Good News, Bad News
Bad news: I lost my job yesterday.
Good news: it was perhaps the most amicable, life-affirming job loss possible.
For those who don't know (since I'm not sure I ever mentioned it here), I worked as the office manager and part-time preschool aide at the local Episcopal church. The preschool program there is mornings-only, but they've been working on going full-time; unfortunately, this involves a lengthy series of certifications, and one of the requirements is to have someone on staff with an Early Childhood degree and a year of daycare-work experience. These applicants are pretty thin on the ground here, but they'd managed to get one and wanted to hire her immediately -- but there wasn't the budget enough for two preschool workers, and to give her decent hours, she'd also need to take the office position. Nobody involved seemed to like it, but they had to let me go.
The exit talk with my bosses (rector and preschool director) was incredibly positive, despite the necessities of the situation. They fell over themselves to praise my work and reinforce that this hadn't been an easy decision, and I did my best to let them know that I understood, because I do. The program going full-time is the best thing for the school and the kids; I'm disappointed that I won't be there to see it through, but I'm really happy it's going to happen.
(For the record, I'm also getting two weeks' severance and am remaining on call to work as office training/help or a preschool substitute. They're not leaving me in the lurch, and after DOVES's "don't come back on Monday" fuckjob, that's very comforting.)
Honestly, the timing on this may actually have been the best it could be for me. I have my grandmother's memorial in California in a month, and after that, I plan on job-hunting and ideally setting out for Austin in June. All of that was in the plans anyway; this just means I have a little extra free time to get ready.
This is a new beginning, and I'm grateful to had the time I had with this job. Life goes on.
My last day of work was in the preschool, and as if to see me off, the kids were incredibly cute. Allow me to present an exchange:
Four-year-old boys S and T are playing with dinosaurs on the floor.
S: (holding up T-Rex to me) Was this a meat-eater or a plant-eater? 'cause T says it's a plant-eater.
T: Yes, I did! It's really fast... like, 600 feet!
S: A centipede has that many feet!
There's a lot I'll miss about the job, but dream-logic exchanges with and between small children may be first among them. You go, boys.
Good news: it was perhaps the most amicable, life-affirming job loss possible.
For those who don't know (since I'm not sure I ever mentioned it here), I worked as the office manager and part-time preschool aide at the local Episcopal church. The preschool program there is mornings-only, but they've been working on going full-time; unfortunately, this involves a lengthy series of certifications, and one of the requirements is to have someone on staff with an Early Childhood degree and a year of daycare-work experience. These applicants are pretty thin on the ground here, but they'd managed to get one and wanted to hire her immediately -- but there wasn't the budget enough for two preschool workers, and to give her decent hours, she'd also need to take the office position. Nobody involved seemed to like it, but they had to let me go.
The exit talk with my bosses (rector and preschool director) was incredibly positive, despite the necessities of the situation. They fell over themselves to praise my work and reinforce that this hadn't been an easy decision, and I did my best to let them know that I understood, because I do. The program going full-time is the best thing for the school and the kids; I'm disappointed that I won't be there to see it through, but I'm really happy it's going to happen.
(For the record, I'm also getting two weeks' severance and am remaining on call to work as office training/help or a preschool substitute. They're not leaving me in the lurch, and after DOVES's "don't come back on Monday" fuckjob, that's very comforting.)
Honestly, the timing on this may actually have been the best it could be for me. I have my grandmother's memorial in California in a month, and after that, I plan on job-hunting and ideally setting out for Austin in June. All of that was in the plans anyway; this just means I have a little extra free time to get ready.
This is a new beginning, and I'm grateful to had the time I had with this job. Life goes on.
My last day of work was in the preschool, and as if to see me off, the kids were incredibly cute. Allow me to present an exchange:
Four-year-old boys S and T are playing with dinosaurs on the floor.
S: (holding up T-Rex to me) Was this a meat-eater or a plant-eater? 'cause T says it's a plant-eater.
T: Yes, I did! It's really fast... like, 600 feet!
S: A centipede has that many feet!
There's a lot I'll miss about the job, but dream-logic exchanges with and between small children may be first among them. You go, boys.