Oy, it never ends.
When I left my old company last March, several others preceeded me. And they kept their “Business” phone numbers. One of them did some irresponsible things, and then the new policy was “Oh, you can’t keep your old phone number” so I lost the number I’d answered to for twenty five years.
Iwasn’t about to do anything irresponsible. I miss that number. Every time I have to verify some accoount or another, I’m struggling with getting the new number in and adjusted. What a mess. Thanks, company, who I was loyal to for a quarter of a century.
14 comments Og | Uncategorized
Oh no. If I had to change phone numbers, I think I’d still be inadvertently handing out this number for decades.
No one should have to go through that just because they change jobs!
SO get your own, the cheapest plan you can get, for a “dumb” phone, and just forward it to your new “business” phone.
Can’t fix the past, but CAN fix the future….
Already handled. Doesn’t undo 25 years though
We had a vendor/customer (funny world, hydraulics) who was an outside rep for the company he worked for at the time. He had a cell phone that he only used for work, and his company told him that they would not reimburse him for his phone or provide one for him.
Fast forward 10 years, he decides to part ways with that company due to “variations” in his commissions under new management, and they tell him he needs to turn in his phone. He tells the nice HR gal to f**k off, that is the phone that they refused to pay for for the last decade, it’s his.
He started at their competition across the state, and all of his customers followed him. He was a excellent systems trouble shooter and available at all hours, weekends, etc. His customers really like him and could care less what company he worked for as long as parts show up on time.
Silly phones anyway!
The Imp of the Perverse strikes again. It only took one asshat to ruin it for all of you.
I was ‘taught’ a long time back… there is no such thing as loyalty in business. Oh, there is the perception of such, and it might even be fostered, but the reality comes crashing in the moment it’s to a companies advantage.
I keep a magic jack number just for one old lady that refuses a cell phone and long distance on her land line. Forwarded to my company cell number (15yrs), it only cost 20 bucks at first now its up to around 40 or so per year. She’s my dead first wife’s mother who has two sons left that are useless.
I still look after her when they don’t answer her call 19 years and two wives later.
I will have a hard time when I have to give up that number, maybe I should think about getting ahead of that problem now….
Yep, one person… all it takes… Sorry Og!
HR and logic or not in the same time zone, or for that matter planet.
Loyalty is fickle in todays society.
I don’t know if loyalty from a company was ever there. People today are just more aware of the real deal, that’s all. They can call you a “team member” instead of employee and talk about part of the [insert company name] Family and all that, and the reality reminds me of when we had NCOs who wanted to fight some enlisted man, and claimed “the rank is removed and we are equal in the sand pit” unless an EM got the better of the fight, then striking an NCO was all of a sudden back on the table.
The corporation is all about power, and run by people answering to stockholders with 6 month views. Once you left you became a non-person to them, powerless through non-existence, so deleting your number? Whatcha gonna do about it? Nada. Bing! The first 10 minutes of the movie “About Schmidt” sums it up. The guy lived for his company, and all his life’s work was in the Dumpster once he retired.
I go to work, give them a day’s labor for a day’s pay, and don’t for a minute think I’m more than employee clock number ####. When I leave, they’ll be as if I never existed. I don’t even expect a Christmas card. I’d rather they talk to me like Baldwin’s “coffee for closers” speech in Glengarry Glen Ross than smile and act like my best buddy.
Oh, new pet peeve: saying “let go” instead of fired. People find seals in oil slicks, clean them up, then let them go. They find baby birds fallen from nests, nurse them, then let them go when they can fly. Just man up and say you fired someone. It insults everyone in the room when companies couch it in words that sound like they’re doing the fired guy a favor.
But that’s the corporate way.
Corporations don’t get loyalty because they can’t put it in a column on the P&L.
Small business owners do understand the concept, at least I did and my current boss does. So do my customers.
I got let go for the second time because of the wonderful obozzo economy. The only high point being a high tech worker is part of the severance package was a credit card to be used for resumes etc. It paid for my ammo until I got a new gig.
Not all small business, Gerry.
My boss (small business owner) wouldn’t know loyalty if it cracked him over the head.
Sadly, I can’t afford to go anywhere else at this point. Oh well, only five years till I can retire and draw Social Security!
Assuming there’s any of it left.
Don’t get me started about working for a corporation. I tell folks that if they ever see me working for a corporation again they’ll know I was starving.