Adam Kontras.com - Adam Addison gets Fired.




al 8:12 PM, Thursday, June 23rd 2005: Because of the "publicness" of this journal (and the fact that 4tvs.com is my friggin' license plate), there are certain topics I could never really talk about. With both of the big non-career jobs I've had here in LA, the inner-workings therin were just such topics. I always want to chronicle the stresses that shape my character in this crazy journey, and by all means your job is a big one, but I can only vaguely hint as it's simply not appropriate. That being said, if you think the past few months have been stressful...wait until I tell you the whole story. My job, and basically my paychecks, have ceased to exist since March. Nonexistent. Amazingly though, what I made in just the first 2 months of the year has lasted me this long, and could actually last me through the end of the year. So why is this so? The company decided to move to a 40,000 square foot building at the end of the refi boom and was so poorly run before, that this move made all their deficiencies about 40,000 times bigger. I won't get into the problems, but needless to say I could no longer get loans closed because everyone working on the file would be gone within weeks and you didn't know from one day to the next what was happening. Some of the stories are mind-boggling. There was a mini-exodus a couple months back that I didn't partake in, but I just kept hoping it would get better. I have never spent "months" at a job. I'm always there for the long haul and incredibly loyal. Changing jobs is always a stressful proposition because it takes a lot of timing and honestly: a lot of luck. Recently they brought in a new guy, and although completely skeptical - I was giving him a chance. Unfortunately there was about 7 of us left when he started "taking" over. They had hired at least 100 in the previous 4 months and everyone left. Because of this situation, I saw no reason to not see my dad for Father's Day or help Jess move into her apartment. I brought my laptop to Columbus, kept up with my borrowers and emailed my new boss daily... ...but I never receieved an email back. Hmmm. I figured something was up. I called in work and found out 4 more people were gone, and it was literally myself and 2 other people. That along with the fact that they were hiring more people but were keeping them away from the old people showed me they were pretty much doing the old "out with the old, in with the new" routine. Which honestly, made sense - because anyone who had been there more than 2 months was so angry, bitter and filled with attitude - there's no way they wouldn't poison the newbies. So I call up Tuesday afternoon when I got back in and was told by my coworker, I no longer worked there. ?!?! I called the boss and he was frustrated that I didn't contact him. Apparently he saw Adamazon and though it was SPAM. LOL. He erased my emails. (sigh). I resent them to him and my other boss and within the hour I got emails from both apologizing emphatically. He also called and just kept falling on his sword. I told him it was an honest mistake - Adamazon is intended to make you think it's Amazon. He couldn't say sorry enough and looked forward to seeing me the next morning. When I got in he said (this is classic): "I have two apologies. One again for the miscommunication of yesterday, and two for making you come in because you don't work here anymore." That is not verbatim btw - but damn close. Apparently, even though he explained the problem to the owner, the owner didn't care. He said he was completely befuddled and felt horrible. He said he's never been in this situation and had no idea what to say. I said "ok", and went to get my things. I spoke breifly with him on a friend to friend level and I must admit I do feel for him. He's got a family that he has yet to move out here with him so add missing your whole life to dealing with a company that has literally lost 50 loan officers in the 6 weeks he's worked there and he's probably losin' it right now. It was funny, I went to say goodbye to some of the LOs, but of course - there weren't any. LOL. No one was there but me. Heh. But then came the crazy part. I jump in my car and start hitting the cell phonebook. All the loan officers I've met over the months to just see where they were and if they liked it. Something I should have started long ago, but always felt bad until this moment. I even got a call from the most unlikely source possible (more when I can) that gave me a number that I called, booked the interview and drove to ALL while on my way home from being fired! I knew this would happen, which is why I never interviewed while working at this job. I just couldn't do it unless I was leaving THAT week, because it's easy to get a loan officer fif. Basically because they're almost all 100% commission, so you're of very little risk to bring on board. That interview was a little iffy as the place was just starting and everyone was literally under 25. I continued my calls on my way home from that and set up another interview for the next day (today). I just got back and I accepted it - I start Monday. LOL. And just like that my life takes a 180 degree turn. Especially since it's in Santa Monica. (sigh) I am now officially a resident of LA, complete with an hour commute. Oh well, for this company it seems worth it. They have a great system with no cold-calling, and they've been around with a system in place that hasn't changed in 5 years. Thank the LORD. I swear the "system" changed literally 5 times since I started working at the old job and they were HUUUUUUUUUUGE changes. Lost many loans because of them. The second I got home, I also sent one more email that will get an entry all by itself, because it's a biggie. Very sad for me, but a long time in the making and for once it has nothing to do with a woman. Heh. Whew. If you guys had any idea how stressful this whole situation has been literally since March when the company moved, man... It's just amazing to me when I look at April that I could have literally added 5 more entries just about the CRAZINESS at work and all the drama there! Everyday was incredible! Another co-worker of mine used to make the Titanic anologies on a daily basis. "We're heading towards the iceburg and instead of turning, he's speeding up..." At one point they moved all of the remaining loan officers to one corner so it wouldn't look so spread out and the co-worker came up to me and said: "So now we've hit the iceburg but he moved everyone to the back of the boat so they couldn't see it..." LOL. Eventually we were all actually in the water with the captain giving swimming lessons as if it was planned. Heh. Good times... So there you have it. The Journey continues. At some point it will have something to do with my career - I SWEAR. ;-) Adam PS - The video is actually a revelation of sorts for me. From about 10 on I was the class clown in school and annoyed EVERYONE singing constantly. Something I still do to this day actually - LOL. I never remembered a beginning to this trend until literally a week ago watching the new Moonlighting DVDs. I thought "David Addison" was the coolest man alive and wanted desperately to be him. He is literally the reason I sing as much as I do. Well now I wear the tie to work just like him. Ha! God I loved Moonlighting when I was a kid... Has it really been 20 years? Anyway - the clip is just quintessential Moonlighting that obviously had a bigger influence than I ever remembered...

8:12 PM, Thursday, June 23rd 2005: Because of the "publicness" of this journal (and the fact that 4tvs.com is my friggin' license plate), there are certain topics I could never really talk about. With both of the big non-career jobs I've had here in LA, the inner-workings therin were just such topics. I always want to chronicle the stresses that shape my character in this crazy journey, and by all means your job is a big one, but I can only vaguely hint as it's simply not appropriate. That being said, if you think the past few months have been stressful...wait until I tell you the whole story. My job, and basically my paychecks, have ceased to exist since March. Nonexistent. Amazingly though, what I made in just the first 2 months of the year has lasted me this long, and could actually last me through the end of the year. So why is this so? The company decided to move to a 40,000 square foot building at the end of the refi boom and was so poorly run before, that this move made all their deficiencies about 40,000 times bigger. I won't get into the problems, but needless to say I could no longer get loans closed because everyone working on the file would be gone within weeks and you didn't know from one day to the next what was happening. Some of the stories are mind-boggling. There was a mini-exodus a couple months back that I didn't partake in, but I just kept hoping it would get better. I have never spent "months" at a job. I'm always there for the long haul and incredibly loyal. Changing jobs is always a stressful proposition because it takes a lot of timing and honestly: a lot of luck. Recently they brought in a new guy, and although completely skeptical - I was giving him a chance. Unfortunately there was about 7 of us left when he started "taking" over. They had hired at least 100 in the previous 4 months and everyone left. Because of this situation, I saw no reason to not see my dad for Father's Day or help Jess move into her apartment. I brought my laptop to Columbus, kept up with my borrowers and emailed my new boss daily... ...but I never receieved an email back. Hmmm. I figured something was up. I called in work and found out 4 more people were gone, and it was literally myself and 2 other people. That along with the fact that they were hiring more people but were keeping them away from the old people showed me they were pretty much doing the old "out with the old, in with the new" routine. Which honestly, made sense - because anyone who had been there more than 2 months was so angry, bitter and filled with attitude - there's no way they wouldn't poison the newbies. So I call up Tuesday afternoon when I got back in and was told by my coworker, I no longer worked there. ?!?! I called the boss and he was frustrated that I didn't contact him. Apparently he saw Adamazon and though it was SPAM. LOL. He erased my emails. (sigh). I resent them to him and my other boss and within the hour I got emails from both apologizing emphatically. He also called and just kept falling on his sword. I told him it was an honest mistake - Adamazon is intended to make you think it's Amazon. He couldn't say sorry enough and looked forward to seeing me the next morning. When I got in he said (this is classic): "I have two apologies. One again for the miscommunication of yesterday, and two for making you come in because you don't work here anymore." That is not verbatim btw - but damn close. Apparently, even though he explained the problem to the owner, the owner didn't care. He said he was completely befuddled and felt horrible. He said he's never been in this situation and had no idea what to say. I said "ok", and went to get my things. I spoke breifly with him on a friend to friend level and I must admit I do feel for him. He's got a family that he has yet to move out here with him so add missing your whole life to dealing with a company that has literally lost 50 loan officers in the 6 weeks he's worked there and he's probably losin' it right now. It was funny, I went to say goodbye to some of the LOs, but of course - there weren't any. LOL. No one was there but me. Heh. But then came the crazy part. I jump in my car and start hitting the cell phonebook. All the loan officers I've met over the months to just see where they were and if they liked it. Something I should have started long ago, but always felt bad until this moment. I even got a call from the most unlikely source possible (more when I can) that gave me a number that I called, booked the interview and drove to ALL while on my way home from being fired! I knew this would happen, which is why I never interviewed while working at this job. I just couldn't do it unless I was leaving THAT week, because it's easy to get a loan officer fif. Basically because they're almost all 100% commission, so you're of very little risk to bring on board. That interview was a little iffy as the place was just starting and everyone was literally under 25. I continued my calls on my way home from that and set up another interview for the next day (today). I just got back and I accepted it - I start Monday. LOL. And just like that my life takes a 180 degree turn. Especially since it's in Santa Monica. (sigh) I am now officially a resident of LA, complete with an hour commute. Oh well, for this company it seems worth it. They have a great system with no cold-calling, and they've been around with a system in place that hasn't changed in 5 years. Thank the LORD. I swear the "system" changed literally 5 times since I started working at the old job and they were HUUUUUUUUUUGE changes. Lost many loans because of them. The second I got home, I also sent one more email that will get an entry all by itself, because it's a biggie. Very sad for me, but a long time in the making and for once it has nothing to do with a woman. Heh. Whew. If you guys had any idea how stressful this whole situation has been literally since March when the company moved, man... It's just amazing to me when I look at April that I could have literally added 5 more entries just about the CRAZINESS at work and all the drama there! Everyday was incredible! Another co-worker of mine used to make the Titanic anologies on a daily basis. "We're heading towards the iceburg and instead of turning, he's speeding up..." At one point they moved all of the remaining loan officers to one corner so it wouldn't look so spread out and the co-worker came up to me and said: "So now we've hit the iceburg but he moved everyone to the back of the boat so they couldn't see it..." LOL. Eventually we were all actually in the water with the captain giving swimming lessons as if it was planned. Heh. Good times... So there you have it. The Journey continues. At some point it will have something to do with my career - I SWEAR. ;-) Adam PS - The video is actually a revelation of sorts for me. From about 10 on I was the class clown in school and annoyed EVERYONE singing constantly. Something I still do to this day actually - LOL. I never remembered a beginning to this trend until literally a week ago watching the new Moonlighting DVDs. I thought "David Addison" was the coolest man alive and wanted desperately to be him. He is literally the reason I sing as much as I do. Well now I wear the tie to work just like him. Ha! God I loved Moonlighting when I was a kid... Has it really been 20 years? Anyway - the clip is just quintessential Moonlighting that obviously had a bigger influence than I ever remembered...