New job (for sure)
When I decided to take the new job, one of the factors that helped me in my decision was a bit in our contract that allows 25 working days to decide whether to keep the new job or not. I had that time to see if this could really work, and it was a bit of comfort as I went through a somewhat uncomfortable period of change.
That time period has passed as of yesterday, so now my new job is really my job. There’s no going back, at least, not so easily. If circumstances change and a position comes up in my old department, I’ll certainly consider going back. But for right now, this new job is a good fit. It’s not perfect, but I’m not aware of anything better.
One downside is that I’m not home for supper and bedtime for the kids sometimes. But if I miss that, it means that I was home all day before work, able to help the kids with their math work or let the older girls and Carla head to knitting class while I watch the younger kids.
And by strategically giving away a shift a couple weeks from now, I’ll have 5 days off in a row right before a big deadline for my game project. Pretty nice!
Besides the friends at my old job, the one other thing I miss is the lunch hour. At the old job location, there was a really good neighbourhood just to the south with nice sidewalks and quiet streets: perfect for walking. I got in the habit in the fall of heading out at lunch, and kept it up through the winter. On a good day I’d manage to get 7 km in, including a couple short “coffee break” walks.
Since I know that isn’t going to happen with the new job (I only get a few short paid breaks where I’m not to leave the building) I started walking around my neighbourhood just the last few days. It figures that the first time I have ever walked to pick up our mail at the mail boxes at the end of our street, that a large parcel was in there with a “heavy, watch your back” sticker on it.