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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A Quiet Fall

My apologies upfront; there have not been many updates to this particular blog. But the fall was somewhat uneventful.

At the end of September, Iwas officially given a layoff notice in my department. Due to budget cuts (our grant was cut by nearly half) my position was terminated. After two months of submitting multiple resumes and having several interviews, nothing panned out. My last day was November 30th in Peds Endocrinology.

I was given a severance package, which came out to about a month's worth of work and vacation. "Great," I thought, "I would take two weeks to get my stuff together, enjoy a quiet holiday and start up again the beginning of the year!" I had many ideas for my leisure time; catching up on reading (my department pooled money together and got me $150 for Barnes and Noble), plan for Christmas, get gifts, etc. I was looking forward to this break.

But, like always, life decided to throw a curve ball.

I was let go on Monday. Three days later on Thursday I got an email from the University's temp agency, saying they were desperate to find someone to be a Coordinator (which is the position ex-Colleague left held, slighty higher than my previous position) and asked if I was interested. I agreed and said I could come in for an interview on Monday. Friday morning, I got a call from this same temp person.

The bad news: They did not want to interview me on Monday.

The good news: They wanted to START me on Monday.

Apparently, I was given great reviews from my former direct supervisor and my boss (the doctor-guy) and they did not see any reason for me to go through the rest of the process.

As this is considered a "temp" job, I did not have to give back my severance. The downside is I do not get benefits, but they may consider keeping me on long-term.

So far, this new job is interesting. Instead of Diabetes Kids, I work with Cancer Kids. That has been an adjustment, since it's unfamiliar territory for yours truly. But so far I have enjoyed it. I am recruiting for a study (just like I did with the Diabetes Kids) and so far, all has been pretty smooth.

Well, sort of.

One of the downers of being a temp: I don't have a desk. Or an office. Or a computer. I am sitting in our conference room, using a temporary laptop, because this department is going to be moving offices after the winter closure (my job closes for two weeks during the holidays; yup, just like when you were in school). When they need the conference room they throw me on top of whomever's not here at the time's desk.

Then there's my "trainer". Very nice, but extremely scattered. On one hand I will be told that I need to do X, Y, and Z, and then, those assignments are passed off onto someone else. Go figure.

Well, enough yammering. Back to the grindstone. Will likely get more detailed later.

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