The Unemployment Chronicles: Day 1

It's really not day 1 -- I did some work on March 12, but none since.  For a few days after that my status was uncertain, then I went on vacation to Vegas for a long weekend.  So I'm calling today day 1.  I will try to blog every day, or at least most days.

How did you get to this point, you ask.  Ah.  Well, I discussed here, almost a year ago, that there was this thing at work that was causing me to lose sleep.  I lost sleep many nights, literally, over the same issue since that post last April 1, and finally I am not working at Farmers.  And as is the way with the corporate world, I still can't talk about it or write about it.  I hope that explains everything.  Thanks for asking.

After working at Farmers for almost 11 years, I feel almost nothing in terms of loss at leaving.  I will miss my friends from work, but I don't think I get very attached to companies, which seems mentally healthy to me.  The emotion I have felt most is relief -- relief that it's over, relief that I will never have to do certain tasks again.  The second emotion is concern.  We have resources, but I cannot live without an income forever.  Still, that one is secondary for now, lurking in the background.

I have not done a lot yet to start looking for work.  Tomorrow, I have an appointment with an outplacement firm, and I'm curious to see what they do.  I have looked for a resume on my computer, but I don't see one; I guess I left that at work, but I can recreate it.  Mostly, I have been either goofing off or doing things around the house.  I am spending more time on Jarrod's homeschooling, and Jackie and I are working out most mornings.  Jackie has encouraged me to take a little break, enjoy a two-week vacation or so.

I expect the search will start more in earnest tomorrow with the outplacement people.  I have heard that they will try to push me.  My break has given me time to focus on what my goal will be, and the one thing I know is that it will not be what I was doing, which was managing five people.  For me, managing amounted to multitasking to such an extent that it was severely counter-productive and spending too much time on non-technical tasks that seemed to add little value.  I can do more as an individual contributor.

Except for that little nagging concern about not finding work, I feel good about this.  And I'm sleeping well.