The phrase "Is it worth it" went over and over again in her head. Her manager made it seem as though having a child inconvenienced him and the company. They wrote her up when she was pregnant and gave her a hard time about her maternity leave. The business needed her to be available 24/7 but her child needed her too.
"What is more important!"
This caused Crystal many sleepless nights, depression, and many doubts. Her health was even affected. She would look in the mirror some days and her eyes would be bloodshot. For no reason at all. Being tired all the time and having no energy just made life worst. She barely saw her child because she was sleep during the day and at night she was at work. She was miserable. She refused to let her job make her child seem like a burden. She was not the burden. They were! The commute was causing her savings account to dwindle, and putting a lot of wear and tear on her car. And she had NO LOVE_LIFE.
It is hard to date when you are never home and when you are home you are sleep or with your child.
All of this is going through her mind when suddenly, Crystal hears a horn blaring at her. She was asleep. Her Mammoth SUV was barreling down the highway , 74 miles an hour and she was sound asleep. The horn had startled her awake. She could have died or killed someone. Crystal immediately took the next exit and stopped at a gas station to gather herself together. and she cried.
Things had to change, now. She had to make some hard decisions and she had to make them quick. Traveling back and forth to Atlanta from Augusta was not worth it anymore and it could kill her.
The next day she went to work early to talk to management about moving her shift to days. Her manager, Mr. Princeton, gave her the same old corporate Mumbo Jumbo. “ at this time we do not have the resources to open up a new position or shift to accommodate you.” “ But, Maybe next year after the corporate restructure, we may be able to make some changes to your schedule.” Which was a really long “NO!” “ I could be splattered on the side of the road and they could care less” Is what she thought. But all she could say was . “OK, thank You let me know if there are any changes ”
She never liked Mr. Princeton. He was a portly, morbidly obese man. One of those managers who are all about the business and not about the people that work for him. He was type you only saw when something was wrong. Of course , for business this is great, but nobody can trust or rely on anyone like that.
Even though her manager sucked ,Crystal , loved her job. Her family liked to brag about how she worked in television and marveled at how “cool” it was. And wanted to know how they could get a job like that. The benefits were great and she could take a month off for vacation and still have vacation left. She was able to get discounts to just about anything and the pay was great. But she was still miserable.
The money she was paying in gas was totaling over $800 a month. It got to the point where she was sleeping in gas stations so she wouldn’t fall asleep on the road, sometimes she had to decide between getting things her daughter needed or put gas in the car. People could not understand why she was so miserable with such a great job, but if you are not happy , it’s time to figure out what will make you happy and do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Her Mother even offered to watch her daughter during the week and Crystal could see her child on the weekends. Even though it would help her out tremendously, that was not the type of mother she wanted to be. She knew it would effect her daughter negatively and one of the things she learned quickly in the 2 years she was a mother was making sacrifices for her child.
Crystal decided , after weighing the pro’s and con’s that moving back to Atlanta would be the best thing for her and her child. Though finding another babysitter that was not crazy was going to be a grueling task ,something had to change and this was the best plan she could come up with. But while she made her plans she still had to trek back and from Atlanta.
Some weeks later while preparing to go to work she received an urgent text from one of her co-workers. Saying “Urgent meeting today, the company has been bought out” Crystal did not know what to feel. There were always rumors about hostile takeovers and lay-offs but everyone figured they would have some sort of “heads up” before anything would actually happen. So she didn’t worry. All the way to Atlanta a calm came over her, like something was about to happen but it would be good.
When she arrived at work it was quiet hysteria. Usually people would be talking , laughing and checking there e-mails but today, everyone was trying to look busy even though there was nothing to do. There was no news that night so most people were there just for the meeting . The looks on their faces said it all. They waited for about an hour for Management to make their announcement. Finally everyone was called into the meeting room.
Of course Mr. Princeton made the announcement and he took no time to getting to the point. “As of today WNOC-TV was bought by Everglobe industries. In order to support the cost of their new infrastructure we will no longer be airing news at this station and we will be concentrating more on entertainment.” “With that being said we will need to let go of most of the news team and redirect other positions. The following employees will be given severance and will be transitioned.”
“Transitioned ?”
“What does that even mean??”
But Crystal began to really think about what this really meant for her. She would not have to commute anymore, she would have more time with her daughter, she could concentrate on starting her Public relations business from home. She would not have to worry about money for a while, And she will finally have peace of mind. Peace of mind was all she wanted and until now she did not have it. This may be a blessing.
By this time everyone was completely disgruntled. Some were crying , other’s once they heard their name stormed out and didn’t stick around. But Crystal………….. “CRYSTAL MADDOX”…………………was relieved.
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Kimberly Davis
