How’s this for a twist? The other day, M was offered a new job here in the UK as well. There you are, feeling like life is crazy enough, and suddenly you’re drowning in more choices and more decisions to be made!
There was an ad in the paper last month for a job that looked nearly perfect for M, and I ordered him to apply, partly because jobs like that come up so rarely in our little corner of the sticks that it seemed too good to miss, but mostly so that there was something in pipeline over here in case his interview week in the US turned out to be a complete flop. If that were to happen — and he were to come home feeling rejected and dejected — I thought it would be a very good thing to have one last possibility still cooking away here in the UK.
He filled out the application just before he left for the US; I sent it off while he was away; they rang and arranged an interview for the day after he got home; he went into it slick and polished after a marathon week of interviews in the US; he came home feeling like he’d aced it; they called and offered a job. It’s doing exactly what he does now, but much more locally, with another qualified technician instead of an apprentice, and… with a pay rise.
He looked at me. “What do I do?” He’s such an honest guy, he’d pass this up because we’re most likely moving in a few months.
I said, “You take the job.”
“But we’re leaving…”
“You take the job because, if it all goes terribly wrong — if the economy implodes, if the US market crashes, if the jobs disappear, and the move doesn’t happen — you will need to have taken this job. And if the move does go ahead, taking this job means you’ve made more money between now and then, and we have more money to move on, and you won’t be the first guy to have taken a job and then had to quit a few months later. It’s a big company — your leaving won’t break it. They’re not hiring you to be the CEO… they don’t even have to train you at all.”
He wasn’t convinced, and asked me to get my dad’s opinion as well. My dad said he agreed with me 100% and pointed out that, with the economy doing all the crazy stuff it’s doing, we need to cover as many bases as we can. Yes, M had a very good week in the States, but nothing is set in stone yet. No contracts have been signed. We are still here in the UK. Until we are over there and he is working, until the ink has dried on a contract, we need to keep our options open.
M rang them back and accepted, and handed in his notice yesterday. No more driving 2 hours one-way before and after doing a hard day’s physical labour. No more apprentices who can’t be left to get on with the job. We’re not quite sure how the pay will work out: the hourly rate is considerably higher, but he will lose out on a travel allowance and you never know what the actual hours are until you’re in the job and doing them. But we think it should be an improvement — maybe by a little, maybe by a lot. He is over the moon. Over the moon.
I am so proud of him. What a power he is when he’s focused, positive, and confident! If only he could sustain that, instead of sparking and fading, as brilliant and short-lived as a firework.
Stumble it!
