Music Monday: Runnin' Down A Dream



The week of Thanksgiving, I was called into a meeting with about 20 or so of my other coworkers at the time. We were told, three days before Thanksgiving, that our hours were being reduced from full time to 80% time (from 40 to 32 hours per week). Consequently, since I am an hourly employee, my salary was being slashed by 20%, as was my accrual of leave and payment into my retirement.

Benefits were mercifully not being cut, and I still had a job, so that was nice, I guess. The change was effective December 2.

A week or so after the announcement, those of us who were being work reduced were told that there were openings in one of the other divisions in the department I work for, and that they would fill these openings based off of internal interviews. Three slots, and up to 24 potential candidates. Longish odds, but something had to be done. I submitted my information and proceeded to start polishing up my resume. Again.


I was notified by email that I had some feelers from two of the openings, and would I be interested in interview for them. Of course; the new jobs better fit my skill set than the position I held at the time, and one was geographically closer to home. It was worth a shot and if it didn't pan out then I would continue to look for work in other arenas or hope that I would be reinstated to full time.

(Let me state for the record here that I am highly pessimistic about this; it requires the federal government to pass a bill that, quite frankly, I do not expect to get passed in this current climate—election year or not.)

I interviewed with one of the offices, and was about to get ready for my interview with the second when I was offered what I can best describe as a golden parachute. In other words, the first interview went so well I was offered the job. Logistically, it requires making some things work in regards to getting my son from school, but otherwise it works out pretty damn well.

Is it a dream job? Hard to tell at this point, as I start today. Is it an improvement over my prior situation? I think so, because I went into work every single day at my old position waiting for the sword to fall and for me to be laid off. As one of the most recent hires, I would've been the first to go in my estimation, and unless there is some action from Congress on the bill that would most directly have affected me in that position, I firmly believe that I would've lost my job on January 31. And given that I have come off of nearly two years of unemployment...that was not going to fly again.

So I continue to try and run down my dream. Whatever that may be.