Resignation & Counter
Wednesday, September 27th, 2023 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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66F and raining this morning, and I'm back from the D313 command center with a folder full of forms and papers, and another folder full of benefits information. My driver's license & Social Security card were scanned. My photo was taken for my employee ID card. And I filled out tax forms.
Basically, I'm already hired. But I do have to schedule an appointment at one place to get the fingerprints taken and start the background check... and another appointment at a different place to get a physical.
And that's good, because I am trying to slow walk this a little bit, so that I don't have to start until after the reunion is overwith.
I'll be working for District 313 directly... which, as far as I can tell, means I'm a city employee. Thus... I think it may be possible to advance to some other branch of city employment down the road.
But... YEAH!.. I'm gonna be giving GeoStaff notice today or tonight, if possible!
I was back home and outside with Yvette by 11:15AM.
The recyclables have been picked up, but the garbage truck is still on the way.
And I'm currently waiting for an InstaCart delivery.
Now, I just have to figure out the email address of my boss!
Okay, it is done!...
Kristine,
Yours is the only email I have for management, so please forward this to Derick and Chantele if necessary.
I have accepted a custodial position with District 313 in A#####, to work in a building which is much closer to my home, and for higher pay.
My last day at Cloud, and with GeoStaff will be Friday, October 6th.
I regret that I could not give a full two week's notice, but under the circumstances, a week and a half is the best I can do.
I would like to thank Geostaff for the opportunity they gave me, in September of 2022.
I enjoyed working at both Grape, and Cloud. And the job helped me get through a very challenging time with the illness & death of my father, and its aftermath.
However, income has become a larger concern than it was, and proximity to home is also a priority.
I therefore resign my position as custodian for District 420, effective, end of shift, October 6th, 2023.
-Patrick Melody
So much for the happy little part time Janitor gig that got me home at 7:30PM to have a beer with Dad every night.
Free healthcare... something to put on a tax form at the end of the year... a little extra money... while I started up my handyman business... to make bigger bucks in cash, under the table.
Would've been a nice life!
The bins are back in the dog yard, and one of two grocery deliveries has arrived, and been put away.
Aldi has come to be perpetually out of stock with certain items, so I have to have two separate drivers go to two different stores now.
I'd love to just stay home and clean, that week of OCT 9 ~ 13, but I'm gonna be running around... not just for the fingerprints and the physical, but also to return my uniforms to GeoStaff.
And I'll likely be going to the county to record Colleen's quit claim too.
Who knows? I may also be talking to Discover about a home equity loan!
And don't forget the flat tire!
Plus, I'll be finishing up with the storm windows.
So... that's gonna be a busy ass week!
And the week of the funeral/reunion is also gonna be wild... so, that's why I want the following week to just decompress, before starting a new job.
Okay, the day's done... and in a surprise turn of events, I was visited at work today around 6PM by both Kristine, and Chantele... who were looking more smiley and warm than ever before!
Not that they aren't normally, pretty smiley and warm... but they were extra smiley and warm!
I honestly wasn't expecting this, but, as you can guess, they wanted to feel me out and make a counter offer to keep me.
And it turns out that I've been making $15.24 per hour, since the 15th, when I hit my one year mark.
That's opposed to the $14.50 I thought I was making, and the raise was news to me!
Back at the hospital, I'd get a yearly review with the manager, and be told exactly what the raise was gonna be.
Okay, so I was making 74 cents more per hour than I thought.
So D313's offer of $16.18 suddenly wasn't such a big difference.
I thought $16.18 was gonna be a buck sixty eight more per hour. But in reality, it's only ninety four cents.
Now... 94 cents is not nothing... but as the girls pointed out, I'd be paying a lot more for health care with 313.
And they had a point!.. I was just sitting with the 313 benefits lady this morning looking through the brochure at the various PPO's and HMO's they offer... the cheapest of which still deducts about 52 cents per hour... making the actual difference in pay, only 42 cents more than I'm making now.
And the cheapest PPO requires you to pay a lot more out of pocket before it kicks in to cover anything... making the pay difference negative in the case that I ever went to the clinic for anything.
Now, Kristine and Chantele did not sit there and do all that math with me... they simply reminded me that I'd pay more for health care, and... because I'd just seen the numbers today... I knew they had a point.
My counter point was that it was still only four blocks away, and it was paid lunch... which boiled down to me being home an hour and fifteen minutes earlier every night, after leaving at the same time.
So, after a bit of back and forth, and Kristine stepping away quickly to make a call... probably to Derick... the department head... she came back and said that they were prepared to give me $16.24. per hour.
Only five more cents than D313, but... $1.74 more than I had been making... to just stay and do the same job with the devil I know... and with free healthcare.
I said it was a very persuasive offer, but I wanted to sleep on it before I made a final decision.
And they thought that was fair, but weren't quite ready to end the chat yet... you know... saying how sad they were to read the resignation today, and what I good fit I was for Cloud... etc...
And it got me to thinking about the three weeks off that I'd been daydreaming about, and thinking, Damn! if I stay, I'm not gonna have any time to clean the house before people get to town.
And they read the pain in my face, so I explained the situation... and long story short, they offered to give me the 16th and 17th off, in addition to the 18th, 19th, and 20th.
SO... we still left it for me to sleep on.
But, realistically... that IS a pretty good deal!
When you consider the big picture, the pros are now heavily in favor of GeoStaff.
The health care, together with the pay hike, are damn good.
And if I stay, I don't need to; return uniforms, get fingerprinted, take a physical, or go through training and a probationary period all over again... which remove most of the need for three weeks off.
Having Monday 16, and Tuesday 17 off gives me four days (counting the weekend before them) to clean the house... which should be fine.
And I'd still have Monday 23 off, before returning to the devil I know.
But, the, "devil I know," part of this equation is also still looking like a big pro in GeoStaff's favor.
One of the forms in my little D313 folder says that employees are not allowed to report to work under the influence of various drugs... including tobacco!
And that caught my eye, because... what the hell does, "under the influence of tobacco," even mean?
Like... I can't smoke on the drive to work?
That would seem unenforceable, but... it would certainly mean that popping across the street on break to smoke off school grounds would be forbidden!
And I don't know if I'm gonna have some narky co-worker there on 2nd shift, who's either gonna smell it on me... or spot me sneaking out... and run to tattle to the boss!
Meanwhile, at Cloud... It's pretty easy to get away with a smoke break!
As long as nobody on the staff actually sees me doing it, or finds a butt in the parking lot... it's FINE!
Nobody's ever mentioned that I smell like smoke... even though I must, at least occasionally. And I'm sure the pack in my shirt pocket's been glimpsed by almost everybody at some point.
And the parents in the park, seemingly could care less!
And I know... I know... that's a lot of argument space to dedicate to smoking!
But for me, it really is a deal breaker!
Smoke breaks are THE WAY I can work a monontonous joe job, week in and week out, for decades at a stretch!
I'll take my chances with the freelance handyman gig before I quit smoking for a steady job!
Okay... so, that said... there are also a lot of other unknowns about working at Odlaw, for 313.
How hard do they crack the whip?
Jesse said they expect 100% in every room every day and do inspections all the time with the goal of zero complaints from the school staff.
What are these rooms even like? Linoleum floors I have to sweep and mop daily, before polishing the chrome desk & chair legs to a military shine?
How big of pigs are middle schoolers? Even worse than grade schoolers? Who knows?
Would I have to put up with annoying coworkers all shift?... and chat with them at lunch?... about Donald Trump?... with no escape and no cigarettes?
These are all unknowns.
But I DO know, that at Cloud, it's pretty chill!
And last, but not least... if I say with Geostaff, I DO always have that flexibility to go back to part time next summer!
Chantele even mentioned it today, saying that she was happy to let me be part time this summer and it didn't upset anything.
And that's something I'm almost certain that 313 either would not allow... or, if they did allow it, I wouldn't be able to keep my benefits, like with GeoStaff.
That flexibility to go part time and keep the free health care is... kind of a huge card to have in my hand!
So, that's the long and short of it, here at the end of my Wednesday.
I will sleep on it.
And I will sleep an hour later than I have the past two days.
So... we'll see how I feel in the morning... and what I do tomorrow.
°¦}
