Today I accepted a new full-time programmer\/analyst position with a wood products company in Eugene, and gave my two-week notice with my current employer. <\/p>\n
Roughly three months ago my employer reduced my hours (and pay) by 40%. Otherwise known as a partial layoff. The reason given was dollars. Government budgets are tight everywhere and the particular services I am employed to support are not bringing in the revenue to justify the cost. And I was the last one in my group to be hired… so that made me the first to go.<\/p>\n
If you count both of my stints with the ESD… I’ve worked there for a total of 9 years. That is far longer than I’ve been with any other programming job. Most of the people I work with have been there that whole time. My coworkers have been great. And no matter what else has happened… it’s the people I work with that made the ESD a great place to be. I’m definitely going to miss that.<\/p>\n
So a new chapter is beginning. I’m moving from a government job back into the private sector. And this is not only a private sector job I’m taking, but it’s in a family-owned business. About as far from a government job as I’m likely to get.<\/p>\n
I mentioned to my new boss today that I might experience a little “culture shock”. But I made sure he knew that I fully intend on stepping up to the plate and doing a good job for them. One of the notable things about my new boss so far… it’s obvious that he really *wants* me there. They are totally glad to get me. That’s a nice feeling.<\/p>\n
Regarding the culture shock… at the ESD we are limited to 40-hour work weeks. At my new job, they are scheduling me for 48-hour weeks right off the bat. I will be one of two programmers… and the other guy typically puts in 50 hours a week. But the job is salary… so 48-hour weeks pay the same as 40-hour ones do.<\/p>\n
They don’t award sick leave at my new job. They just figure if you’re sick, you’re sick. I guess with overtime being the norm, they assume you’ll make that up and it will still work out in their favor.<\/p>\n
They are initially going to have me working four 10-hour days in the office, and one 8-hour day from home each week. In addition to the mandatory overtime, I will have a one-hour commute each way. That’s going to make for some long days. Each workday that I’m in the office will be about 12 hours long if you include the commute. I haven’t figured out how lunch will factor in. At least I will only have to do that four days a week.<\/p>\n
I feel like I’m making a big leap. Not really sure what I’m getting myself into. Not sure how it will all work out. A lot of unknowns. But I have high hopes and a sense of adventure. I am feeling pretty good about a challenge. I think I will probably find out a few things about myself in the process.<\/p>\n
My wife has also taken a new job. She has one day left to work on her current job before she starts on with the office of the state fire marshal (part of the state police). I will see if I can get her to blog a little about that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I accepted a new full-time programmer\/analyst position with a wood products company in Eugene, and gave my two-week notice with my current employer. Roughly three months ago my employer reduced my hours (and pay) by 40%. Otherwise known as a partial layoff. The reason given was dollars. Government budgets are tight everywhere and the … Continue reading “Life Changes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moondog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}