Udates on my professional life

Greetings friends!

It has been several months since I last posted. Needless to say much has happened. To start out with here is an update on my professional life - it is culled from two postings on Facebook so if you are a friend there this will look familiar.

I really want to thank everyone for their support. The past two years at my job have been unpleasant to say the least.

What started as a boss being passive/aggressive and not speaking to me for weeks on end turned into her false accusations and a security investigation. The investigation completely cleared me - but did nothing to compel her to work thing out with me. Her passive/aggressive behavior continued through my departure when she again refused to speak to me.

On February 1 I started a new chapter in my working life. I still feel a little numb. There's a lot to take in at a new job - a lot of decisions about benefits (the benefits are great - btw). It will take a little bit of time for me to feel actually settled in the new job - but the folks there are great. Certainly I will miss the wonderful friends I made on my last job - but now is the time to move on.

My friends who have heard the details of the last couple of years have been wonderfully supportive and I cannot thank you enough. A few of you know first hand of some of this. It is great to have third party confirmation.

The people at my new job are friendly and welcoming. Orientation took two mornings, but a continental breakfast was provided and on day one there was a free lunch!! yippee

The Library staff did much to help me feel welcome. They already set up my network and email accounts and my telephone. I continued to meet people and learn about library procedures etc.

The biggest challenge for me was realizing that this agency isn't like the rest of the federal government. I say goodbye to my govt. retirement plan (I'll still get the money when I retire), and start paying into the agency's own retirement plan and 401K. As I looked over the fine print, I learned that it takes 5 years to be fully vested and then I'll have just one more year until I'm eligible to retire. So this is my last federal job. I wasn't exactly ready to make that move - but here I am.

Then we got some snow and I had a forced holiday for almost a week. But I'm back in the office. I am continuing to get things set up and learning what I'll actually be doing. I'm learning more of the work environment and the corporate culture here (which is actually more like an academic culture.)

Yesterday I learned that my work day isn't quite as long as I had thought and an hour for lunch. And did I mention that my new boss isn't a sociopath, bi-polar, crazed, lying whack-job?