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I have made an effort to not talk about my former place of employment. I left there a few months ago just as things were beginning to spin out of control within the student loan industry.

I worked for the company a total of 9 years. During that tenure I was a remote employee. This means I worked from home.

Working from home can be a good thing and a bad thing. One of the bad things is that people forget about you. I honestly believe that there is value in being able to work face-to-face with people. Of course, when you work from home and those same people work your nerves then all you have to do is hang up the phone and go fix a Martini...uh, I mean go walk the dog.

So you may be wondering why I'm bringing any of this up. Well here's what happened and it is a bit comical.

A few weeks after I left the company, I received an overnight package in the mail. It was a dvd accompanied by a letter. The letter said, "Sorry that you missed you the all company meeting. Here is a dvd of what happened. blah, blah, blah." OK, only a few weeks had lapsed so maybe someone didn't get the memo that I wasn't working there any more.

Now get this. Last Friday (as in Sept. 28, 2007) I had just returned to NoRO and Everyday Italian was outside working in my yard. A UPS truck pulls up and a man in brown hops out and hands me a package.

My first thought was that it was a belated birthday present or something. Then I looked at the return addy and it was from someone in Lincoln, Nebraska which is where my former place of employment has a corporate office. It is an odd shaped package and I start to laugh because I can't figure out what is being sent to me.

So I open it up and there is a koozie. You know, one of those things to hold a beer can...uh, I mean a Diet Coke can? And inside was a little note about an important notice about my next paycheck. LOL I haven't worked there in 5 months and somebody thinks I'm still on the payroll. LOL Better yet, it comes from the PBServices department which is the department that oversees employee compensation, benefits, etc.

So I'm wondering, how long does it take for a remote employee to be removed from an employee list especially when it is a list from a department that deals with employees???

Then I got to thinking...a few weeks ago they laid off 400 employees. Did the company spend money to ship a koozie to those employees?

So just in case you think I'm making any of this up, here is the slip that was in the koozie. Here is the koozie. And here is the UPS packaging.

What it says on the koozie: "Our mission is to create a customer experience that exceeds expectations and elevates total associate well-being." -PBServices

Considering the hit that student loan companies are taking to their profit margins, I hope someone at my former place of employment scrubs the former employee list real fast and stops spending money on sending packages to people who don't work there anymore. Or maybe not. After all, Christmas is just around the corner and I wonder what former employees will be getting for Christmas? ;-)