Thursday, May 05, 2005

Say What?

That pretty much sums up my week.

I went to work on Monday as usual and the boss sat down and gave me the unpleasant news that he was moving his office to Woodstock at the end of this month. He offered to let me continue working for him but I would now have to work 8:30am to 5pm M-F (an extra half hour a day) and I'd have to start coming in on Saturday from 8:30 to 1pm (I have sat off now) because the agent that he is combining offices with works these hours. He also let me know that I'd have to work at the same pay rate. I looked at him and said "So I would have to work an extra 7 hours a week and drive an hour and half to work every day with no extra money". He said yes. SAY WHAT! I said no. This left me without a job after 5/31/05. To top it off after 6.5 years, he's only giving me 1 wk of pay as a severance package. SAY WHAT!

I tried not to panic. I'm the type of person that loves to stay busy and I have lots of wonderful people skills. I have my Georgia state insurance license and 6.5 years experience in an insurance office where I did everything that needed to be done. I've been in customer service in one form or another since I was 15.

Tuesday, I typed up my resume and sent it out to 3 people. Wednesday, I sent it out to 2 more people.
At this point, I was starting to worry. No one had called me back after seeing my resume. What if I couldn't find a job right away? What if I had to take a pay cut? Can we survive right now without my income (this one is a big NO)?

Today, I called two headhunters and sent them my resume. They said that the didn't think they had anything that would fit my qualifications but they would call back and let me know tomorrow. *big sigh* I decided I'd go back to calling insurance agents. As a lark, I called one of my bosses friends. I didn't really think that he was looking since the boss had said that he would call the other agents that he knew and see if they were hiring. After a 2 minute phone conversation, I learned that he had just hired someone but he wanted to come and interview with me anyway and asked if it was okay to come to my job today and do the interview. I told him that would be fine. I thought about calling a couple of other people but I thought I'd wait and see how the interview went first. BBF(boss's business friend) got there at 4:30 and we started the interview. In less than 15 minutes, I was offered a job at the same pay rate with extras. The deal is that I'm guaranteed a base pay every year (which is what I'm making now) plus I get a bonus for every new policy I solicit (this means that if you come in to write an auto policy and I talk you into getting a renters too I get a bonus for the renters). I also get a bonus for every health or life policy I write whether I solicit it or the customer asks for it. The job is near about 3 miles past DH's job so I'd have to drop him off and then head to work and pick him up on the way home instead of being dropped off and picked up. After talking about bonuses, he also told me that the lowest christmas bonus he'd ever given was $300 (gee, the biggest I've ever gotten is $200 and that was the year I gave the boss a cross stitch that cost me $250 to frame!).

While talking, I also learned that BBF had asked SB(stupid boss) last week if he knew of any experienced people that were looking for a job and SB didn't say anything about me! SAY WHAT! Because of this, BBF hired a new girl. He did offer me this job but if I take it (It is very strongly looking like I will) he'll have to go out and buy a new desk and phone and computer for me cause he'll be making room for me to work for him. I guess I have impressed him. I also learned that his office manager D knows me and asked for BBF to hire me as soon as she heard my name. I've apparently taken some CE classes with her and helped her out at some point over the last 6 years.

The interview lasted from 4:30pm to 7pm tonight with both of us asking a lot of questions to make sure that I would fit in with the other 5 girls in his office and that I would be happy there. I told him that I would let him know next week. I do want to see what the headhunters come up with tomorrow just to see if I can get a job with more pay and less upset people but I think that I'll be taking the job. This is a nice man and if I've helped his office manager at the class, it means that I like her too even if I can't remember her right off. Plus I won't have to learn anything new, I'd just be doing the same thing at a new office with more people around so I won't have to do everything that gets done anymore. I won't be able to read the boards at work anymore if I do this cause he does require that I stay busy either helping current customers or looking for new ones.

Well, I've run off for quite a while now but that'll catch everyone up to where I am. Oh, I also finished Deepest Love.
Have a good night everyone.

2 Comments:

Blogger Elfinlady said...

Sounds like a great opportunity! I'm sure that if you take the job you'll like it. It really sucks how your boss treated you, though.

7:32 AM  
Blogger Erin said...

Hello!
I was just lurking through other bloggers' SIR lists, and came across yours. Congrats on the job! (My dad was an insurance agent.) Oh, and your Ren Faire post made me jealous...our faire doesn't open until early July!

9:13 AM  

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