Bittersweet move

Guess what? I have a new job (or I will have shortly.)

I will still be at STIC, but I am moving to a new position in late January, early February. I know, jaws are dropping to the floor...at least they are here at STIC. I am in the dog house with my current, wonderful, MSC lovies. I love my current department. My boss is absolutely wonderful, and my co-workers-they are the best. But here's the thing. My job requires me to be out of the office quite a bit of the time. I have late afternoon/early evening (sometimes even LATE evening) appointments on a regular basis. This can become a hassle. And I envision it becoming an even bigger hassle and time-suck in January when I start to take Giuliana to my parent's house every day instead of bringing her to work with me. I mean...when would I see her when she is not asleep??

So, recently a job opened up in another department here at STIC. It doesn't require me to leave the office nearly as much. I still may have an occasional evening appointment, but we are talking possibly one a month...not 10 a month. I will be working in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA, human service agencies LOVE their acronyms) department. I will be the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Advisor. So, what is CDPA and what does a CDPAA do, you might ask? Well, CDPA is this cool program that allows people (consumers, in our lingo) who need home aids (personal assistants) to hire and train their own aids (that's the directed part) instead of calling up a random nursing/HHA agency and getting stuck with whoever they send out. This gives the consumer much more control and a great sense of empowerment. Where STIC comes in is to write pay checks and provide benefits to the workers, and to make sure that the consumers are eligible for the program and all that jazz. So I will be doing a lot of intakes, evaluations, conflict resolution, helping consumers figure out how to hire and train someone, etc. And a lot of paperwork, filing, envelope stuffing, etc like that, too. It could have actually been a step down for me in terms of career moves and pay, but my Executive Director really likes me, thank God. She wants to "challenge me" so she is giving me some extra assignments and responsibilities in this position that she would not have given someone else. I won't bore you with all the details, but I feel pretty cool and valued. And my pay is staying the same. And my new boss, Joy, is just that, a joy. She is a very sweet person and I am sure I will enjoy (hehe) working with her.

I will miss my old boss, JoAnne terribly. She has been so supportive and wonderful to me and to my family. But, luckily, she will still be just down the hall, and I plan on taking advantage of that often. John is also bummed that we will not be in the same department anymore. But we both know the advantage to our little family in this move. So, it is bittersweet...my co-workers just found out about this today (I just learned that it was a done deal yesterday myself) and they are all giving me hell, but in a loving way. I really hope this is the right thing to do. Luckily, if I change my mind in 6 months, I know JoAnne will take me back in less than a heartbeat. She told me so.

Stay tuned for transitional notes....