Well, I was offered a new job yesterday. I filled out all the paperwork for it too. The only thing left to do is give my boss notice of me leaving and take the drug test, both of which should be easy and painless, and both are to be done on Monday. The only things that could cause this job to fall through are my drug test and background check. Beyond that, I have plenty of experience in a higher stress hospitality environment (where I’m currently working), so I shouldn’t have to worry too much about doing well. I just have to keep up my customer service professionalism and hope that the overload of my brain from being overworked will not matter too much while I’m training. The drug test and background check I’m not even worried about, they are always clean because I never really do anything.
What does this new job mean? Well, at first, it means $100-150 pay cut per paycheck. At first this sounds bad, but considering it’s that big of a pay cut because I will be working approx. 40 hours less each pay period, I’m willing to accept it. It’s about time I had some time to myself to relax. Been working my ass off for 6+ months now. I need this break. Money cut aside, the job has its perks. I am getting a dollar an hour raise. I will generally have a set schedule. Even if the schedule changes, it’s made a month in advance, so I can plan what I do around it with plenty of time to spare. I will eventually get vacation time ( I think. I remember hearing that from my interview a while back, not this job offer. I never asked). I get paid overtime (finally)! I get similar employee prices on NICER hotels than the chain (I am not going to name names here) I am currently with. I even get holiday pay! I also believe I can opt into benefits after a while, but, once again, I did not ask that, I just seem to remember them mentioning it when I interviewed for another position a while back.
Now, all of this is combined with moving into a new place that will be saving me around $360/mo. It’s a little further away from work, and I won’t be with awesome friends, but even after gas is taken into account, that much savings makes my after-bill pay approximately $60-160/mo. more than my current job and living situation. That will be very nice. The way I figured it out, after all my bills, including gas for work and $400 into savings each month, I will be able to afford $17 of food per day! That means a few cold beers after work and a decent meal. Maybe even lunch on my *gasp* breaks! That’s right. My days of working 12-16 hours without any technical break are over! Back to this food situation though, you may be wondering “Why is $17 per day in food such a big thing?”. Well, It’s such a big thing because I have (partially through my own fault, but most of the time just because of mishaps that are, if not out of my control, very hard for me to control) been living off of $2-5 a day for food for the past 6 months. Now, the part that is mainly my fault is when my friend Ray comes down. It’s a problem both of us have always had. Whenever we are together, we always part ways with naught but a penny to spare. We drink a lot, drive a lot (not at the same time mind you… except for that one time possibly), go see all the movies we haven’t had a chance to until now, hang out with friends that are primarily friends to both of us, but not really either of us, and any other sort of money-required activity we can bust out. Beyond that, however, it hasn’t really been my fault. So as you can imagine, I will be enjoying this freedom quite a bit.
To sum this all up, this is what is on my plate:
– I will start getting treated like an employee, not a slave (slaves got paid in the way of food and shelter, which is all I’ve been able to afford for the most part, so I do not feel bad about making that analogy after how I’ve been treated).
– I will be able to take vacations eventually, which was no more than a child’s dream prior to this.
– I will be able to go home after work and *gasp* be able to eat while watching TV and enjoying a cold beer without having to cut my time for sleep down to 4 hours.
– I will be able to start saving money! This will get me a new car in a year (if I can stick with the plan) or sooner and allow me to remain fairly financially secure, even if I lose my job for some reason (as of right now I plan on staying at the new job for at least a year, hopefully more, and see no reason I can’t fulfill my duties to make them want to keep me on).
– I will gain experience working in a high-class hotel, which will allow me to move into a nicer city hotel at some point down the road if I so wish.
– I might even have the time for college! Go degrees… and stuff!
– I will have more time to get back into gaming and hanging out with all my friends, not just the ones I live with.
Overall it’s great. Things are finally falling into place for me. There are still some things that I need to actually WORK at, such as lowering my credit score, which I’m going to look and start knocking things off one at a time with no more than half of the money I put into savings, and paying off all of my debt (I think those two are one in the same actually), but that will come with time and this situation is what will allow me to work at that. I might even be able to get that new car early if I can build my score up enough. However, these two things kind of just fell in my lap (granted after I started finally thinking of myself as well as other people, not JUST other people) and I would like to think that all the bad karma I have gotten in spite of the good I do hasn’t just been in spite of me, it was to teach me to be a better person so I could finally enjoy life once it started falling into place.
Here’s to hoping I didn’t just jinx this. Cheers.
The Starving Otter Press 