Tidbits
Besides the "Layla has left the company to pursue other interests" post last week, I've been pretty lax on the blog tip. Things are going pretty smoothly in my life right now, and as any writer will tell you, when life is peachy, there ain't much to write about. I lack the creative gene that allows me to bang out fiction, though I'm trying. Fiction writing, I find, is much tougher than sitting here and bitching about any number of things or people that have upset my little world. My biggest issue, I think, is that once I start on a story, I find that I really hate certain characters. If my antagonist is shady, or mean, or apathetic even, just like in real life, I don't want to hang out with them. So writing them, developing their personality traits, their likes and dislikes, well...I just don't want to. And who wants to read a story about a bunch of people I like? You need the hook! The evil or offensive or oppressive part of the book that you want to see get his or her just desserts. I hate that guy. I hate that lady. I don't want to spend any time with them. So, there goes my career as a novelist.
On to other ventures. I'm in the process of starting a business. It's been an idea I've been tossing around for a few years now, but never had the balls to pursue. Now that I’m unemployed, I figure it’s as good a time as any to put all I’ve got into it. I haven’t got much money, but I have time, I have a good work ethic and I’m pretty good at what I do. Once I get my web presence up and going, I’ll link to my other page so y’all can come to me for what you need. It’s a brilliant idea, really. I’ve gotten great feedback on it, and I’m nervous and excited and I really hope I don’t crash and burn, leaving M and I with no way to pay the mortgage. Keep your fingers crossed!
Now for a little hypothetical story: Once upon a time, there was a company, called ABC. ABC was a middle man for executive search firms and recruiters. When a search was underway for, say, a CFO of a big corporation, usually a search firm is called in to help with the hiring process. The search firm would look at their own roster of people who might fit the bill, but sometimes they would need other candidates to pool from. They would call ABC to find those candidates. ABC could do things that the search firms couldn’t – things that were considered “unethical” by most businesses. ABC would call the competitors of the company looking to hire the CFO and find out all the info on anyone who might be a fit for the job – names, titles, addresses, email, etc. Getting that info, they would use what they call a “ruse”. They’d say they were from The American Finance Association, and they were looking for potential speakers for an event coming up, or something to that effect. Or, in more scummy situations, there might have been one employee who found out the CFO had lost his wife to breast cancer, so he might have called to say that he was from the American Cancer Society and they were doing a golf tournament for Breast Cancer research in order to soften him up to divulge info about his staff. Pretty low shit.
Then, they may have had someone working there that felt really uncomfortable using those methods to gain info. And she may have not produced the same results that everyone else did. She may have, on occasion, voiced concern over one particular method, saying that it amounted to corporate espionage. She might have disagreed with the fact that calling a person in a particular company posing as an employee of said company was, in fact, illegal.
And, then, on top of it, she may have been told to not divulge to her client that she, as someone new to the research field, was doing the research for them. It may have turned out that ABC was charging the client $85/hour for their request of a “seasoned” researcher, when in fact they were having this not-so-seasoned researcher doing the work. Seasoned researchers cost $85/hour, while they are paid about $40/hour. Non-seasoned researchers cost $50/hour, while they are paid about $25/hour. So, they may have been charging $35/hour MORE than what they should have. When the client would wonder why on earth the research wasn’t more complete, more bulky, more “seasoned”, she may have been put in a bad position. How could she defend her own work to said client when she wasn’t allowed to say who did the research to begin with? When she would have issues with projects and needed help, she had no one to ask who would give her real tips and pointers that weren’t borderline criminal.
So, she was fired. It wasn’t working out. She was happy. She thought about taking action against the company, but decided against it. If the client found out about the billing practices through her, they would sue ABC for the money over billed, and likely for damages. ABC would likely sue the girl for breaching confidentiality, but after getting put through the ringer from the client, it would be peanuts compared to ABC being out of business for shady practices. But, what did she expect, really? They’re in business to lie to people. Why not her? Why not the client? When you deal with the devil, and all that. Better to be rid of them, she thought. And all was good.
There you have it. My story for today. Now I need to go do the things one does when starting a company. File papers and get a PO box and all that crap. I’m going to take some basic accounting classes so I can have some idea of what I need to do financially. Losing my job might be the best thing to happen to me. I’m happy. I have a positive outlook, an awesome husband, a nice house, great friends, a loving family…what more can I need right now? Besides the ability to write fiction, that is.