All dreams eventually come to an end... *NSFW In Cake Form!*

As some of you know, I've been an assistant manager at our local Geeksquad precinct which was opened in Ottawa in February. Coming from a call center job (American Dell Tech support, yuck), then a high pressure computer sales position (6 days a week 10 hours a day,yuck), I finally was working in a close knit store with a good friend of mine who was also technically inclined. Gone were the days of coming home stressed about damn near everything, worrying about clocking in and out, corporate politics and constantly looking over my shoulder while I perused GWJ. 2 days ago we received a fax from headquarters detailing "exciting news" regarding "Project Orange", and we would have a special guest speaker today to talk to us about it.

At 12:00pm today we found out our store will be closed for good *THIS* Saturday. The powers that be have decided to shut us down after a little less than 6 months of operation and move our employees into Best Buy stores.

Needless to say we are all a little miffed about it, especially without the customary 2 weeks notice one usually expects to get about this. So my dream job comes to a close and I yet again become another cog in the machine. The wifey is baking me a cake though, so at least there's that. Anyone looking for a gamer/tech in the Ottawa area?

Thus confirming Elysium's Rule of Business #136: When Corporate has "exciting news", someone's losing their job.

Bummer. Sorry to hear it.

God I hate corporate bullsh*t. I almost went insane after working 3 years as a CSR for a major bank. I will never put myself through that again.

Thus confirming Elysium's Rule of Business #136: When Corporate has "exciting news", someone's losing their job.

Especially when they give it a color.

That sucks man, I hope you can find a nice independently owned tech outfit to settle into.

That really blows. It's like something out of the BBC's The Office, only this time it isn't funny at all.

Well if you ever want to move to Miami, god knows why you would, look me up, we always need good techs.

I got home and had this waiting for me *hugs to the wife*.

IMAGE(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19/StylezXP/BB.jpg)

incidentally I realized this may not be suitable for the forum, pm me if you want it gone, but I had to vent

Your wife rocks.

Best cake ever!

You and the wife would make a awesome combo here.

Just look at it as an opportunity to get out from under the thumb of the man! Check out some local consulting firms...Ill bet you would fit in great, and you might find the atmosphere even better.

Hats off to your wife, that is the best cake I have ever seen. Good luck finding sonething else.

Hey guys. I'm the good friend that Stylez is referring to. I was the Precinct Chief (Geek Squad speak for General Manager) of the Ottawa store. I had the oh so wonderous joy of finding out this news at the same time the rest of the guys did, on a conference call with the GMs of the other 5 stores in Canada this morning. We are all crushed by this and I'm still kind of numb from it. We had an awesome team at our location (Stylez being no small part of that team) who busted their asses every day to try to make us successful. We were finally starting to make some gains and I seriously believe that if headquarters had given us more time (we aren't even six months old, the oldest Geek Squad store isn't even nine months old) to make this work and had better implementation in other departments, these stores could have rocked and been among the first of their kind anywhere. But of course, that isn't up to us. I'm still pretty bitter about how they spent most of the call talking about how this was a "positive step forward and a good thing for everyone" as if we were stupid children, but I'll get over that.

I'm happy to report that no one on our team is losing their jobs, but we are getting broken up and put to different stores (I'm pleased though that Stylez and I are going to be moving to the Ottawa East Best Buy together.) I've been in the job market for over ten years and running this store was honestly the first job I've ever had where I didn't either hate the position or the employer. I really loved what I did and the people I did it with. Unfortunately, I don't know if the often political environment of a big box is going to work for me as I burned out on office politics years ago, but at least it will keep my bills in check and the games flowing. Stylez and I are tossing around the idea of starting a unique business idea with our former in-home technician so maybe that'll be our way out. Thanks everyone for your words of support, we all appreciate it.

P.S. I had a piece of the cake tonight and it tastes as awesome as it looks. Your girlfriend is awesome buddy.

Well if you need a web designer, for whatever buisness you get up and running my brother in law lives out in Ottawa, he does some great work and I think does a little webhosting as well. You can check out his work at cjamesrun

Good luck!

I am going to NSFW the thread, but otherwise ... nice.

Gaald wrote:

Best cake ever!

So very true.

Rotten news indeed. Excellent cake, though.

Gaald wrote:

Well if you need a web designer, for whatever buisness you get up and running my brother in law lives out in Ottawa, he does some great work and I think does a little webhosting as well. You can check out his work at cjamesrun

Good luck!

I checked out his site and he's definitely done some nice work. We will indeed need a web site if this new business goes forward (fingers crossed) so I'll jot his info into Outlook. Thanks!

I'm sorry for you both, hopefully you'll be able to quit and start your new business in style soon.

Make sure to get all 5 GMs on the phone to call with the "exciting news" that you are leaving, and how much of a positive change that is for your own sanity, and the lives of people around you.

Donkey dicks.

I say build up a competing side business while working in the big box. If you get known as someone who's patient with basic users, and you're an effective troubleshooter, you can at least get by doing house calls.

Exciting news for Code Orange, indeed. And your wife's cake is great! (And by "cake" I actually do mean cake.)

HPL
(who worked down the hall from the Avuncular Assassin, a smiling, roly-poly software company prez and lapdog of the French who'd eat hot dogs and josh with your kids at a company barbecue on Sunday, then fire your whole development team Monday morning)

Well... that sucks.

On the other hand, that's awesome cake. Good to hear at least you two get to keep working together.

Thanks for the support folks. I think this may be the kick in the pants PXA and I need to really get the ball rolling on our own business. Then we can call bad news whatever code colour we want!

I LOLed at the cake.

Stylez wrote:

I got home and had this waiting for me *hugs to the wife*.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

P.S. I had a piece of the cake tonight and it tastes as awesome as it looks. Your girlfriend is awesome buddy.

What's with the downgrading of the relationships?
Or should I say... What's with publicly revealing the fact that your friend's got something going on on the side?

I must have missed this thread originally when I was in Vegas. *sigh* Now if only there was a specially-shaped "f*ck You!!!" cake waiting for all of us at home after a bad day.

I bet that cake was extra tasty!

TheGameguru wrote:

I bet that cake was extra tasty!

It was, because of all the spite.

That totally sucks. On the upside, the cake freaking rocks.

Great cake. Will forward the picture liberally.

Actually, if you guys still have jobs, maybe I won't. And maybe you want to reconsider the thread.

Bah. I don't intend on spending much time with Best Buy after the debacle that was switching over to a store. Glad you all liked the cake, I sure did!