Yes. It is true... I am fired. Best Buy has given me the boot. And I deserved it. Or so the story from corporate goes. I was terminated on ethical grounds pertaining to the customer rewards program Reward Zone on October the seventh, two thousand and six... The day was an... interesting day. I was working that day. Which didn't need to happen by the way. The day that I sold the reward zone tickets, the event that would eventually lead to my termination- was several days prior. It was all very complicated and not worth recounting. Basically I wrote up a statement and they faxed it to corporate Best Buy, then told me not to come back for a few days. I came back anyway because I knew that if I didn't, I'd get more people mad at me because someone would not have passed on the memo that I might be fired, there would only be one person opening the store in my department and they'd get slammed with customers and then... well then they'd hate me for doing what I was told and not showing up. So I showed up. It was a good thing because when I walked in there the first thing I see is Dave on the phone trying to call me to tell me to come in.

I think I've said all this before... We skip ahead now to the part on saturday, when corporate returned the fax. It was a truly horrible day by the way. That morning my laptop crashed hard-core and completely died. Then I went into work, gave it to the geeksquad guys to fix it, they took it, and I got on the clock. I hadn't eaten and I had a long shift. So I was getting just a little hungry. ... A lot. The ironic thing was that there were catered ribs and barbecue in the breakroom as a part of the celebration that we completely rocked last month and made number one in the department. 12 in ONE! YEAH! Half my coworkers keep mysteriously dissapearing into that room and I run the floor till they get back. When they get back we get totally plastered, Customer Madhouse. FOr two hours. I get off the clock in about an hour, we finally slow down, I'm starving to death and I tell the guys- "Hey, I'm taking my lunch break." I tab out for my lunch break, half an hour, and I go back to the breakroom. The place is loaded with food. Oh... YES...

I gather a plate and start piling stuff onto it. When I've got it all there and forks and napkins and sauce and all of it, I set down to eat and the intercom rings and tells I nearly laughed. I get up from my plate, leaving it where it is, knowing it will be there when I return. I get to the admin office, step inside and someone closes the door behind me.

...

A few minutes pass and I step out a bit more shaken than I was when I walked in... A solid month and a half of working 15 hour days, barely sleeping, hardly eating, and gritting through it all suddenly caught up to me like the wave overtaking a ship and I suddenly realized how very tired I was. They told me to just... go home. I was on lunch break so there was no need to clock off. Just go.

I went. I walked out to the car, stood beside it for a few seconds. Just standing there, knowing. Because I saw that the window was up when I walked up to it. I knew I was locked out. I tried the handle anyway.

Yep... locked.

So I walked up the road three or four blocks to Hardees. I keep a coat hanger there. Just in case. Fortunately the weather has been cooling up a bit, so it wasn't so bad a walk. Then I turned around and jogged back. Stuck that coat hanger in the car door, got the car open in about four seconds- grabbed the ey, rolled the window down, sat down... and got back up and started walking back into Best Buy.

The GeekSquad still had my computer.

I went in and went to the counter and asked. It had been in the service center for nearly six hours and I'd almost entirely forgotten about it. They told me the hard drive was entirely toast. There was nothing they could do barring an $800 data recovery attempt. And even that might fail. So basically everything was gone. Three years of writing, two years of special projects in rpg maker, sketchup, powerpoint, and intensive C# code programming. Gone. I had the documents backed up to a certain date, about two weeks ago, the rest of it... I'll never see it again. I left the computer there. They said they'd reinstall the operating system, replace the hard drive, and do some basic diagnostics. Great.

I went home.

Now- as bad a day as that was: the entire situation really is less sour than it could be. For instance- there are several other business positions opening at the hospital nearby, good jobs that pay well. I could also become a telemarketer... Above that, when I finally got the computer back, turns out they couldn't find a 100gb HD to replace it with, so they upgraded me to a 120gb. Free storage space. I have resources, and marketable skills, and nearly every supervisor told me they'd be more than happy to be my best reference on an application. So there is some good that cames from that as well.

There is a lot I could say about the particulars of that event, the day, the job, the loss and all the drama drama drama that could come of it but won't. What this article is really about is my status at Best Buy- right now. You see, shortly after my termination, several rather unusual things began to reveal themselves. For instance, when the GeekSquad finished my computer- they installed several anti-virus and anti-spyware applications and generally cleaned it up for me. I gave them the okay to run that service charge. When I get the machine back and pay for the extra service, I notice it's quite a bit lower than normal cost for these things. I would know, I sold these things like a dynamo for a month and a half. When I ask to see what's up, the guy at the desk laughs and tells me "Employee discount, man." As if I should know this. I check the receipt. Sure enough, he'd run it through as employee, used my number, and it went through without a hitch. He hadn't been told I was no gone.

My employee discount is still active. On this date, it has been a full week since my termination and I purchased something there just today, and it still registers. Why.

Ready for this? I'm still on lunch.

According to Best Buy's internal employee tracking system, I never legitimately clocked off. I just went on lunch. At current status, that system quotes me as having been on my lunch break for seven days, four hours, and twelve minutes at least. Which is one doozy of a lunch break. Doing some research, it takes Best Buy's system at least a month to completely remove an employee from the system. At the end of that time, I will be completely expelled and the discount, at least in my understanding, will no longer work. I have a month to buy everything really really cheap.

Talking to those at Best Buy, each and every employee I have asked has told me- buy everything I can while I can, now don't tell anyone I said that- but do it. I mean what can they do? Fire you?

Well, they could count it as stealing... I guess. So basically I've been buying plenty of Best Buy stuff recently. I figure, heck, I never did get to eat those ribs and barbecue- as long as I'm still on lunch, I might as well pick up some product. I feel so evil...

By the way Jess- it's a unit weekend, my siblings are over for the next two days and we're hosting, so I doubt I'll be on much till tomorrow. (it was great talking to you though... Whew... wow. :D Missing you greatly) Talk to you all later!