OT: God grant me patience
 

I really need some and I am NOT a patient girl.

My job situation just went *kablooeee* in my face 2 weeks ago when I was told "It's not working out, you're being replaced". I go through a (small)whirlwind of emotions, get my head on straight, start looking around for work, only to be told "actually, we were hasty and want you to reconsider staying". What? Um. ok. What?

So I need to make a choice sometime soon. I don't know what to do. Stay here at my boring job and study? Take another boring job and study? Take a super interesting job and not have time to study? Drop the studying and throw myself into sometime completely different?

Dunno.

Hence the need for patience. I keep trying to see ahead, to determine what's the *right* path RIGHT NOW, but I just can't seem to figure stuff out. I try my best to remind myself to calm my rather loud brain, listen and see what comes.

I think the first thing I'd do is have a sit-down with the folks at your present job and ask them to explain what just happened. One day they say it isn't working out, then they ask you to consider staying...that sound pretty wishy-washy to me. I'm not sure I could trust them unless they had a very good explanation.

How is the job market in your area? Some places are better than others. I think, in light of what just happened with your current employer, I'd be putting out feelers for another job, just in case.

That doesn't sound all that secure - to me, that is a sign for looking for another job.


Also, when I see the word patience, this old radio comedy routine comes to mind

Master: "You must learn patience"
Student: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, how long will that take?"

suki...to make a long story short, my boss has been dropping the ball lately due to home life taking over (2 kids now) and not getting any sleep. He feels that it's MY job to save his butt. He expressed this to me in our initial meeting.

I went to HR post-meeting and expressed that I felt he hadn't communicated what he wanted properly. Had he done so, I could have coddled the crap out of him, but he is a proud and sometimes abrupt man, so he may not have taken things well. I was told that if things didn't work out with him, I'd go back to being a floater within the firm until another position became available that I liked.

I believe what happened is HR spoke with my boss, communicated what I had said, which lead him to reconsider.

Before he asked me to reconsider, I started going to job interviews. I've been to 5 so far and there are 3 more coming my way this week. I was set to leave if I found something more interesting elsewhere. I considered myself to be in an ideal job searching position: still employed, not in a rush, getting good salary & benefits, and searching for jobs that can almost always be found (everyone needs a secretary).

When I was asked to reconsider whether I wanted to work with my boss or not, it threw me for a loop. I *just* started my graduate degree and I had been counting on my boring office job to give me the time to read and write during the day (can't do it at night with an energetic toddler). Suddenly, I'm being "given back" what I thought I had lost, and part of me--perhaps the cowardly part, wants to just take it and forget this ever happened. Another part of me thinks that there may be interesting adventures ahead and that perhaps my chosen degree isn't for me...

So I'm stumped.

Sounds like a job for HP. :) Trust your instincts (or whatever HP is trying to tell you). When the right option comes along, you'll know. I will say that I don't like that your boss has become overly dependent on you. You probably need to weigh how long you think that will last.

Oh, and I also loved seeing the word *kablooeee* in print. That cracked me up for some reason.

hehe I struggled to find the "right" spelling for such a word (being a former English teacher and all). :D

Also, "sounds like a job for HP" make the old Batman theme start to play in my head....I wonder what spandex costume HP would wear...

My two cents worth, trust your instincts about the stability of the current job.

Trust your instincts in considering your options - be grateful for the options! Don't let them overwhelm you.

Define your goals and see what path will help you get there and which ones don't. When I went back to school as part of my goal, I found it much easier to make decisions as I looked at what gets me to my goal. I was in the midst of D and was laid off my job with two kids at home and a parent who was terminally ill. Staying focused helped with decision making and I have no regrets. I reached my goals BTW.