I keep thinking about an upcoming "conversation" at my old job

les26

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I will recap for those who don't know but I was laid off late March from my job of packing and shipping jewelry and handbags and accessories to over 35 stores across the country, had worked there 21 years but this plague shut that down quickly. I was called back 13 times since then to work on short projects, sometimes 3 days or 2 or 1, but that seems to have stopped for now too. Early August I took a part time job with the Center for Vision Loss as a driver and I really have taken to it, I feel that I make a difference in people's lives albeit only for a few hours while I am with them taking them back and forth to their appointments and they tell me there that before Covid hit they were busy everyday and that things will work themselves out which I take to mean I will get more work once we seem to be able to climb out of this mess. My wife has told me that she doesn't want me to quit that job even if I am called back to my old job full time, she says that I am happier and better suited to working with people and I agree, and has even told me to just work part time for awhile, we are doing okay money wise, things will pick up and I really appreciate that. I have tried to find work that I can do in addition to this driver job but it is hard to find work where I can name my own hours, and the hours for this job are all over the place, so that is tough. I know come Spring I can cut lawns for people like I had done years ago and some other things but heading into Winter that is out, but we are okay money wise but I feel strange about doing it but I don't want to quit it, I feel it is much more Covid resistant than the old job as I don't think people will be interested in buying that stuff much anymore from us, if they were they would be buying it online but they are not so I don't want to give up this job.

When I was working at my old job about a month ago the owner of the company told me that he was looking to try to reopen November 1st and "have you back here full time mid-November" and at first I was relieved that I wouldn't have to wonder and worry about it but about 4 seconds later I got sad thinking "that means I'd have to quit the driver's job" so that spoke volumes to me! But he can say whatever he wants, I stay in touch with a woman I worked with closely for 20 years there and neither she or I think reopening then is going to happen and if it does it will be very slowly, it won't be like switching on a light switch and being right back, and at times we don't even think that we're going to survive although they say at work "we won't close" but time will tell. But what it means is IF we do try to reopen I will be called about it, and I am already playing it out in my head how I am going to talk to the boss about seeing if I could somehow work at the driver's job and work around that schedule at my old job, and I expect it to go one of two ways; they will either be receptive of it since things have changed dramatically from this plague, realize that I worked with them through it, came in everytime that they called me in on short notice, am a good worker and frankly they would probably have a hard time finding someone who knows all that I know and will do what I did, so I think I have the leverage here. OR they will tell me "it's either us or them", forcing me to make a choice, and if that happens to be the case the answer will be "them", I really don't care if I go back there or not, it just isn't the same, and seeing how much more I like this new job I think "who wants to go back to that?", so we'll see when and if this conversation happens. But I am just going to be calm and lay it out to them how I feel and we will go from there. I just want to be prepared so when and if they call me I already have my "gameplan" of what to say, not that it catches me off guard and I stammer and stutter and make a dumb decision lol! But for now I work for the Vision Center, collect unemployment from the old job and if they call me in for a short project I go, but I hope they don't call for wahile since two people had Covid there about 10 days ago!

Just laying this out there, for some reason it makes me feel better by doing so! Feel free to comment on it...
 
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les26

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Committing to a change is always a little scary. Especially when you were with that company for decades! But it's important to be happy in a job too if you can. So many people have to stay in jobs they really do not like. You have the chance to do that. Your wife supports you. That says a lot!
It surely does!!!

And just moments ago I got an email from a woman at work that said the boss came back with a list of about 6 stores that they are going to try to reopen this week but only Thursdays through Sundays, and she said "so I'm guessing you'll be called back?" But I told her I doubt it, they have been handling it for all these months without me so opening 6 stores is nothing for them to still handle, they'd have to see if they sell anything and stay open and it would have to really be on a consistent basis before I'd get called and also told her that they'll have to work it around my drivers job schedule which should be doable but also said "it will be interesting to see if things pick up how I can juggle things" which is true, and I don't care if she tells the whole place that, I think they already have a feeling that I might be leaning the other way anyway lol!!
 
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les26

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Enjoy your driving job. You are making a difference with people that can't drive.
j
Oh I am, and I know it! Thursday I am taking two people to a local outdoor mall called the Promenade shops, we are meeting up with other people so they can go shop and do whatever they want, I think that is great! It'll be an all day event, and these are the kinds of things that they will do once we climb out of this Covid hole!

And everyone there knows that I like it and want to stay, and they are really trying to give me as many hours as I can get so I stay. Two people there already said "we hope that you don't quit!" and I told them I don't think I will and don't want to either, so I probably won't.

Read the update that I put on the post right before this one about some stores trying to reopen, this is why I am thinking this out NOW!!
 

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And everyone there knows that I like it and want to stay, and they are really trying to give me as many hours as I can get so I stay. Two people there already said "we hope that you don't quit!" and I told them I don't think I will and don't want to either, so I probably won't.
It sounds like you are quite happy there!! I think it is where you you belong! :clap: :jive:
 

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If you are doing okay money wise stay where you are if it comes down to that choice. I think it will be a long time before the other job comes back and it may never come back like it is now. I think some of these changes because of the pandemic will become permanent. People have been forced to do things differently. It has went on long enough that those new ways of doing things have become habit and will continue. A lot of employers that have went to remote work have already announced that they will make this permanent. They have seen that it can work and it has it's advantages. They are saving on commercial office space and after adjustment employees have decided they like it. Employee satisfaction will increase when kids can go back to school and daycare situations. Many are stressed now because of juggling kids and work at the same time at home.
 

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Your old company may be relieved to hear you want fewer hours, you never know. Since you have valuable knowledge about the goings-on in the company, they should listen to you now. After all, it was THEM that let you go in the first place. I really don't think they will be surprised to hear you want to work elsewhere, they can't possibly think you were just sitting around waiting for them to call......
 
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les26

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Your old company may be relieved to hear you want fewer hours, you never know. Since you have valuable knowledge about the goings-on in the company, they should listen to you now. After all, it was THEM that let you go in the first place. I really don't think they will be surprised to hear you want to work elsewhere, they can't possibly think you were just sitting around waiting for them to call......
This is very true. I thought that is one angle that I can use with them, telling them "you don't have to pay me as much". And I think they already have a feeling that I have more than a foot out the door, I can tell whenever I deal with the boss, he acts "sheepishly" when he talks to me, almost like he knows things look bleak for the jewelry business. If people wanted their items they would be buying them online, and the online sales have been quiet, so there you go.....

The big issue that I see is when there would be a conflict, say I am scheduled to work at the Vision Center on a day that the old job says "we could really use you that day", and I say "sorry, I am already scheduled and I can't get out of it"; I could see that running a little thin and causing issues but I regard the driving job as my JOB now, I get my schedule for a whole month, there may be additions or subtractions to it but I basically know it well in advance, and they will have to work around that now, not the other way around.

And also since startup will be very slow and perhaps never really pick up that much they may only be able to call some of us back part time, so this might work out better than I am picturing!

THANK YOU for the replies, they really help!! I am just taking it day by day and it'll all work out somehow....
 

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If people wanted their items they would be buying them online, and the online sales have been quiet, so there you go.....
I agree. Right now, people are worried about paying bills and feeding their families. Not buying "luxury" items like jewelry. I think you are doing the right thing. Stick with what you have now since it is a guarantee. If the other company can work around your current schedule, that is a bonus.
 

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A couple of years ago now I made the difficult decision to resign from my job of 10 years. The salary was great, I enjoyed it and loved my colleagues. But I was working 40+ hours a week and got to spend v little time with my daughter. Plus the commute was 1.5 hours each way.
I took a local job, a significant salary decrease and less hours.
At the time I was terrified but something had to give.
And as much as I’ve had to live without as many luxury items (jewellery being one of them) I am so much happier! I drop my daughter off at school every morning and the new place is flexi time and this enables me to pick her up some days too.
The new place has been so good throughout the pandemic and I am working from home for the foreseeable.
So I guess what I’m saying is although you have to think about money and job security - take into account your happiness and work / life balance as it makes a huge difference.
Keep us posted and best of luck to you and your family 😊
 
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les26

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Today I took two ladies to an outdoor mall called the Promenade Shops and we joined others from the Vision Center, we all had a blast and it was so good for them to get out, just to see them happy and enjoying themselves is wonderful!! And one of the ladies that I took, she was shot years ago in a freak accident, the bullet grazed both her eyes and she went blind from it, how horrible is that? But her attitude, well, I guess AMAZING would be a pretty good word to describe it, just unbelievable how pleasant she was, truly an inspiration. Now she of course did go through depression and was very down after it happened, but she now is one of the most upbeat people I have ever met, I am really learning a lot doing this job!

I also wanted to say that that outdoor mall was DEAD, it was a warm day today, no rain, we were there from 11:00-1:30 and there was very little traffic there which further tells me that the retail business is going to have a very hard time coming back from this, there were several jewelry stores there and no one or very few people were in them, as well as all of the other stores, and I saw several empty stores thanks to this pandemic.

Pretty scary, really....
 

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Keep the job that is making you happy! I bet your old job would be happy to keep you part time since business will be down anyway. Maybe you could work out 2 or 3 days a week with them and then know that your other days would be free for the vision center job.
 
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les26

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Keep the job that is making you happy! I bet your old job would be happy to keep you part time since business will be down anyway. Maybe you could work out 2 or 3 days a week with them and then know that your other days would be free for the vision center job.
I am thinking this too. This would be my second choice, first choice would be to work full time at the Vision Center but they can't offer that yet, so maybe working both until that happens would work stopgap for me.

It is always on my mind, somedays more than others. I was so used to a steady routine, and my mind is trying to get back to one but right now it is all over the place, some days I work early, some days later, some days off, and I am trying to nail a routine down so my mind can "rest" and also know that I have steady work, but I just have to try to stay patient as it will take time. We've never lived through anything like this so it is all uncharted waters!
 

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I can only pray that eventually those jobs lost through the closing of physical stores will be offset by more employment for online businesses. I love ordering online, but there have been a lot of disappointments too with the quality/sizes of merchandise bought online. it can be deceiving. I am going through some of this right now, bought a 300.00 cabinet for my new closet and it was missing a piece important to complete it. it has been going on three months now and still no new part. they are blaming it on Covid, they only had 1 cabinet?! In the meantime, I have parts all over my closet. so online has it's problems too!
 

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Today I took two ladies to an outdoor mall called the Promenade Shops and we joined others from the Vision Center, we all had a blast and it was so good for them to get out, just to see them happy and enjoying themselves is wonderful!! And one of the ladies that I took, she was shot years ago in a freak accident, the bullet grazed both her eyes and she went blind from it, how horrible is that? But her attitude, well, I guess AMAZING would be a pretty good word to describe it, just unbelievable how pleasant she was, truly an inspiration. Now she of course did go through depression and was very down after it happened, but she now is one of the most upbeat people I have ever met, I am really learning a lot doing this job!

I also wanted to say that that outdoor mall was DEAD, it was a warm day today, no rain, we were there from 11:00-1:30 and there was very little traffic there which further tells me that the retail business is going to have a very hard time coming back from this, there were several jewelry stores there and no one or very few people were in them, as well as all of the other stores, and I saw several empty stores thanks to this pandemic.

Pretty scary, really....
This sounds wonderful, what a fantastic job to have! Really making a difference in people’s lives 😊
That is truly awful what happened to that lady. How she has a positive outlook on life is beyond me. We should all be so thankful for our lives. Thanks for sharing and keep the heart warming stories coming 😊
 
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les26

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Well, I just sent an email to my boss, the owner of the company and a guy that I work with telling them that I am going to work solely at the Vision Center, things are picking up there big time and will continue to do so, I wouldn't have time to go into my old job, they would've called me in and I would keep saying "no" which would've lead to bad things so this way we can both move forward without worrying about the other one. Plus I think they will have a very tough time coming back in retail if at all.

It needed to be done, I need to find my new way, it is no one's fault but Covid, but it is still tough to do after working there 21.5 years.
 
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les26

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Both the owner and my boss replied back to me and said they respected my decision, that I will be missed and was a very loyal and dependable employee and "don't be a stranger", so it went very well. I wasn't sure how they would respond to it, I had seen them get pretty nasty when some people quit over the years, but that was PRE Covid; they were knocked down many pegs by this plague and they realize that life has changed forever, people have to do what they have to do, and I was a very good employee who spoke honestly from the heart and gave them notice not only for myself but for them too so they can move on and not worry about me either, so with time it will be better for all of us.

But this morning I felt like there was a death in the family, a great sense of loss which I'm sure is normal in this situation, and just now I am typing this listening to "the Vigil" song from "Rocky II" and I just burst into tears.... but that is a good thing, just like grieving the death of a cat it is good to release that emotion through tears, and with time I will adapt to the new "normal" although it doesn't feel like that. But I have not worked there full time in 7 months, have not worked there in a month, and I got the impression that I might not have been called back anyway, or maybe just part time, but it would be so so slow to recover that way.

I'll be fine in a few days, 21.5 years is a long time at a place and to have to leave in this way is tough, but I have no choice.
 
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