Moving On

It appears I put the cart before the horse when I answered one of last week's Saturday Six questions. The question was to list five things we hope to have happen by this year's end. I was thinking my answer about being happy about making the right decision about my new job was somewhat cryptic in nature. I should've known better. I've always worn my heart on my sleeve and am never terribly successful at playing coy. When I wrote that answer, I was still firmly entrenched in my current position.

About a week before I left for vaction, I was offered a job at a different facility. I have been at my current place of employment for almost nine years and have been thinking on and off over the past several months that it was time to move on to something different. I am most definitely the biggest fish in our little pond of caregivers at my current place but for some time now the water has been growing more and more stagnant. Plus, I've been lifting and transferring people from here to there for the past 15 years. My shoulders and back are beginning to protest with twinges, tweaks, aches and pains.

But what to do? Where to go? The mere thought of send out inquiries and setting up interview appointments to do much the same thing in another facility held all the appeal of leftover dinner from two nights ago. Happily, before I got around to doing anything as drastic as this, I received a phone call from a former employer, offering me a position, telling me that she thought I'd fit in quite nicely. This has never happened to me before and I must say I found it extremely flattering and mighty good for the old ego. While still involved with seniors, this job will be in a completely different capacity. There'll be no more lifting, transferring, direct resident care; no more being at the beck and call of a two-story facility full of needful old folks.

I told my former employer I would think about taking this job over my vacation and get back to her upon my return. She said she would wait to hear from me and hold the position open until that time. Nice. Very nice. Which I did and what, really, was there to think about? I have seniority. I am very well established in my position (read, in a rut) and the thought of changing jobs after almost a decade is a terrifying one. This new position was being handed to me on a silver platter--all I had to do was reach out and accept it.

On the day of my return from our trip, I contacted her, made an appointment to see her and so it was that on my final day of vacation I was being shown around a different place, listening to the job description, being introduced to several people and I really liked what I saw and heard. When opportunity knocks you've got to be wise enough to recognize it clearly for what it is and this time the door was practically being beaten down. This happened last Thursday. I was given until the following Monday to make my decision. It's extremely hard to leave a place where you've been working for so long but it's time for me to start looking after myself. On Monday morning I graciously accepted the job and submitted my letter of resignation to my current supervisor the next morning. Now wasn't that easy?

Oh, and the reason for my inclusion of this new job as if I already had it in my Saturday Six answer? I thought perhaps if I wrote it down and saw it in print it would help me to make this difficult decision and do you know what? It did!