Near the end of last year, my wife gave birth to our first child, a wonderful little girl. Parenthood has been great with it it's ups and downs. But I'm not really writing about parenthood today.
The state I live in offers paid leave for certain life events, bonding time after childbirth being one of them. I took the maximum allowed, 3 months. What this apparently boils down to is voluntary unemployment. Unfortunately, the company I work for is under 50 employees, and as such, is not required to continue to cover the insurance premiums, that meant I had to elect to sign up for COBRA.
Not only that, but as I was techincally unemployed, I was passed over for the company profit sharing which is commonly distributed as a Christmas bonus.
Ever since I returned, everything has felt a little off. Aside from a lull in demand for work, I didn't get the compnay van back. There's been no hint of them assigning a van to me since. There's also been minimal communication to me, even though I've been subbed to another company for now which isn't a problem, but it would be nice to get a heads up from time to time. Needless to say, morale isn't there, but the subbed job isn't too bad.
It's just feels off every day. Do I really want to stay with a company that seems to punish thier employees for expanding their family, eventhough what they've done is apparently within the reach of the law? I feel like they put me at the bottom of the totem pole, unlike back where I was when I left as I expected to be. I just don't feel welcome.
I've been getting many job posting emails every day, and a few have caught my eye. In particular: electrical maintainence postitions. I could have a much more regimented schedule (no working late because a service change is taking longer than expected), and the location would be far more certain depending on the employer. And the best part is those offerings that are showing compensation are showing higher rates than I'm being compensated for.
I think I might have to join the club of moving on to move up. I don't think there's much my current employer can do to convince me to stay. The economy makes me want to stay, but at least I have an in-demand skill. Time to dust off that ol' resume.