You’re Fired!

I have a degree in Theatre. I’ve worked for a hazardous waste company on and off for about 10 years. Why?

Well, I started as a temp to support my theatre habit. They liked me, they wanted to keep me so they were flexible with me. Over the years as I came and went from location to location and show to show, the one constant it seemed was that they always had work if I wanted it and were always willing to be flexible.

This continued after I married and had my first child (and took and extended leave of absence from the theatre life). I asked if I could work part-time. Sure! When we decided to move halfway across the country I asked if I could work part time from home, in another state. Absolutely! After my second child, and a move the rest of the way across the country, can I work from home in Fairly Land and reduce my hours more? Why not?!

I’ve generally enjoyed the work I do as well. It exercises the left side of my brain. It also utilizes skills outside of sniffing a bum to determine whether a diaper should be changed.

In pushing the limits of their willingness to be flexible, I’ve always known that this blessing of ideal stay-at-home-mom employment could end at any moment. That doesn’t make it much easier when it happens.

We were on vacation last week. We had stopped at a gas station, my kids were complaining, the wind was blowing and it was getting cold. My cell phone rang.

“This is not something we wanted to do over the phone.” But considering I was being fired from the Pacific Coast, it hardly seemed worth a plane ticket.

I was being re-organized out of a job. What? The new VP doesn’t want an assistant she’s never met who works when she wants from 6 states away? Come on!

I am grateful. I’m anxious about the income that will not be replaced. Yet I’m rather excited about the prospects of a) more time with my kids (I’m anxious about that too—I think work has been a bit of an escape), and b) looking into pursuing something that I’m more passionate about. So, as I contemplate just what I could do from home on a part-time basis, and just what fat I can cut from my sparse budget, keep watching. Who knows what I’ll be up to next . . .