Goodbye Georgetown

Every so often, things actually seem to work out right.

One of the services that the company I work for provides is known as ‘facilities management’ — setting up and running a small, private print shop on the premises of another company to handle that company’s in-house printing needs. The FM site generally has a limited amount of equipment, so small, quick-turnaround jobs are done locally, while larger more complex jobs are farmed out to the FM site’s parent branch.

Recently, The Company picked up a new FM contract, and put out a call for applicants. It sounded interesting, but the job listing specified a required minimum of one year with The Company, and I’ve only been employed with them for about seven months. However, as I had worked for The Company in the past, and have prior FM experience (both as part of a team, when I was working for the Xerox FM site on the Microsoft campus; and on my own, running the Xerox FM site for Arthur Anderson), I figured it was worth inquiring whether they’d consider me. I made a call to the manager in charge of the position, and considering my prior experience, he agreed to look at my total time of employment with The Company — nearly four years, though there is a seven-year gap in the middle — and I put my application in.

Two weeks ago I had one interview with the site manager, and then last week I had a second interview with the cluster manager. Both interviews seemed to go well, and while job interviews always tend to make me a little nervous, the FM site is part of the same cluster that my current store is, so I’d already met and worked with both of the people interviewing me, which made it a lot easier than if I’d never met either of them before.

Well, yesterday my current manager let me know that I’ve got the spot! I probably won’t actually switch over into the new position for about two weeks or so, as a replacement for my current position needs to be found, and as business has been slow throughout the cluster this past month, they don’t want to switch my payroll over to the FM site’s parent branch in this pay period — but I’ve been assured that I’ve got the spot.

There are a number of benefits to the new position. I’ll be moving back to a more “normal” work schedule, as the FM site needs to be open during the same hours as the business it supports, so I’ll be working Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. The first week or so will probably be a little rough as I switch my sleep schedule back around (no more wandering off to bed between two and three in the morning), but it’s certainly nothing I can’t deal with.

I don’t know if there’s an immediate difference in my pay (quite possibly not, as I just got a raise a few months ago during The Company’s standard review cycle), but even without that, I’ll still end up taking home more money. As business has been slow for the past month, one of the cost-cutting measures that all the stores have been taking is cutting hours when possible to save on payroll. As I’ll be the sole regular on-site employee for the FM site, I won’t have to worry about hours being cut, so I’ll be guaranteed my full forty every week.

One of my favorite benefits, though, is that I’ll be saving $45 dollars a month by not having to buy a bus pass, as the FM site is a whopping three blocks from my apartment. Not even a five minute walk away. It’s going to be so nice to be living and working that close together again, right in the heart of downtown Seattle.

Another big reason I’m happy about getting the new position is that by moving to a standard daytime schedule, I can finally look into following through on some of the plans I’ve had bouncing around in my head for the past few years. Since I’ll have my evenings free, that opens up a number of hours that I can put to good use, and I’ve got a few ideas of activites that I’d like to fill those hours with, ranging from the Tai Chi classes that I rambled about last week to investigating technical writing classes to seeing what I can find at SCCC to get the education ball rolling again.

So, that’s the word, and celebrations are in order. Last night I had a celebratory drink with Valindria and then hung out with her here for a while, and Prairie will be out this weekend, with plans including heading out to see the new King Arthur movie (Keira Knightley wearing a whole lot of not very much — yum!) and head to the zoo to see their current spider exhibit, which should do a wonderful job of giving me the creeps. Between all that and the current incredible weather Seattle’s having (we’re predicted to hit 94°F today, 96°F tomorrow), it should make for a very good weekend.

iTunes: “King of Birds” by R.E.M. from the album Document (1987, 4:10).