Another Vacation...

I just got back from our first "Family Vacation". My wife and I have been married for almost five years. One-thousand six-hundred seventy-seven days to be exact. Not that I'm counting, but we got married on January 1, 2005. It's easy to count and hard to forget. But during those times near five years, we have yet to take a family vacation or getaway.

My wife has been a Stay at Home Mom for a great deal of our marriage. We have been blessed beyond belief that we have been able to live off my paycheck every two weeks. Sure often we've seen more month at the end of the money, but she's able to stay home and take care of our growing family.

That's a reason why we haven't been on a vacation in 4.66 years. We've had baby after baby after baby. Most of my time off was taking care of my wife when she was on bed rest or when the baby was born. I had a week off this spring break, but I don't count that as a vacation because we stayed in town.

Sure we've gone to Houston and the Dallas area to visit family on weekends or holidays. My wife and I have even won a trip for a couple days from the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show. But aside from these short time days off, we've never been a vacation.

This past Christmas, her father and step mom invited us to go on vacation with them for the last week of July to a beach house they frequent in Port Aransas, TX. So I spent six months thinking about getting in beach shape.

We left for the beach on July 24th. We came home on the 29th and I returned to work on August 3rd.

I was expecting to have 210 emails waiting for me to read, reply, file or delete. My surprise was that there was only 80ish. I'm customer service Team Lead and the CS Supervisor was out today and I was expecting a line at my desk all day. There was none. I got all my pending work finished. IT WAS GREAT!!

I actually enjoyed being back at work today!!

It had nothing to do with missing the people. It had nothing to do with wanting to get away from the four kids and the pregnant wife.

It had everything to do with the fact that on August 10th, I'm changing departments.

I'm moving from being a Customer Service Team Lead to a plain ol' claims processor. It's a lateral decline, but I'm totally cool with it. I've enjoyed being a Team Lead and have learned a lot from the supervisory position. But I also learned that it's not the direction that I want to go with this company. I have been stuck with a late shift schedule for over two years. I've also been at this company for close to eight years. I had hoped that I had some sort of longevity rank pulling, but my requests fell on ears that were not very helpful.

I had asked to have my shift rotated with other leaders but no one wanted to help. I was working late while my wife was taking care of our babies and I missed two of my son's baseball seasons. I did not have the support that I felt I should get from the CS Manager. And I feel that as much as I helped and taught the people under me, that 70% of them do not respect me. They would get upset when corrected and went to my boss saying I was too harsh. Sometimes some of them would not talk to me for weeks after I gave them correction.

All this was having an affect on me that I unknowingly brought home and it hindered my relationship with my wife and children.

So starting Monday, I will have a flexible schedule. I will go to work at 6:00AM and can leave at 2:30PM. I can be home at 3:00PM and be home for dinner, for bath times and bed times. I can be home and read bible stories to my kids. I can spend more time and be there for my teenage son. And most importantly, I can have more time with my beautiful wife who has been patient and enduring during the past fifty-six months, while almost being a single parent while I had the most horrible schedule ever invented for a newly married man with three babies three and under, a teenager and a baby on the way.

I am not bitter for what I have been doing the past few years, I've just grown out of this position. It will give me more time to focus on my family and bringing us together where I should have had them this whole time.

So, in less than a week, I'll be starting another vacation. A vacation away from a lot of the stress, anger and unhappiness that I've had in this position for a long time.

One less ball I will need to keep in the air with this "Juggling Eric" gimmick..


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Comments

  1. It's funny. I never really thought about "stepping down", so to speak in corporate life until I had a family.

    Now? That type of flexibility you mentioned has me green with envy, I admit it. At the end of the day, having the time to spend with your family without having to worry as much about work is REALLY what its all about.

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