Re: jobs,life, etc. - not pancreas related - and long!

[Guest guest]

Kimber,

Like you, I count my blessings every single day for the job that I had and the

benefits that came with it. My undergrad degree is in education with a math

major. I had planned to be a high school math teacher, have a schedule that

matched my daughter's and summers off. I applied for the internship with the

federal govt only to shut my mom up. I told her there was no way I wanted to

work for the govt and I sure as heck wasn't leaving north Alabama! Well, those

were only a few of the words I've eaten in my life! It ends up that those words

actually tasted good going down, though! When I applied for the internship, the

'recruiter' told me that he would absolutely hire me just as soon as the freeze

was over. I think I applied around the time of Desert Storm, but I'm horrible

at history and stuff so I might be wrong. I know it was around Sep 1990 when I

applied, just to get my mom to shut up and quit bugging me about it! I had

graduated cum laude from college so that made me eligible to be hired into a

government intern program once the lifted the freeze and began new classes. At

that time, it was next to impossible to get hired by the govt unless you were a

veteran, disabled, or had been a previous govt employee with 'career status'

(worked more than 3 years in a permanent position). Anyway, when the guy told

me he would definitely hire me, I was like, " oh, yeah, right - you're just like

the Army recruiters who will promise someone the moon if they just join the

Army! " Of course I never said that but once I got all the info together (which

included an official copy of my college transcripst to prove I had graduated

with honors) and applied, I promptly forgot all about the job. Well, it ends up

that teaching jobs were very hard to come by in North Alabama at that time (and

frankly still are - we have tons of people with education degrees around here).

The systems laid off nearly 100 teachers right after I graduated - not a good

feeling after spending 4 years in college, newly remarried, with over $15,000 in

student loans! I did some substitue teaching, which paid a whopping $27-$30 a

day for a CERTIFIED, DEGREED teacher at that time.

In Dec, 1990, I got a job as assistant director at a Sylvan Learning Center

(basically they do testing and have programs to help kids who are struggling in

school). Sounds like a good job, but it NO benefits at all and my pay after

taxes was about $700 a month. I also had to drive 50 miles each way to work!

The only good thing was that it was only 4 days a week, but the 4 days I worked,

I didn't get home until after 8 p.m. and had to get up around 5 the next morning

to start the day again. But, it was a job. I did like the job and I was

getting some good experience in testing and developing programs suited to the

child's needs. It was a rewarding job and truly made me appreciate the fact

that school had always been pretty easy for me and for my daughter. That was

something that I may have taken for granted before the job at Sylvan. I even

got to work with some adults who were convinced they were just stupid because

they had to struggle so much with various subjects. It was so rewarding to be

able to convince them that they were not at all stupid and to give them

techniques to help them do better on tests and such. My theory is that most

people have the ability to well in school, it's just a matter of how much the

teacher is willing and able to work to adapt her teaching methods. I'm not

beating up teachers because if you've got 25 kids in your class, there simply

may not be enough hours in the day to adapt your teaching methods for each and

every one of those kids! That's why special education and extra individual help

is often so very important - no child should ever be made to feel stupid just

because they have a difficult time learning things. As usual, I've gotten off

on a tangent!

I was called in for a job interview in August 2001. I had no clue what the job

was when I listened to the message left on our answering machine. I had no

choice but to return the call the next day while I was at work. Being the

honest, open (and sometimes stupid) person that I am, I told my boss about the

interview. It ends up that the 'interview' was basically just an information

session for about 12 people who had already been selected to be hired for

internships. It was quite confusing for me but luckily a girl that had

graduated from college with me was one of the 12 and her mother worked in

personnel, so she explained to me that we had already been selected, it was just

a matter of when the various classes started as to when we would be hired. I

was told that I could be hired and asked to start class as soon as November or

as late as the following April. Again, like an idiot, I told my boss. I told

her that I would give her as much notice as I possibly could before leaving, but

it might not be two weeks. She told me that was no problem, that I could just

train one of our part time 'teachers' to do my job so she'd be ready to take my

place as soon as I got the new job. I spent many extra hours (which I wasn't

paid for because my position was a 'salaried' and not hourly position) training

the teacher to do my job. Once I felt confident we had covered everything, she

was to go back to just working part time until I needed to quit. I had been

told 'not to worry, that my position was mine for as long as I wanted it'.

STUPID, trusting me, never doubted their word! In defense of my boss, I do have

to say that the owners gave her no choice but to do what she did. Sylvan

Learning Centers are franchised and the one I worked at was owned by two men who

owned about 4 or 5 centers. I finished training the teacher around the end of

Sep 2001. The very next week I was told that I could keep my current job til

the end of Oct but after that I could work part time as a teacher for 3 hours a

day, 4 days a week at $7 an hour. Now, they knew my husband had just gotten

laid off of his job. They also knew I drove 50 miles one way to get to work! I

didn't know what in the world we were going to do. things had just gone from

bad to worse. The worst part of it was that I felt so incredibly betrayed! Of

course, the owners told me that it was nothing personal, that this was a

business and they knew that I would be leaving eventually, so it wasn't 'fair'

to expect the teacher I had trained to keep working part-time and just have to

wait for me to leave before she could have a full-time job. FAIR! What about

all the extra hours I'd spent training her? What about my loyalty for almost a

year? What about my being totally honest and above board and not wanting to

leave them in a lurch? Well, as we all know, life is definitely not fair and I

had just learned a very valuable life lesson! Thankfully, the laugh was really

on them because it was only the following week that I got offered an intern

position with the govt.

Anyway, my husband ended up getting laid off of his industrila maintenance job

of 7 years in September 2001 because the plant closed and moved operations to

Mexico. We didn't know what we were going to do with no health insurance and no

way of affording the COBRA payments with him just getting unemployment insurance

of about $100 a week. He had been off work for only a week or so when we got a

phone call from the 'recruiter' asking him if I would be interested in a job

that would begin in November. The recruiter talked to my husband about MY job

for over an hour and then only talked to me for 10 minutes when I called him

back! He had made sure that it was okay with my husband for me to take this

job, which would mean going to Texarkana, Texas for eight months and then moving

to St. Louis, MO indefinitely! I guess I had to have my husband's permission

before I could accept the job! To be honest, I didn't want to take the job

because I didn't want to move, but both my husband and I agreed it was too good

an opportunity to turn down. My pay would start at 50% more than I was earning

at Sylvan, actually it was more than the director made, and with wonderful

benefits to boot. then I would be guaranteed a promotion (and raise of about

$5000 a year) for the first two years. By the way, in a weird twist of fate,

it ends up that my husband is originally from St. Louis. He had lived there

from the time he was about 2 until he was 26 and moved to Alabama because his

father had retired, moved here, and bought a house on the river. He had been

living in Alabama for about 6 years when I met him, married, had a daughter, and

divorced and never planned to live anywhere else - but then life happened.

So, I worked at Sylvan til the end of October, but during the month I had a

surgery I'd been putting off and was off for a few days for that. We moved to

Texas on Nov 8th and I began my new job on Nov 18, 1991 and never regretted it.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to move back to Alabama after less

than a year in St. Louis. I moved back to Alabama in July 1993 and my husband

followed in September. I loved my job with the department of the Army - so as

not to confuse anyone - I was not in the Army, I was a civilian employee working

for the Army, which falls under the Department of Defense, which is obviously a

branch of the Federal Government. I was incredibly blessed and received two

additional promotions in addition to the two that I was guaranteed. When I

first got sick in 2000, I was in line for another promotion, but knew that I

couldn't handle additional responsibility at that time. When I got sick again

in July 2002, I was nearing being in a position to get promoted, but then, once

again, life had other plans. I don't regret leaving my job as it was the right

thing for me, my coworkers, and my employers. I certainly miss the full salary,

but am thankful to receive a partial amount and to get to keep my health

insurance.

Well, that's my story! I tell everyone that I my punishment for getting the job

was that I have to listen to my mother for the rest of my life because she was

right about talking me into applying for my job with the govt! Anyway, it's

because of the hard times I've had that I truly appreciated (and actually still

appreciate) my job, my salary, and my benefits. I know that the majority of

people never have the opportunities I had and I do not take my blessings

lightly!

I do hope some day to have my health improve enough so that I am able to maybe

do some part time consulting type work - maybe just a few hours a week and

mostly from home via phone and computer. For now, I'll try to be patient and

just be thankful that things are not worse for me.

W

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