Dodging bullets
I'm just a couple of months into my nursing coursework, so I still have days when I sit in class and second-guess my decision to quit my former job to go back to school. I only doubt myself until I remember that I changed careers for long-term reasons, only one of which was future job security.
I was working for a government programs contractor - a good company to work for, mind you, which seems to be a rarity these days - and I had started with them about a week after graduating from college. Since I had double-majored in Spanish and Political Science, I was mainly thrilled to have a job that didn't require me to say, "would you like fries with that?" My reasons for leaving didn't have anything to do with dissatisfaction over the way I was treated by the company. Far from it, actually; in 8 years, I had been given enough opportunity to go from a customer service position to processing appeals to my last position here in Kentucky as sort of a liaison between the government program and medical equipment suppliers. The position afforded me a tremendous amount of autonomy - I was the only person doing my job in the entire state, and my manager was several states away. I had monthly reports to file, conference calls - that kind of thing - but I was otherwise on my own. I got to travel. I attended conferences in New Orleans and Las Vegas. No complaints about that.
In January 2006, things changed. The contract under which I was employed had changed slightly, and our region was to no longer include KY. My territory would now include VA and WV. Now, I'm originally from VA, but I'm from southwestern VA -- Richmond (where I'd probably have to live) may as well have been on another planet. In short, I wasn't going to go to VA. I've only been to Richmond once, but it was enough to convince me that I didn't really want to live there. I didn't want to have to drive to Newport News or - God forbid - the DC area to do inservices. No, thanks.
Now, whether or not to leave KY wasn't exactly presented as an option. My job in KY would soon cease to exist - period. I would go to VA, or I'd find another job.
I chose Option #2.
Now, there was far more than that on my list of reasons to leave the company. One of them - a reason which wasn't near the top of the list - was that I was suspicious of the directions I saw government programs heading - especially for people in positions like mine. If it were my program to run, and I was under pressure to have to save money (and that pressure is constant in government programs,) I'd first look at things that were costing my program money which could be eliminated. Say, individuals in home offices in their own states who have office and travel expenses. That kind of work doesn't necessarily have to be done from field offices. In short, I didn't want to end up in VA and have my company decide my job was too much of a luxury in a year or so.
Anyway, back to the present -- I was in class Friday under quite a bit of pressure to get "checked-off" on performing physical assessments. It had been a long day, and I was pretty frazzled. After class, my wife gave me a phone message. It was from someone I had worked with in the contractor's home office. In short, the message said...
The company lost the contract.
They lost the contract. Not just eliminating a few positions. Not just downsizing. The whole contract. The entire thing. Everybody just lost their job.
I picked my jaw up off the floor and nearly lost my composure.
The epiphany hit my like a dump truck. If I hadn't quit, I'd be sitting here at home, having just gotten the news, trying to figure out what to do, knowing that the rug's gonna get pulled out from under me in real short order. Not that my situation would have been much different - Miss Fluffy and I are still living on one income - but I'd be totally without a plan. Without preparation. I live in a very rural area. I have job skills, but there are no other jobs around here that need skills like mine.
Everyone is telling me, "See? You made the right choice" and that kind of thing. That may be true to some extent, but I can't honestly say that I saw this coming. At least not on this scale. The company I was working for really had their ducks in a row -- they'd bend over backward to try and accommodate more-and-more finicky government requirements. I thought my job was at risk - I didn't really think the contract as a whole was in jeopardy.
So, as luck or divine intervention or whatever you want to call it would have it, I seem to have dodged a little bullet.
I hate it for my former counterparts, though. They hadn't jumped ship like I had. They probably didn't have backup plans. Actually, I know quite a few of them who had new babies at home, aside from mortgages and car payments.
Holy smoke. That could've been me.
I was working for a government programs contractor - a good company to work for, mind you, which seems to be a rarity these days - and I had started with them about a week after graduating from college. Since I had double-majored in Spanish and Political Science, I was mainly thrilled to have a job that didn't require me to say, "would you like fries with that?" My reasons for leaving didn't have anything to do with dissatisfaction over the way I was treated by the company. Far from it, actually; in 8 years, I had been given enough opportunity to go from a customer service position to processing appeals to my last position here in Kentucky as sort of a liaison between the government program and medical equipment suppliers. The position afforded me a tremendous amount of autonomy - I was the only person doing my job in the entire state, and my manager was several states away. I had monthly reports to file, conference calls - that kind of thing - but I was otherwise on my own. I got to travel. I attended conferences in New Orleans and Las Vegas. No complaints about that.
In January 2006, things changed. The contract under which I was employed had changed slightly, and our region was to no longer include KY. My territory would now include VA and WV. Now, I'm originally from VA, but I'm from southwestern VA -- Richmond (where I'd probably have to live) may as well have been on another planet. In short, I wasn't going to go to VA. I've only been to Richmond once, but it was enough to convince me that I didn't really want to live there. I didn't want to have to drive to Newport News or - God forbid - the DC area to do inservices. No, thanks.
Now, whether or not to leave KY wasn't exactly presented as an option. My job in KY would soon cease to exist - period. I would go to VA, or I'd find another job.
I chose Option #2.
Now, there was far more than that on my list of reasons to leave the company. One of them - a reason which wasn't near the top of the list - was that I was suspicious of the directions I saw government programs heading - especially for people in positions like mine. If it were my program to run, and I was under pressure to have to save money (and that pressure is constant in government programs,) I'd first look at things that were costing my program money which could be eliminated. Say, individuals in home offices in their own states who have office and travel expenses. That kind of work doesn't necessarily have to be done from field offices. In short, I didn't want to end up in VA and have my company decide my job was too much of a luxury in a year or so.
Anyway, back to the present -- I was in class Friday under quite a bit of pressure to get "checked-off" on performing physical assessments. It had been a long day, and I was pretty frazzled. After class, my wife gave me a phone message. It was from someone I had worked with in the contractor's home office. In short, the message said...
The company lost the contract.
They lost the contract. Not just eliminating a few positions. Not just downsizing. The whole contract. The entire thing. Everybody just lost their job.
I picked my jaw up off the floor and nearly lost my composure.
The epiphany hit my like a dump truck. If I hadn't quit, I'd be sitting here at home, having just gotten the news, trying to figure out what to do, knowing that the rug's gonna get pulled out from under me in real short order. Not that my situation would have been much different - Miss Fluffy and I are still living on one income - but I'd be totally without a plan. Without preparation. I live in a very rural area. I have job skills, but there are no other jobs around here that need skills like mine.
Everyone is telling me, "See? You made the right choice" and that kind of thing. That may be true to some extent, but I can't honestly say that I saw this coming. At least not on this scale. The company I was working for really had their ducks in a row -- they'd bend over backward to try and accommodate more-and-more finicky government requirements. I thought my job was at risk - I didn't really think the contract as a whole was in jeopardy.
So, as luck or divine intervention or whatever you want to call it would have it, I seem to have dodged a little bullet.
I hate it for my former counterparts, though. They hadn't jumped ship like I had. They probably didn't have backup plans. Actually, I know quite a few of them who had new babies at home, aside from mortgages and car payments.
Holy smoke. That could've been me.
posted by Alpineman, RN at 10:28 AM
1 Comments:
I still maintain: You made the right decision for the right reasons... one of which you didn't mention here. Remember that new mandate that would require the contract to be rebid every 5 years? This would have been a distinct possibility EVERY FIVE YEARS.
Good decision, whether you could have seen the seriousness of the big picture or not.
Post a Comment
<< Home