Saturday, March 24, 2007

Mixed emotions

The first part of the process for accepting this new position was to fill out a criminal background check form online--which I did on Thursday night. Then on Friday I turned in my signed offer letter and headed to another location for the drug screening. Once all that was done, I returned to work to write my resignation letter.

Ideally I would have notified my consultant agency first, but I was so flabbergasted by the quandry of who to send my letter to, that I unfortunately skipped that vital step. Anyway, I submitted my well-crafted, gently worded resignation to four people--my previous three managers and their manager. I immediately received congrats from two, and heard nothing from the other two. Don't know if any will step up to coordinate an exit plan for me, so I may need to initiate that. I then forwarded the letter to some of my internal customers to let them know, and many stopped by to wish me well. One of the well-wishers is a co-worker who I have great respect for. He is incredibly intelligent, extremely dedicated, and always friendly and respectful to everyone. He is an extremely valuable asset to the company. I guess my resignation let him feel comfortable enough to vent on me his frustration with his work and his plans to leave. It was a bit discerning since I was just joining the company.

After work I headed to a Happy Hour with friends I used to work with at another company. One gal in particular also works for "Dell-ville" and has been cranking in the overtime hours, working weekends and nights for two years. She let me know that she submitted her resgination last week. She has no new job lined up. She is just exhausted and wants to take a break--mentally and physically. This is also an extremely dedicated person with a go-go, Type A personality. It was so out of character for her. This is a gal with no kids, who can work those types of hours without too much complications, and she is still overwhelmed.

Oh yeah - and while at the Happy Hour, I get a call from my Agency, confused about why someone is checking my employment history with them (the background search began). Very awkward moment. I completely forgot to let them know I was leaving. I felt like a schmuck--they have been so good to me.

So, while I am excited to become a badged employee of the company, I do know what I am getting myself into and need to be prepared to sell out to the company for at least a couple of years. Hopefully my experience won't be as painful as my friends, but currently, there is no telling.

So, talk about a mixed bag of emotions.

"Life is the sum of all your choices."
---Albert Camus

2 comments:

Lynette said...

It is so hard to make changes like this. But I think you still did the right thing. Big companies like Dell are constantly in flux. Every company is. My little not for profit has issues, and frustrations, my manager finally felt comfortable enough with me to let me know some of her issues just this last week. It just turns out you either can live with it or you can't, and for me it took a year of indecision to decide I could live with it. You will do just fine. You have been inside the walls for a year, it won't be all that new.

amyz said...

Oy. Good luck! :hug: