Leap Day!

    And boy, have I ever leaped! So, it has been quite some time since I last posted to this blog. That, in and of itself, says a lot about how these last 32 weeks have been. As many of you know, DaVita and I parted ways in early April of last year. Then there was my health crisis the end of May. 

    I was not in a hurry to seek employment as we had our annual 32-day long "Big Trip" planned for July 15-August 15th. Since it did not happen, I went to work for a different dialysis company (Fresenius, DaVita's competitor) the end of July, and spent the rest of last year working in a clinic that was chronically understaffed. We did get away in October to see the annular solar eclipse in Texas at my childhood home, but that was it.

    After a few months in that fast-paced clinical job, it became evident to me that I had returned to work too early after the 4 simultaneous arterial dissections. I either overestimated the speed with which I could bounce back or I underestimated the actual impact that event had on me. It might also have had something to do with running a 7:1 patient to tech ratio most of the time, rather than 4:1. 

    December ended with me filing an HR case against an RN because she was creating a hostile work environment. Not just for me, but I was the only one willing to put herself on the line and say something about it. One gal is still there, trying her best to ignore the RN because she needs the money. The money is good, so I see why she puts up with it. The other one left the clinic for another job. And she was not the first to do that, it turned out.But I digress...

    So, a couple of weeks after my initial call to HR, and out of the absolute blue, I get an email from a New York Life hiring manager asking if I would be interested in interviewing for a job as a producer. Well, that had never even crossed my mind, to be honest. But, while the "no retaliation" policy looks good at a corporate level, there is no such thing at a clinical level. So I said yes, and we scheduled the initial interview for the following week. It went well, so I had another one the following week.

    On February 2nd, a couple of days after my second NYL interview, my HR case manager calls me to tell me they had done their due diligence, verified everything I had told them was true, and spoken to my manager and my manager's supervisor. They now considered the case resolved. I returned to work as scheduled on February 6th to find out absolutely nothing had changed. That was my last day. On February 9th I accepted the job offer from NYL and started training. On February 16th I also accepted a part-time job working as a sales associate in the print & copy department for Office Depot. Tomorrow I sit for my state licensing exam. 

    Wish me luck!