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- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Imagine finding out you died on a gnr forum? Almost makes Axl’s claim about finding out the 01 euro tour online seem believable.
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Hey everyone, wow geez this sucks. I had a whole update post mostly written out and my laptop got all wonky and logged me out. Sorry for leaving without warning, got kinda mad at the world over some work related things.
Basically, worked my ass off in 2020. Had a small team of 2 coworkers who were great to work with (mid 30s females too, haha) but seriously they were great as well. We worked our asses off running virtual conferences, I kinda did the web/video, another did the virtual recordings, and the other did all the planning & scheduling of speakers. Mostly in professional education (think CPA, Legal, Medical kinda field). It was a small company, only about 50 employees.
So, CEO (who was newer, groomed from CFO) decides to hire 'another' VP fall of 2020, when we were crushing it yet working our ass off. I'm sure it was the reason, but one of the girls who did the recordings bounced. Found new work January 2021 and left. I was devastated. So the other girl & I were tasked to run a really important virtual conference on our own, just the two of us. 150 attendees and we scored an 89.7. Crushed it.
Well, in comes new VP, along with her friend. Trying to take over. First up, we'd air an Intro Video before each webinar or conference, which I didn't make but it was probably done around 2018, but it featured the girl who left. Just kinda saying things like 'Please use Google Chrome, if you have streaming issues refresh your page, if you have Questions there's a Chat feature' etc.. So in an effort to extend an olive brach, I email the new VP and Manager that the girl I worked with & I were going to redo it. Well, I get back 3 emails saying no, this is Jenns (the new girl) job now, its in her job description etc. I'm like WTF, so I write back "Great, let me know when its done".
I move onto another project, redo'ing the website I would make for these conferences. Kinda like a Wordpress builder, plus I had other daily tasks. Well, about a month goes by, and this idiot says to me 'I was wondering if you had time to talk about the intro video?' I said 'What about it?' to which she goes 'Well I was thinking we chould have footage of people downtown, and cars driving, and all this stuff' and I said 'I don't care what you do with your video. Its not my project'' Then she kinda explains she wanted me to do it, I said I don't work for her, and that Sara (VP) made a bad decision in giving her the project she cannot make, but it isn't my problem.
There were other issues, the 'other' previous VP wanted to build some monstrous On Demand learning platform, and that project and investment totally failed, also egged the CEO on into purchasing a training company (probably a 1-2 million dollar buyout), which someone told me later netted very little, money just kinda trickled in like $100/day on the deal, and here we were doing 20 virtual conferences, with 100+ attendees, who paid $300 each. Plus, some were two day conferences which was double the work, yet generated $700.person. The new girl also had some dumb ideas, wanting crazy website features this builder wasn't capable of, wanted to play Spotify type music during break which was blatant copyright infringement, things like that I didn't have time for and were beneath me.
Anyway so yeah I move on to rebuilding the website. (I'm sure the VP wanted to be in charge of that, but I worked too hard and wasnt giving that up, so I didn't even ask). Anyway, she made a point to claim we didn't look into these dumb widgets enough (like Twitter Widget, Linkedin) and some social media platforms that weren't even used at all. (Like, are we really going to use the Tweet widget instead of the Chat function??). Anyway so she wanted us (her friend Jenn) to run a fake conference where we demonstrate all the widgets. It honestly felt like a 6th grade project. So I blew it up. We had 20 minutes each, so I gave a banger Powerpoint presentation of us doing 20 conferences in 7 months time, four of them 2 day conferences, how successful we were, when the other girl left her & I scored an 89.7% in feedback surveys etc.. and that now I'm finishing up this great new template of the website, just asking a little bit of time for the Graphic Design team to toss over a few final graphics and logos to polish it up, and lets go into v2. I used stick figures in it too, to kinda add humor and make a mockery of how this is not a real conference, real conferences we ran make money! (btw also totally bypassing the new VP from said workflow, it was mine and I fucking worked for it).
So, next morning, 8:30am I get a chat message from the CEO saying she'll be calling me in 1 minute and to be ready. I was at my desk (WFH still), always was working hard as I did, so I replied and waited for the call. Sure enough, HR is on it as well. TF.. I figured it was going to be a 'that was unproffessional' or 'don't do it again' type speech but no, she went right into it.
"Pasnow, we're noticed patterns of your work ethic and frankly we're not going to put up with it anymore" or something. I was blindsided. "WHAT?? Are you serious" "I am 100% serious" Me "Wow!!"
It went on, but I told her she was nuts. To which she gave me an odd double take, as in 'Are you for real?' I laughed, and said are you serious, do you think you'll get thru conferences? and again, she looked at me oddly. I said 'Without me?!' Then paused, then laughed 'You don't have a fucking chance' she replied very snide 'Really??' I said "No, none". She then got pretty dismissive 'Ok, well we'll take that into consideration' and stuff. I mentioned the very big conference in November, 'Do you seriously think you'll get thru this?' and she looked at me, as if 'Are you not telling me something here?' I said 'Oh you have no idea how hard we worked. Wait until Ashley (the girl who left) hears about this...' and Ashley, was the type with a big mouth. Once you tell her something, EVERYBODY KNOWS within a matter of minutes, lol. So get ready. Anyway I stood toe to toe with her, the CEO. I even had the kiddie gloves out, told her 'I feel bad for you.... Well I don't want you to fail' again, got a weird look.
Anyway lets fast for just a couple weeks. The one nice girl who moved to my team, put her 2 weeks notice in within about a month, saying she see's thru the drama and they play favorite around there. She did however offer to stay about 4-6 weeks to train her replacement. Her replacement lasted about 2 weeks and left due to no one clearly explaining her job plus the company in the midst of falling apart. Annoying girl Jenn quit within about 2 months time, constantly went to HR, claimed nothings in her job description, she's too busy, didn't want to do any work just wanted to play Director. They had to go onto Upwork to find people do it freelance. My IT Manager, on his first 2 day conference website, missed one check box that took out the password field, but didn't notice, so no one could log in for the first hour or two. He was calling in to the streaming platforms tech support and leaving voicemails, getting helpdesk tickets etc. Sara, awful VP, pretty much quiet fired. Moved to some irrelevant position, stayed for less than a year and took a lesser role elsewhere, I think she was pretty hated over what she did to me. The other VP moved back into his old role, albeit he was pretty worthless. The Manager was fired, and the girl I worked with & was friendly with got promoted. It was funny, she said she got a chat message from, the CEO, saying I'm going to call you and to be ready. She told me she thought she too was getting fired, because the whole place went to shit. She answered & saw HR and thought 'oh no', but they told her about all the other moves, firings etc to which she said 'Oh my gosh, I thought you were calling to fire me' and the CEO replied 'I can assure you we are not going to fire you', and the HR girl sorta chuckled (I think HR was on my side all along). Anyway so that sorta made me feel better, or at least redeemed.
I dunno, I was really pissed. Livid. There were other things to it, they were really trying to make this 25 year old idiot like my Creative Director. This chick didn't even know what Photoshop was. She was annoying as fuck too, if she didn't get her way she'd throw a pouty fit. Her friend/VP thought it was her being some sort of 'Take no prisoners' female leader or marketing exec but I just exposed her as a talentless idiot with no skill sets. I do regret (majorly regret now) not speaking to some law firms about it. Pretty sure I had a solid age discrimination lawsuit. There were some awful decisions being made, and the company completely fell apart. I'd google random coworkers whose names I'd remember and seems almost 30% of the company has turned over, most I read it as quitting or leaving in disgust & poor executive management. (Taking a successful department and turning it into total shit within 90 days time). Honestly tho, I didn't hate the CEO, she was younger than me, maybe 40 by now, I was just trying/hoping to guide her but she wanted to have her friends lead instead of me. I also thought she'd eventually call me back, so I headged my bets hoping for a new career path, as opposed to risk losing any chance from a failed lawsuit. Also, there was a meeting with the idiot manager who was trying to assess who does what, because she felt I should pick up the workload of the girl who left, to which I let out a 'What the fuck??" F bomb. I was working 60-70 hours a week, she leaves, she's replaced by 2 people, I do her work also. Makes sense. So, point is, being in an 'At Will' state, I think she could fire me for any reason, and dropping an F bomb could be that reason. I still think i'd have had a case, and pissed I didn't follow thru.
My career path has been a struggle since. Working Full Time, but at 50, the job hunt is tougher/non-existant, especially with Zoom interviews. But thats another story. Anyway year sorry I didn't post in a long time, I was pissed, and just wanted to cut ties to a lot of things in my life for a while. Mad at the world, so to speak.
@James thats wild you came across that post. TBH I think that guy was from my hometown, I remember seeing that on Facebook, I think on my high school page. Didn't know him, he was a few years older, but I may have Liked it or show an emotion on it, so if you searched my name+obituary maybe it came up in Facebooks algorythm. No, not dead yet. My careers dead. Thinking about whats next, cant do office/corporate anymore if this job goes. Maybe bartend in a tourism/resort area, or just move somewhere rural and live a simple life. I turned 50 
, and a friend/former roommate & coworker passed away on my birthday last December. Pretty devastating, cancer, albeit he didn't really smoke. He lived with me for about 6 months after getting divorced back in 05, and in fact I made my first HTGTH posts using his PC. I remember one of my first posts was off topic about the band Shadows Fall. Anyway yeah, I think he was 48, gone too soon.
Thanks everyone tho for the kind words & thoughts. Flagg had emailed me about a year ago, and I guess I thought he gave a sort of update, I also wasn't aware of the 'Pasnow is Dead' rumor going around, otherwise I would have logged in to quash them.
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Man I'm glad I don't have to work in a modern office. The culture was bad enough before, now it's gone off the rails. Just the idea of taking orders from an idiot, some clueless kid! Sometimes I wonder how society functions at all under these conditions.
I moved to the country 2 years ago. Best thing I ever did. If my current job falls apart I'm thinking about becoming a tree cutter. Be your own boss, work in nature and the pay is good. That whole world out there barely exists for me anymore. Out here I am my own king and I can do whatever I want.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Good to see your posts again PA. I made a similar decision last month. Tired of the corporate office culture, so I gave up my IT gig and am changing industries after 20 years.
I enrolled in a masters in education program and am going to become a teacher.
I hope you’re able to find something fulfilling and rewarding soon.
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Good to see your posts again PA. I made a similar decision last month. Tired of the corporate office culture, so I gave up my IT gig and am changing industries after 20 years.
I enrolled in a masters in education program and am going to become a teacher.
I hope you’re able to find something fulfilling and rewarding soon.
Hey that's great. I've actually considered that. That or something with youth or post-release type services (GED instructor lol). Going back for a degree seems a lot harder at 50, we'll see. But yeah, I think you reach an age & might decide to pay it back a bit, less of the rat race and fighting the machine to get ahead.
Its all worthless, whats the point. I'm glad for you tho, wish you the best with it. Did you ever get married?
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
Yea man, married just shy of two years now. Best decision I ever made and happiest day of my life.
I'm 40, so not exactly easy but I still have my GI Bill and PA has a great program to get vets their teaching certification and placed, so things are looking good. Lightbulb moment for me was when I spent 2.5 hours throwing some control framework together for this investment firm and saw my company billed them 10k for it. That combined with a miscarriage really put shit in a new perspective for me. Being compensated well was nice, but none of that work has any meaning or fulfillment for me.
Teaching will allow me to give back while leveraging my 20 years in the Army and corporate America to help kids get attention and mentorship they might not get from an educator who has never left the classroom. If in your down time you ever find yourself in the burgh, shoot me a message and we can grab a beer.
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
I always forget youre almost ten years younger.
Damn you were young when you were in Iraq.
Good to see you back Pasnow... that's a crazy story.
Kinda funny how people can leave these forums for a couple years...check back in...and not a goddamn thing has changed.
Yeah we might get a couple more songs....key word there is might.
You're not the only person who's been gone. Haven't seen Bri in ages either.
Re: PaSnow died (HE'S ALIVE!!)
PaSnow: I am glad to see you're back. Even if we never really interacted, I know you used to be very active here! I am sorry you had to deal with so much crap at work.
It looks like some of us are trying to change careers. I am trying to get into holistic therapies and it's harder than I thought! I can't even get people to do EFT (emotional freedom technique) with me for FREE (one hour session)!? 
