Merle Sneed Has Left The Building

Tony the Tiger® Property of Kellogg

At 10:26 am the curtain came down on my long and storied career at Tedious Systems.

It wasn't always called Tedious Systems. Prior to the early 1980's we were owned by a much larger company. The company changed names three times and was spun off from our parent before we were acquired by Tedious in the late 1990s.

I worked for Tedious Systems for 13,295 days as an employee and for 543 days as a part time contract employee. It was during those 543 days that I had my sort-lived teaching career. Nixon was President when I came to work at Tedious. That was seven Presidents ago. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon a month after I was hired. Vietnam raged and I was drafted and failed my Army physical a few months later.

The first tank of gas that I bought to get to my job at Tedious cost 17.9 cents per gallon. My 1960 Volkswagen got 30 miles to the gallon and my $1.79 fill up lasted a couple of weeks.

I began my career making $96 per week and we thought we were rich. The lovely Mrs. Sneed was earning $65 per week. Together we were pulling in $8400 per year, big money. We bought our first house for $15,900 and worried that we couldn't make the $135 monthly payment, but we always did. For a couple of poor kids, we were living large.

The purchase of our company by Tedious was the beginning of the end of the business as I knew it. The management of Tedious raided the corporate finances, lied about the financial health of the company and stripped benefits from the employees. Their actions caused a collapse in the stock price, ruining the retirement plans of hundreds of employees, who suddenly found their nest eggs wiped out. In the end the crooks were forced out and some were convicted for their misdeeds. Some have been personally bankrupted which seems a fitting outcome, others are facing prison.

New leadership was hired and they righted the company and restored its financial health. Unfortunately it was too late for the little people that had their dreams stolen by greedy and self-serving management. Tedious lost me some time ago, today we just made it official.

I arrived at work this morning at the usual time. I half expected to find my work area decorated with a bunch of retirement decorations, but it wasn't. I glad. Two of my coworkers bought a large cake and some ice cream at their own expense and at about nine am we had a little get together for all of my work friends. Randall Bing felt it necessary to say a few words. Most people found it necessary to ignore him. I don't think it would ever occur to Randall to commemorate my departure, had not others stepped up and done it for him. Randall is not a bad guy, he just isn't socially adept and despite what he believes, he is an ineffective leader.

By nine fifteen, the festivities had wound down and I was back at the task of throwing away the last of the paperwork that I hadn't gone through or given away. At about ten I went to Randall's office to turn in my badge and access card for the building and sign my final paperwork. The paperwork mostly involves making sure that I promise that I am not stealing anything (no joke). Randall thanked me for my service to the company and to "his team". I also got a call from Randall's boss wishing me the best. He told me that I have done a great job and that I will be missed. I don't think he could pick me out of a lineup, but maybe I'm wrong.

I went around the office to say a final goodbye to my coworkers. There were a couple of people who seemed genuinely sad to see me go and a few that I am sad to say goodbye to. Mostly, they said that they envied me or wished me good luck. We promised to keep in touch, although we likely won't. My friend Tony help me carry a few things to my truck and at 10:26 am, I left Tedious once and for all.

Tedious and its predecessor companies have been very good to me financially. We have had a comfortable life and I hope that our retirement years will be the same. I wonder what I might have been had I not devoted so many years to one job. I might have had a calling and didn't even hear it, who knows? Maybe Tedious was my calling, that's a depressing thought. It is too late to worry about that now.

I know that I seem bitter, but I am not really. I'm sad that after 38 years, I feel so disconnected and like such an outsider.

Anyway, now it is time to move on. I guess I'll figure it out, I usually do. Maybe my calling has been patiently waiting all these years for me to be ready. For now, freedom feels "grreat!"





Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky


Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor