Oh, Sweet Irony!

Blackadder: Baldrick, are you even aware of what irony is? Baldrick: (affronted) Of course! It's like....bronzey...and goldy.

Bite me Alanis Morrisette. Here's what irony is:

When I first met The Boy six years ago, he was doing facilities management at a place he loved. He was pouring himself into the job and his employers were happily sucking the life out of him without appreciating the fact that he was putting in the hours of four people. That, and he actually still loved the place and gave everything he had.

Move forward to three years ago. We got married, and the week after we got back from the honeymoon, they let him know that they were firing him since they were "restructuring." Fah. In retrospect, it was a really good thing, because he put so much heart into that job that I don't think he would have ever left it for anything better. Still, The Boy wrote a bunch of instructions for his sucessor to make sure the company was okay.

It sucked, but we moved on, and he worked hard to get to where he is right now--a much better job with more reasonable hours, that pays wayyyy the heck better.

Meanwhile, the place that laid The Boy off was surprised to find that they were having difficulty finding someone who would be willing to work themselves ragged like The Boy did. So they divided the responsibilities into a couple different positions. Still, they couldn't find anyone to take on the load of things The Boy had been responsible for. They offered better pay. Still, no one wanted to, or was capable of it. Quite a while later, they finally got some people to take over The Boy's responsibilities. Three people, to be exact. They were paying three salaries for people to do what The Boy had done for one measly one. And the people they were paying sucked at it. Systems and programs The Boy had put into place rapidly fell apart as they were ignored, and stuff started going to shit.

Finally, the company hired yet another person to oversee the other people because things had gotten so bad. This was not just anyone they hired to oversee building facilities. It was the wife of the architect who built the freaking building. So now they're paying four salaries, including to the wife of the architect, and things still aren't getting done.

Yesterday, The Boy had lunch with a friend who still worked at the company, and that person explained the situation to him. They introduced him to the architect's wife, and The Boy, being the sweet, non-vindictive person that he is, gave her some advice, walked her around the building explaining things, and dug out the policy manuals and systems he'd put into place so many ages ago, and that people had ignored after he left. She was very grateful.

Prepare for IRONY.

The Boy will now be paid for doing consulting at the company that laid him off, because things went to such shit after they forced him out.

Company to do list:
1. We don't appreciate you
2. You're fired for no good reason
3. Why can't we find anyone to do your job?
4. Why can't the four people we finally hired in your place manage to do your job?
5. Can we pay you to come back and help those four people learn how to do your job we never appreciated you for and fired you from?


I.R.O.N.Y.