I was at some sort of Applebee's type restaurant with some random high school friends as well all of my [now former] coworkers (I just started in a new position within my current company today). We were enjoying, of all things to enjoy at an Applebee's, a coworker's wedding reception. The sky was noticeably morphing into a cloudy, stormy one. I turn and look over my shoulder and who should appear but my [now former] boss. She turns to all of us, including my high school friends, and demands we immediately join her outside on the Applebee's lawn for another "urgent fire". (These urgent fires were a daily occurrence working as a network manager with my current company, and were typically due to another overdramatic crisis created by a providers or members in the our market area.) We all reluctantly leave the reception and herd ourselves outside, I again noticing the stormy weather that is forming around us, and obediently sit cross-legged in a circle with our boss standing at one end of the circle. She begins talking about the current crisis at hand, to which I will admit I was not paying any attention. All I could focus on was the fact that the clouds that were only gloomy a few minutes ago had quickly turned into a tightly-spun funnel cloud that was rapidly touching down and headed straight for our little pow-wow circle of crisis! Being the rational person I am, I jump to my feet and scream to everyone about the tornado that has decided to make us it's target! I cut off my boss mid-sentence and tell her we need to get inside and take shelter. She slowly turns her head to me, says, "I don't care, Erin. Sit back down." I tell her there is no way I will sit back down and begin running backwards towards the secure shelter of Applebee's. All the while pleading with everyone, who for some reason chooses to remain seated in the crisis circle, to hurry up and get to safety. They all just turn their heads and stare at me, not moving their perfectly crossed legs, continuing to listen to their fearless leader. Right as I reach the doors, as I am still pleading for everyone to come, the twister barrels right through where I was sitting, to my surprise not hitting anyone else, just devouring the spot where I had been sitting. I wake up. I am ready to start my very first day in a new role, leaving behind the twister that was every-day life as a network manager.
I have had a wide variety of "jobs" over the years. Since I began my very first job as a grocery bagger, I have had a total of 14 "jobs" plus 2 temp placements in corporate settings*. My professional career** has been a roller-coaster ride, but God has faithfully sat next to me on each and every one. That professional career began when I landed a gig as an Administrative Assistant in the credentialing department of a small local Employee Assistance Program (EAP) insurance company in 2005. My 3 1/2 years there were fantastic. After a year and a half I was promoted to a Credentialing Specialist - I loved the company and I loved my job. But then in January of 2008 we got the news: the company was laying off its entire Provider Relations Department. What?! Seriously?! Great. Just great. I had an 8 month old baby and was so afraid of being laid off. But God is good and He & I remained on the unemployment roller coaster for only 5 short weeks. I was hired as a Credentialing Coordinator with a very large, national healthcare insurance company. Basically was going to do the same thing I was doing at the small local company but on a MUCH larger scale. I was so grateful that I got another credentialing job so quickly. Many of my laid-off colleagues were unfortunately not as lucky as I was on that front. The ups and downs I experienced in my new credentialing position deserves its own blog entry, so I won't take you down that path at this time. Let's just say it too was a roller coaster filled with highs & lows, twists & turns, and unfortunately ended with a bloody crash.
The past year and a half (Feb 2012-July 2013) I have been a Network Manager assisting our company's behavioral health network providers with a wide variety of issues, complaints, and questions. The move into that position was a highly anticipated one that I was VERY excited about! I was going to report to someone who I loved working with and thought was a wonderful person, learn a new side of the business providing guidance and problem resolution to our mental health providers, and growing in my career internally - it's always nice to be working for a company where there are opportunities for internal professional growth. It was going to be good times. And I could not get away from the credentialing department - more specifically the credentialing department's manager - fast enough! But to my utter sadness, my new boss announced her departure only 2 months after I started. "No, you can't leave me!!" I pleaded to her. But it was no use. She was burnt out and needed a change. Little did I know that I would come to understand her burnout first hand a short time down the road.
Once my new boss left to take another position within the company, daily life as a network manager became draining, frustrating, and it felt like I could do nothing right. Our new director who replaced my would-have-been dream boss was/is a very nice person, but she is very demanding and a micro manager (I literally couldn't send an email to a provider without her reading it first to make sure it had sounded exactly as though it was coming from her lips). Plus she turned every little thing into a complicated crisis. Going into work everyday truly started to feel like I was entering a cyclone. And it wasn't just me. My entire team was starting to burn out, and quickly. We all felt out of control, overwhelmed by the winds that came at us from every direction, and beat down.
When this new position came available, I thought it could be a good fit. It is back to my credentialing roots, but with a twist: I would be moving over to the medical side of the company and no longer in behavioral health where my professional career started, I would be doing audits of hospitals/clinics, auditing their credentialing of their providers rather than doing the actual credentialing of providers myself, there would be an element of travel to those hospitals and clinics when they preferred an in-person audit rather than a virtual/desktop audit, AND, the best part of the new position, I would become a full-time TELECOMMUTER! Work from home?! Sign me up! I applied and after 5 weeks of interviews I got the job offer at 4pm on June 28th, 2013 (my 10th wedding anniversary of all days)!
Goodbye traffic jams and weekly trips to the gas station!
Goodbye working in a tiny cubicle!
Hello working from home in my pajamas!
I know I don't look super fab in this pic, but that's the point, isn't it?!
When you work from home you don't have to look fabulous!
Today is my first official day in my new position, and my first day working in my new office in our basement. My office furniture hasn't arrived yet, so I am temporarily using some snazzy TV trays as my "desk" and sitting on a cushioned folding chair, but I honestly couldn't care less. I now get to work from home everyday, which I am so glad will allow me to be able to see my 5-year-old daughter, Alice, on and off the school bus everyday - she starts kindergarten in just 4 short weeks! I get to have opportunities to travel to new states/cities every now and then. And beyond just being a telecommuter and getting to have adventures around the country, I am sincerely excited about the actual job I will be doing too! I think it will be a great fit for me and a job I will be really good at.
The dream that I had as I woke up this morning solidifies my new position as one God ordained for me. It truly feels like I have jumped out of the path of an oncoming tornado and have made it to safety just in time. God continues to be so good to me and my family, meeting our needs just in time, and I am forever grateful. I am sure He and I will jump on the occasional roller coaster even in this new position. No job is perfect every single day. But I am hopeful that our roller coaster rides will be shorter and few & far between.
*Where were those 16 jobs?: Nanny, Lunds, Cost Cutters, Dancers Studio, The Beef Hut and Ben's Brats (those 2 were State Fair gigs), David's Bridal, ACR Homes, Caribou Coffee, Panera Bread, Oceanaire Seafood Room, Apartment Caretaker, Apartment Leasing Manager, Let's Dish!. And the two temp jobs: Morcon Construction and Ameriprise.
** By "professional career" I mean positions in the corporate world where I have been able to actually create a long-term career.
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