Today was Aaron’s first day at his new job. He had to get up earlier than normal to be there by 8am (an hour earlier than the old job), which left me on my own with Cordy for the morning routine. No big deal, really. Especially since she gave me the beautiful gift of sleeping until 8am.
As expected, in learning more about the job today, there were some up and down moments.
Up: The pay is better than his old job!
Down: They hold paychecks back two weeks, so no first paycheck until the first week of August. Ouch. July is officially sucking.
Up: 2 weeks vacation (same as old job), but also 4 personal days and 2 weeks sick time!
Down: Can’t use vacation for the entire first year.
Up: Better, cheaper health insurance!
Down: Insurance doesn’t go into effect until Aug. 1, so we’d better not get sick this month.
Up: They may be raising the pay for everyone there soon. (Which is above and beyond regular raises.)
Down: We’ll need it to pay for parking – the job is downtown, in the land of “Nothing is free.”
Luckily, all of those down points are temporary ones. Aaron spent his first day knee deep in papers. Not paperwork – newspapers. Part of the job involves scouring the newspapers for topics related to the agency and clipping them, and well, the job had been vacant for months, so there was a lot to catch up on.
Aaron would also probably tell you two more down points that are annoying but he’ll get past: first, it’s a dress shirt & tie environment, so no more going to work in jeans and t-shirt. Second, this bump up to a higher dress code also means shaving everyday. Now, I generally wear capris in the summer to work, but I still don’t shave everyday. Luckily the hair on my legs is light in color, so I can get by a few days. But Aaron is Mr. 5 o’clock Shadow at half-past Noon, so shaving every day will be necessary.
He’s also not sure how strict they are on the No personal use of the Internet rule, so he’ll have to wait and see if he’s allowed to check his personal mail at work or not. Ah, new jobs – they’re like first dates. You have to carefully feel the other person out to see just how far you think you can go. Hopefully for him, this new job will at least put out to 1st base – Gmail and Yahoo mail, and maybe even go as far as 2nd base – blogs and message boards.
Tomorrow is orientation day, so we’ll find out more about his benefits at that point. Until then, he’s still happy he left his old job, and he says the people at the new job are really nice, and many seem to have young children as well. Maybe we’ll make some new parent friends?
Overall. It sounds great. No vaca for a year? Oy. But I guess with all the other perks, it’s bearable.
Sounds great! I am jealous of a new job for hubby.
Hopefully this one is a real easy date for Aaron, so he can keep up with Cordy at work.
I hope Aaron really likes the new job. The first few days are always rocky and overwhelming, but I’m sure he’ll come to love the place (or at least like it)!
Take advantage of that light leg hair thing. As I resemble a yeti, there is not a day goes by that I do not have to pick up a razor for some body part!
adjusting to anything new is always hard but i’m sure he’ll make the best of it. good luck!
Hey,
Just stumbled upon your space; great blog and links. And congrats to the hubby on a new job and hopefully those first weeks don’t prove to be stressful (as they sometimes are)..
Yes, new jobs require that you send out a lot of feelers. It looks like, despite the downs, the ups are definitely worth it. Congrats!!
Everything sounds really good, except for waiting on the 1st payday of course. I wish my hubby could find a new job, the one he has now really sucks!
Good luck with the transition. I did the same thing 2.5 years ago. I took a HUGE pay cut – left a very stable career with a very successful company, but decided that I just needed a change. Now I am making more money and absolutley love my job and everyone I work with. It’s not too often you hear that 🙂
Sounds like the job is a keeper though! Initiating into a job is always with some downers and it is good that most are
temporary.
GOOD LUCK!
New job has more pros than cons, so thumbs up!
It’s so stressful to make a change, even a positive one. Good luck!!
Well, overall, it sounds better and it will get better. Starting a new job is never easy.
Many congrats!
I liked the part about how he spent his first day cutting and pasting.
It’s a lifeskill!
well first jobs can be unnerving, but we all adjust! i’m sure he will do fine!
When I left newspapers for the corporate world I had to start wearing makeup and dressing more professionally. It did suck! But I am so happy you guys have this going for you. Once you get past the downs, it’s all upside.
Yay!
I think that the ups outwiegh the down. I am happy he likes it there and my Dale and him are the same way with the shaving! To funnY!
The ups seems so much better than the downs. And he’ll get used to the shirt and tie thing and maybe even the shaving every day. 😉
Aww it sounds like this was really meant to be. I hope it helps elevate some of the stress you were feeling 🙂
Oh, parent friends. That’s our issue right now. Hubby has family in town with kids, but we are kind of the black sheep of the family, so being friends with them isn’t really an option. We are the black sheep because we aren’t into the full family gathering (20+ people) every week…or month, for that matter. We are more the small group types.
Our son’s two best friends from daycare: One of them has an older sibling, so their parents never seem to excited to get together with us, and I understand why. Their older son should have fun, too. The other one is PERFECT for us. Only one child, within two weeks of age of our son, parents are super nice…What’s the downfall? The parents split up. It’s so wrong of us, but sometimes we wish they’d get back together so they could be our “parent friends”…Just teasing…heck, sometimes they all do things with us together anyway.
My point is…How come a married couple with one child is such an oddity?
I’m glad to hear Aaron likes the new job so far. I’m sure the adjustments will be easy to overcome. In due time, right?
New jobs are tough, I hope this transition goes smoothly for everyone. I’ve just discovered that my contract isn’t going to be renewed so I’m on the lookout for a new job of my own. Hooray!