Working for the Weekend

Working full time use to mean that the weekends were this sacred 48 hours that I had to say, be with my kids, dork around the house, clean the basement (!), but now since being home, it begs the question that I’ve pondered for awhile of people who are out of work, mom’s or dads who have the hard job of staying home with their kids etc, and that is, is there REALLY a difference between “The Week” and “The Weekend” when you’re home 24/7?

There use to be a HUGE difference. The "week" was when I had that evil commute and worked with people who were, let's face it..."evil". Not all mind you, I did LOOOOOVE most everyone I worked with. Oh, and how about the evil new signage above the revolving door on my first day back after the “notice of my demise”:

“Dreams Start Here”

THAT, my friends, is evil.

The week use to be when I sat in a cubicle daydreaming about what it would be like to be at HOME, or SHOPPING, or EATING, (oh wait, I did that in my cube, as evidenced by the countless times I had to take a screwdriver to my keyboard to chop out the crouton and cookies remnants...)

Now it all flows, day to day… to day… to day… to long, drawn out ….day.

Ok, not totally true. Most days go pretty fast, way faster than they ever did sitting in "The Cube". Is that what happens when you do not rise at 4:30 am? Is that what happens when the house is quiet all day except for the excruciating chainsaw buzz of the dog’s sleep apnea? Is that what happens when you get to waste an hour of your life watching “The Young and the Restless”?

Having trouble differentiating between the week and the weekend might just be because I’m a fanatic about finding a job. (Although, this sleeping thing…MAN I do love it…) I went through the whole weekend thinking “uh, there are my files, there is the laptop, there are the chocolate chips…LET'S GO!” I never would have considered THINKING about my old job on the weekend, much less trying to “do” my job on a Sunday afternoon. Not that thoughts of my job didn’t haunt me in the middle of the night, as I woke up in a cold-sweat repeating “it was only a dream, it was only a dream”…

I suppose I need to just let it go when the weekend rolls around. Like when Leah wanted to sit on my lap on Saturday, and I’m like, “uh, no, networking here….”. How bad is that? Or when secretly I wondered, “Does the church have Wi-Fi?” No? DAMN! :-)

Other than feeling like I’m working overtime and not getting paid time and a half…(hell, at this point I’m just happy to be paid), I’m continuing to work on my marketing plan and networking strategies. I talked to The Hartford in Hartford. As I suspected when I applied, they were looking for “A Manager who managed Managers”. What? I managed people, not managers, so they “passed”, BUT, Hartford CT, sent my resume and credentials to the recruiter in Bloomington MN to consider me for future “Manager who manages people” opportunities, and THAT is networking at its finest!

And with the help of my outplacement service, I contacted with 22 former colleagues via e-mail, (the reason Leah had to wait 2 hours to sit on my lap...) who were downsized from the same company where I spent 13 years of MY life, to hear how they’re doing. 6 got back to me so far, 3 have found jobs. Alas there is hope for all us overworked non-working stiffs! And the best quote I can give right now, from Tom, former colleague:

“Bridget,
Congratulations! You are now a member of a select group of outstanding people who have been cast aside by ____________. Now your life can finally begin!”

I asked him if he wanted to form a “Disgruntled Sarcastic Cynical Job Loss Support Group”.

I’d be the president of course.

;-)