Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Why I Don't Have Vacation

I can't begin to tell you how much I love my brother and sister-in-law. Once again, they are taking our daughter on vacation with them.

My husband and I had planned to take a really nice vacation this year, but my company laid me off after 24 years. It's okay - I know it's not personal - they consolidated from 16 to 4 business centers in the United States. I couldn't have transferred if I had been offered a move.

God is good, of course, and I didn't get one, but two, job offers even before I left. I took the one I really, really wanted and I love it! The company I work for now does contract work for my previous employer, so I still interact with old friends and get to keep in touch with them more than if I had ventured in another direction.

While there is some resentment - it hurts to be let go after such a long time - I am grateful that I can keep in touch with my previous coworkers. As you can imagine, after 24 years, it's not just work anymore, it's family. Dysfunctional, but family.

And now, I am building a new group of friends with whom I intend to ride out the rest of my working life. It's such a big difference to move from a very large corporation to a small, one-owner company. I like it. I highly recommend it.

So, there's a snippet of my work life. What does that have to do with my brother...oh yeah, changing jobs altered my vacation time. I have gone from 5 (yes FIVE) weeks of vacation to having to work a year before getting any.

My brother, his wife, and daughter are taking our daughter with them to New Braunfels, TX to hang out on the river, tubing the rapids, and lounging in the pool. They even let her bring a friend her own age along.

We had big plans to go to Maine and Nova Scotia - big change from Houston - in July. I got laid off in April. Hopefully, next year will be the year.

6 comments:

Ronnica said...

My dad struggled with what you went through. He had worked for his company for I believe 22 years before he was laid off (though he was offered to transfer, and he turned it down). He now works for the company that bought out the other company's operations in their city and was able to transfer everything but tenure. It had been a while since we had to deal with limited time to take vacations, but fortunately he still had a week or two so he could still go on vacation.

gary rith said...

Maybe having time alone with your husband is a nice vacation?
btw--the fellow tearing apart my garage roof is from Houston and he was swearing yesterday, on the hot roof, that he had gotten soft: after 20 years in the north he couldn't handle the heat that he grew up with!

Linda said...

Your brother and his wife sound like jewels! How nice of them to take your daughter with them...and to let her take a friend along too!

I work for a privately owned facility that was sold to a large corporation at the end of last year. We all hate the large corp. There's nothing like a smaller business where the owners are at hand.

Wep said...

I had the same feeling when i left teaching after 7 years. Today I was actually back in the classroom for a guest appearance working on my research study. I actually kind of miss it. Especially without administrators, parents, and actual grades and stuff :)

-Bridget said...

I think the longest I've ever worked for a company is three years. I get too bored. I can't imagine the heartbreak after committing 24 years to one place.

Lynda said...

Gary, there's just something wrong with someone who leaves here to go up north. Any REAL Texan knows that {wink} !

 
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