in the butt. One more day and you are done! YEAH!!!! I meant to mention this when you posted pics of your sock stash, can I come shopping in your stash??? It looks like it would be fun. BTW...I emptied out my SPAM email this morning and as I hit the delete button I noticed your email. I couldn't retreive it to read it.

[Nancy]

Ooh what a sucky way to do an exit interview. At least it's a done deal.

Nice idea about the sock yarn. I might have to think about it.

Glad the day care is going to work out.

Can you do lunch on your last day in the neighborhood?

[Kris]

Yay, almost done. Great news about the daycare, too. Good luck making it through the last day!

[Jen C]

Carpal tunnel syndrome induced by pregnancy has killed all knitting, so I do have leftover sock yarn that I could send your way. Let me know if you really want it!

[Claudia]

Oh yeah, I had a similar experience. 4 people left my department the same day I did, and the exit interviews were pretty much the same. 2 of us quit, 2 was fired under shady excuses.

The HR people put a smiley face in the beginning but if you say anything bad, they turn against you. I was the 3rd to have the interview and when I opened my mouth and started spilling the beans, she cut me short and said "yes, I have heard that yours is a complex department. Now let's discuss benefits..."

Aren't you glad you left?! (I was, even more!)

By the way, congratulations on how it all worked out! Yey for you!

[--Deb]

Um . . . defense mechanism because they're going to miss you so much?

Er.

No, I didn't think so!

[janna]

At least you got an exit interview! I worked at the same place for 23 years, but no one asked me why I was leaving.

And that's a great idea for left-over sock yarn. I'm sure I could remember how to crochet....

[kathleen]

Well, sucks about the exit interview. But I am glad you found a good daycare for the kids. Knitting from the stash is good to. :)

[lynne s of oz]

Hooray for new jobs and good day care centres!

[Jessica]

Ahh... so what you're saying is they did their level best to piss you off one last time and make you glad to leave. Now *that's* and exit interview strategy! ;) Glad the childcare situation worked out quickly. There seems to be more and more people hooking lately. Must be the economy. ;) I keep thinking about crocheting another sweater for myself... but that's as far as I've gotten.

[Kim]

It sounds like HR is also rude and unprofessional! That blankie is a great idea! You'll have to teach me how to crochet. Do you want that splitty sock yarn you gave me for the blankie? Glad to hear that the day care thing is working out on schedule. BTW, the monkey sock is gorgeous!

[Susan]

It's hard for me to tell what the HR person was thinking or how exactly the questions were being asked, so I don't know whether she was being rude and challenging you or whether she was actually doing her job. If employees don't tell someone about a manager's bad behavior, then there's no way for a company to change it. Obviously, there's a huge disincentive for current employees to say anything, which is why exit interviews are often used to gain info that can be used as leverage to change the situation in the future. Again, I can't say about your company, but I know that at mine, exit interview feedback is given to higher-ups with recommendations for improvement. . . and some of them actually act on those recommendations!

In any case, you're moving on and I hope that you enjoy your new job more than this last one.

[Janette]

Yeah for TutorTime. We don't have one in the immediate area or I would have checked them out. Peanut's new school is quite a bit more each week, but definitely worth every penny.

[Carol]

Exit interviews are a touchy feely innovation. My company made a big deal about how they had exot interviews to "improve" themselves. My boss was a lazy do-nothing and her boss was even worse. I tried to explain to upper management this and was brushed off. The final straw was when my boss told me she didn't "feel like" dealing with a problem that was clearly hers to deal with becasue it meant she'd have to "deal with the union and that's hard". So I quit. Not only did they not do an exit interview, they didn't ask me why I quit. They asked my co-workers if they knew! What a hole.

[Peeve]

Ooooh! It looks pretty! And yes, they are sooo addictive - I have already started number two.

[Debi]

This is my first visit, LOVE the new blanket! Can I as what the second yarn is?

I gave away a ton of sock leftovers to someone making a sock yarn mitered blanket and she never even thanked me :(

I'll think of you when I have more!

[Trish]

Yeah, that post brought back memories. I swear admin types learn (probably as a self-defense mechanism 'cause their job sucks) this incredibly annoying way of turning everything around on you. Telling them earlier probably wouldn't have changed anything except to make your job untenable anyway. I was lucky enough to do early retirement. The last few years of my job were less than satisfactory. And I didn't notice any positive changes from the exit interviews of all those people who bailed ahead of me! I'm happy you've moved on to better days. Good luck in your new job!