90 DAYS
(Posted 2008-05-13 15:27:28 by ArchPaladin)
I was told by my employer that they would give me a raise if I was willing
to work more hours a week. They asked for 45 hours a week instead of the
usual 40. Now, this may not be considered such a large change - 1 hour a
day extra - but the principle of the matter disturbs me a little. Besides,
the culture at this place is one where your work tends to rise above
whatever else you were planning on doing in life, and people here have been
known to put in 10 hour days "just because". I'm not exactly desiring to
fall into that pattern. Some may view that as a lack of dedication or job
enjoyment; I look at it as not becoming a lemming.
The end result of this is that I have 90 days to find a new job before
being out of work. I don't know exactly when those 90 days began (the
discussion about raises was about a week ago), but the overall end date
looks to be around early or mid August somewhere. This is of course if
management doesn't drag their feet - which they have been known to do, as
they keep themselves so tied up in having 10 hour days. It's a very
unusual scenario to find oneself.
By and large this is fine with me, although I've been having small identity
crises during the past week. This whole discussion at work about work
hours and priorities stems from some earlier statements [
https://www.archpaladin.net/2008/04/13/spiritual-direction/ ] I've made,
and while I did say in that post that I knew I would be leaving my job, I
didn't exactly think it would be this early. It is so easy to define
ourselves by what we do that the idea of changing careers (or even career
fields, which is what I have been considering) carries more than a bit of
stress.
In looking for some spiritual direction during these times, I have been
constantly reminded that my work as a Christian is to be about God's
business first, and everything that pays the bills comes second.
Christianity being a way of life makes this both easier (in that once you
balance your life well, it's easy to find great fulfillment in
comparatively little work) and more difficult (in that finding balance is
hard and a constant time management battle). In many ways a job change is
a good excuse to look for something where I can work at both areas at the
same time, although this is harder than it sounds as I have no real
qualifications for a paying job with a spiritual focus, and I would be
learning as I go. I would very much like to find something to do that pays
the bills, provides spiritual fulfillment, gives me enough flex time to go
to school, and allows me to realign my priorities so that I don't risk
overloading myself with work or becoming materialistically obsessed. In
many ways it sounds like this would be the holy grail of jobs, with about
as much chance of existing as the real holy grail, but I'm still positive
that something like this exists.
I just have to find it. In 90 days.
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