Transition

Part of the reason I've fallen so behind on blogging lately is that aside from the fact that we've just had a lot going on, I've also been working through a significant personal transition.  After 13 years at Aramark, and a lot of accomplishments I'm really proud of, I decided to make a change.

I have been thinking about looking at other jobs for a while now--I'm commuting 80 miles round trip each day, which is sometimes up to 3 hours of my day.  It means Em has to get up at 5:45 in the morning so I can drop her off at school and sit in traffic to get to the office.  In the afternoons, I'd sometimes leave at 4:30 and call Mick almost 2 hours later because I wasn't going to make it to pick Em up by 6:30 when Rainbow Station closed.  He adjusted his schedule so he was picking her up most days, but it meant he had to drive home, switch trucks (his work van doesn't have a back seat for her car seat), and go back to the school.  I knew I wanted to find something else by the time Em started kindergarten in a year and a half.

Honestly though, I was kind of used to the commute, and that obviously wouldn't have been reason enough to leave somewhere after so long.  The organization was going through a number of changes, and after our HRVP's position was eliminated in October, I didn't feel like my team was going to receive the support or resources we needed to be successful.  I could go into a lot more detail, but that's not the point of this blog.

In early December, I decided to look at MetLife.  There had been recent announcements locally that they were relocating their Retail Headquarters to the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, and I started researching the company.  The more I read, the more I liked, so I looked at their job postings.  I applied for a position, and got a call from the hiring HRVP the Friday before Christmas.  We had a good conversation, and he asked me about coming in for interviews in January.  Long story short--after six interviews, I got the offer (while at a Leadership Summit with Aramark in Vegas, of all places!).  Mick and I had talked about it, and I already had requirements in mind that they'd have to meet in order for me to leave Aramark.  Surprisingly, we didn't even negotiate on the offer--they met my requirements, and I accepted the job.

My last day at Aramark was February 24, and it was really emotional!  Last Friday night, a group of us went out for drinks after work to celebrate together--and that's what made it a tough decision.  We've worked hard to build a great team, and I know that's not something you find easily.

So this week, after leaving on Monday, I took a few days to myself to clear my head and get ready to move on--it was nice to have that time, and I wish I could have taken more!

Friday afternoon, I picked Em up early from school and we went to have frozen yogurt.  I showed her where my "new work" will be, and she said it was so close, that she could see me any time she wanted!  It's literally about a mile from Em's school, and shortens my commute from 80 miles a day to about 12.

We're hoping this will be a significant improvement in quality of life for us!

We also signed Em up for a new gymnastics class at The Little Gym, which opened recently in Ballantyne. She had a free introductory class, and loved it so much that we enrolled that night.  It's more than just tumbling and running around--they actually practice on the balance beam, uneven parallel bars, rings, and all kinds of stuff.  The class is once weekly on Tuesday nights, so she's already looking forward to it! 

One wall of the gym is a huge window, so parents can sit and watch the class.  We're looking forward to having this extra time together each day to do things like this--or to just get home earlier!