Barf!...Yay!...Ouch!...Oh $hit! in New Beginnings

The last I spoke on the subject, I was being considered for an contract associate controller position in Atlanta. I also recently interviewed for an accounting instructor position at that technical college, an interview I thought that I bombed. Well, Monday morning arrives, and I get a call from the Dean wanting to bring me back to interview with school’s president and CEO on Thursday. I agreed. Tuesday night comes, and my recruiter calls me with a notification that I’m to start Wednesday morning at 9:30 at that other company. I’m paralyzed what to do. I don’t want to turn down a valid job offer for one that may not come, but I want to see what comes of the instructor position.

I go to the job Wednesday morning, but notify my manager that I’ll be out the next day. When you’re on a contract position, since you’re paid hourly rather than on a salary, you’re usually don’t have to formally request time off through company’s resources. I was sort of horrified at that office. It was nice, but I was having flashbacks that this was going to be IMERYS all over again. The position was filling in for a woman on maternity leave. My manager tried to start me off with something easy, a cash reconciliation for a particular client, but as usual he’s giving me instructions that sound like they should make sense, but don’t when I look at the file. To make matters worse, the woman on maternity leave had locked up all her filing cabinets, so I couldn’t reverse engineer what she did per my usual method of learning new responsibilities on the fly. I left the office that day feeling very dejected. I applied to the technical college over three months ago. Why did the timing have to work out like this? I didn’t want to stay at that contract position, but I felt so guilty at the thought of quitting. My staffing agency and this client had put the faith in me to help them out for six months, I should have never come in if I wasn’t willing to stick it out. Couldn’t the Dean have contacted me a week earlier. I went home and felt horrible. I couldn’t decompress. Usually, when I get off from work, I can enjoy myself and recharge, but I just felt like I was stuck in a constant state of anxiety.

I drove to the interview, and started feeling a little better. Maybe everything could work out. If thing went well, I’d come home, wait a week, get an offer, then maybe I could negotiate starting in the spring semester. Heck, maybe some divinely appointed accident would require them to need me to start in January. Well, after what was perhaps the easiest interviews I ever experienced…it felt like a grand slam dunk…the CEO and the president asked me to wait outside. After a few minutes of private deliberation, they called me back inside and gave me an offer. Furthermore, because of my experience and credentials, they offered me the maximum starting salary they could. I graciously accepted, and the Dean showed me around campus while introducing me to other members of the faculty and staff. I signed the HR papers agreed to a August 1st start date. That’ll give me a couple of weeks to relocate. The first day of classes is the 20th, so that’ll give me sufficient time to formulate my first lesson plans and receive training on how to use the school’s resources. Inside, I was doing sommersaults while curling up in fetal position regarding the call I’d have to make to my recruiter.

When all was over with, I found a quiet place on campus and I tried to call my recruiter, but he was out of the office. I then immediately sent him a text, explaining that I was taking another offer. I said I was profusely sorry as I understood my capriciousness didn’t reflect well on him in his client’s eyes, but while there would always be corporate accounting positions available, such is not the case with this one. I felt like a coward sending him a text, but I felt like I needed to get in touch with him immediately, so he could inform the company.
About an hour later, he called me, and I didn’t get the berating I felt like I deserved. He said he understood, but I think he tried to make me feel a little doubtful by expressing befuddlement at my changing careers. It might of worked save for the fact that I’m moving from practicing accounting in a corporate environment to teaching accounting in a academic one. That’s not quite the stark change I think he meant it to sound like. Also, at one point, he mentioned that he had been working in accounting for 22 years, and I thought, “No, you haven’t; you’re a recruiter. You’re job change is just as unorthodox as mine.” I didn’t say any of that. I just conveyed appreciation.

I still feel guilty for flaking on this position, but if I don’t do what’s best for me, no one will. I think karma is already doling out its divine retribution on me. Confession time: I’ve been some what irresponsible with regards to my dental health. I have periodontal disease. Basically, that means I have pockets in my gums that I need to keep clean. I fancy I do a good job on my own. Every night, I floss, brush, rinse with Listerine, then clean my gum line with a water flosser. I haven’t gone to the dentist in a few years. The one I had been going to was in my home town, and often turns into a 2 hour drive, one way. Compounding, they wanted me to come in four times a year, and I just didn’t have the time for that, and I suspected I was getting fleeced. I quit going, and I intended to find a local office, but as I was always anticipating moving out of Atlanta, I kept putting it off. No sense in going to a new place just once only to change again in a few months, right? Besides, my oral hygiene routine is twice as thorough as anyone else’s, so I should be fine, right? As of yesterday, my gums started feeling uncomfortable. As of today, I’m experiencing a metal taste in my mouth. I looked up possible causes, and one of the first results was a periodontal infection. Of course, it’s Friday, so all the dental offices are closed until Monday. I found one local dentist and sent him an email explaining my situation but clarifying that I would be moving out of the area in a few weeks. Hopefully, I’ll get a response as soon as possible. I’m not looking forward to living through the weekend with this feeling, I definitely don’t want it to start worsening.

Oh, and I just found out the company I purchased my insurance from while I was unemployed is fraudulent. So, I’ll be paying out of pocket, and addition to the money I was conned out of. I’m not going to say how much, but it inspires me to Death Wish levels of vigilante justice.

Last updated July 13, 2018