The Eleventh Hour Reprieve....Literally

Thursday, 16 hours to go

I decide I'm not going to be in the office much today. I need to clear off my computer, you know, all those pesky vacation pictures, letters to creditors and blog docs. At some point I have to meet with my new boss. Since we haven't even been introduced, this makes me a little apprehensive as I wonder, can she still change her mind? As usual, my mind begins to wander and it occurs to me that my new manager is choosing employees not unlike a fantasy football team. After all, she picked me by perusing only the stats on my resume. Will she want to trade me? There's a lot of laid off QB's out there. Then I was reminded of that play Steambath, where people just start start coming out of the steam, uninvited and they're really dead. What if her office is like that? I'm probably over thinking it...

I drive over to my new office and meet with my new manager. - Ooh! In addition to having access to the best parking lot on the planet, I also have a remote that opens the security gate arm. Sweet! - We meet, we greet and she says, "Tell me what your passion is. I mean, if you hadn't been laid off, would you have stayed in that office and retired there?" I'm taken aback. Is she asking me this because it was a bad office (which it was), or is she trying to see if I have higher aspirations (which I don't). Everything these days seems like a trick to me. Then I had an epiphany.

Maybe, this really is a good thing. A really good thing. I wouldn't allow myself to think that anything good could come of this whole situation because my ego and self esteem were so bruised. This woman only knew that she just got the deal of the century on a good, low miles used employee. An employee who was angry enough to want something better. Not just a passive job change, this. I told her that the reason I want to stay at this level of my job is because I am very passionate about what I do and I'm good at it. This is why it hurt so much to be thrown away like so much trash. I'm beginning to see it was more like I was being recycled and the rest of my old office was put in the compactor.

She seems satisfied that I'm not going to run out the door anytime soon for the first higher paying job, and says that she can pay me full time for a while until she can figure out if she can change it permanently. The budget still sucks. I breathe a huge sigh of relief, as the enormous half paycheck burden is lifted.