Cutbacks

I have been working at my current company (JBC) for over 5 years now, and I love it here.
• I love my job and I'm excellent at what I do.
• I have a great boss and some great co-workers, too.
• Time and again I have proven myself to be a valuable member of the Logistics team, and I have been recognized by management repeatedly for the outstanding work that I do.
(I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but if you're great at what you do you're great at what you do!)

In short, I like it here. A lot.

At the end of 2018 JBC lost the [*********] account. When I first got the news I was thrilled. "Awesome! No more scheduling [*********] loads or ingredient pickups at ECS. No more MONTHLY [*********] inventories. Screw those guys!"
Well, it turns out that the [*********] product accounted for 30% of our production, and without that account we simply do not have enough work to keep the 100+ people on staff throughout the plant. So yesterday the Logistics team (of which I am apart) was pulled into the conference room and informed that, because we lost this one account, the corporate office was forcing us to do cutbacks. In short, 29 people lost their jobs yesterday.

I'll spare you the suspense and tell you now that I was not one of those people. Because the Logistics Department only consists of 5 people, we don't have any bodies to give up. But my department was the only one spared. Every other department lost at least one member. The Juice Plant was hit the hardest of course, because they had the most staff.

The decision of who got laid off was based solely on seniority. Because most of the people laid off had only worked here a year or less, I don't know most of them. But I did have to sit at the front desk yesterday and hand a few of those people their last paycheck they would be getting form JBC, and that was rough. I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon holed up in my office, weary of the though of going near the warehouse break room because I didn't want to have to see the look in anyone else's eyes who had to go home and tell their spouse/kids that mom/dad wasn't going to be going to work the next day.

I have never worked at a company that had to do layoffs like this, and it sucks. It made my heart hurt so badly. I ache because I feel SO BAD for everyone dismissed yesterday, and I am left with what can only be described as survivor's guilt.

I woke up this morning with gratitude in my heart for my job. Maybe more gratitude than ever before, to be honest. I can say with complete honesty that I am grateful to have a job to go to today and every day. To feel anything less than complete gratitude for my job would be a disservice to the 29 people who left here yesterday, never to return.

And for my next trick...

... I will transform myself into an full-time employee, as well as a mother and wife.

BAM!

That's right, after 5.25 long years (and I mean looooonng - like, forever and a day, a lifetime ago, I don't remember what it's like to have adult interaction on a daily basis), I have now re-entered the working world, becoming once more a gainfully employed member of society.

Pardon me a moment while I breathe the world's biggest sigh of relief. You see, just between you, me and the fence post, I was beginning to get a titch skeptical of my ability to ever find myself in this position ever again. So I offer up Relief Sighs because

A - I found a job! Between February of this year to a few weeks ago, I put in 82 applications/resume submissions total, and it was getting a tad bit hard to keep my chin up.
B - I found child care for my girls! In less than one week I found a wonderful gal who runs a daycare out of her home to drop Maron off with, and for the obscenely affordable fee of $50/week this woman feeds Maron breakfast, gets her to school, picks her up from school and feeds her a snack in the afternoon so that she's not a rabid beast by the time I pick her up. And for Marida I found Lil' Hawks Daycare, which is both a daycare AND a preschool, and it's right on my way to work. This is another wildly affordable situation for me - seriously, it's the absolute cheapest all-day care I've ever found; $535/month gets Marida breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and even dinner, if I ever find myself stuck late at work. And she has her own cubby in a classroom and is getting SO MUCH MORE interaction with kids her age than she ever has before.
C - My kids LOVE their respective daycare situations! I'm not even exaggerating on this one... The first week of Marida's days at Lil' Hawks found me dragging her out of the building kicking and screaming because she didn't want to leave. And 3 days out of 5 I have to pry Maron's tiny little fingers off of her babysitters doorjamb.
D - I'm still capable of being a valuable employee! This is something I never questioned in myself, but I know that every potential employer did - my ability to train easily and work full-time with no complications after being a SAHM for so long. You see, it turns out that, as an administrative/office type person, if you have been out of the work force for more than 6 months, companies generally consider all your previous skill/ability with office programs to be ca put. And it's really, really hard to convince a potential employer that charting your household finances and personal diet log has effectively kept your Excel skills up-to-date.

Now, deets on my new gig  - My first day of work was November 18th. I work at Johanna Beverage Company (and before you ask, the beverage in question is juice, not beer, so I can't hook you up for your next poker night) as the Logistic Administrative Assistant. On the one hand the title is a fancy way of saying 'Front Office Girl Who Answers the Phone, Sorts the Mail and Signs for Packages', but it turns out there is a lot more to it than that. I am only just beginning to be trained on the other nuances of my position, which will include invoice sorting/matching, receiving, posting of the personnel schedule, supply inventory, and weekly reports ranging from everything to HR updates to downtime of various plant equipment. It's a great job with a very decent starting wage, and an excellent benefit package (so I'm told) once I become eligible. And everyone that I work with is super nice and encouraging. I have a perfect interaction mix of front office 'professional' and warehouse 'funny sarcastic teasing'. This job is so up my alley it's nuts! :-)

All in all, I am SO thankful to have a job again, and SO thankful that it's this job. I feel like I have found a perfect fit with JBC, and vice versa. So pardon me while I pat myself on the back just one more time and say "YAY ME!"