I'm in this for the ice cream.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I, TheWildCard, for the first time in my life, have
just been FIRED!

The story:
As most of your know, I was hired by The Company to
be the theater person in the office, hired as an
actor, writer, and director to do all kinds of
creative stuff.

Mostly, for the past few weeks, I've been running the
box office, doing dirty work, and marketing the The Show
by way of e-mailing non profits and activist groups
(since my boss fired our PR group) and all
manner of organizations. There was some stuff about
my job I liked--the other people in the office are
great with the exception of my boss,
being Company Manager was okay, as well as Production
Assistant, Stage Manager, ASM, AD, and basically doing
everything non-theater people don't think to do/don't
know how to do.

An important point to make is that
this is not a show I'm proud of. It's not offensive
or anything, it's just bad. It's a bad show.
Miserable. Preachy. And I think my boss's true
desire is to start a cult based on his life
philosophies. I think he has a Messiah complex.

Anyhow, today, my boss asked me to make my priority
CALLING every nonprofit/activist organization I have
e-mailed. Not just to say "Hi, did you get my e-mail
and would you like tickets?" No. He wanted me to
call, introduce myself, talk up The Show and get
them interested in it, and then try again to sell them
tickets.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't call these fantastic
organizations after I've already e-mailed them and try
to sell them something that is bad. I can't talk up
The Show other than saying the technology is cool.
What would I say? With my name attached? So then
they would come and see the show, and even see ME,
that girl who called them and said it was so great, on
stage making a fool of herself in this rotten show.
It would hurt my soul. Imagine spending a whole day
doing that. Lying to people who have dedicated their
lives to worthy causes. It was the last straw. Even
if it had been the first straw, I probably would have
said no.

I told my boss in the best way that I could that
telemarketing to these organizations for our show
which we already know is not very good went against my
integrity.

So Annie the box-office-runner and
soon-to-be-telemarketer was fired. I will be paid
through the end of November.

Everyone in the office was shocked when I told them
(my boss and I work in a back office and pretty much
everyone else is out in the front office, so I told
them on my way out). I think some were jealous. I'll
miss them.

I held it together until I got to about LaSalle and
Franklin and then had a little cry in the car. The
first sobbed words out of my mouth were "oh thank god." I
had hoped to do some cool stuff for the company once
the travesty that is The Show was over (it's closing
early, of course). But know what? My boss is
horrible and makes the front desk girl (who is a great
designer) cry all the time. Thank god. I'm out.

I'm still in as an actor for this weekend and next
(closing), but other than that I'm done there. So
time to get a new job. Good riddance.