Yeah, about losing my job this week ... um, I'm not. Either they like me, they really, really like me, or they have a lot of stuff they still need to get through for flu season, so my new boss has extended me another week and then said, essentially, "We'll see from there."
Unfortunately I had to break the news to him: I do have something almost lined up starting the following Monday, March 24. I didn't have the heart to tell him the real truth -- I do have a new job starting that day. It's test season again, and I had phoned in and agreed to help out with a math project. It won't last more than two weeks, and it is farther away from home and requires me to get on the highway, which means I'll have to deal with traffic. But it pays a few bucks more per hour than my flu billing job, plus I've done the job before and I like it as well as the people there.
I'm starting to chain together steady work. I started with the flu billing job shortly past Labor Day, then I'll go directly from there to this, then with the possibility of a week off, I'll start another test scoring job that will take me close to Memorial Day Weekend. The almost nine months of work might be the longest unbroken streak I've had since I worked the night shift for Xcel Energy for more than 2 1/2 years.
When I told him about this prospect, my boss said something that probably is a lot less sentimental that he meant it, but it has stayed with me nonetheless: "Well, I'll keep you until we have to let you go."
"Have to let me go?" The reason why I took these testing jobs -- well, besides the reasons I outlined above -- is that I assumed that I would be done with this place long before now. But ... shoot, I've gotten used to working there. I like it there. Hell, I love it there, OK? If they told me I would be working there through, oh, Memorial Day, I would have reconsidered working at the testing bureaus. And if they give me a full-time job, well, I'd totally accept. It's just that, as a temp, I have to look out for the next thing, and with my boss keeping me around a week or two at a time, understandable as that is, that isn't job security. Testing season, as temporary as that is, is just a tad more secure.
See, if I go back and reject the testing project(s), I won't know how long the flu billing place will keep me. If I don't get extended beyond next week then, well, I'm screwed. But damn it, I really will miss the place. I've worked there for over half a year when I only thought I'd be there a quarter at the most. I feel respected and I'm largely left alone. Who would want to leave? A guy who has to look out for number one, apparently. But I am so torn right now.
Then again, I realized this morning that I screwed up putting in codes and spent virtually the entire day fixing that mistake. It set me back in doing what else needs to be done, including listening to the dozen or so voicemails I have left on my phone the past two days. This might push back all the stuff I still have to do there beyond my last day there. And if anyone finds out about this, I might not last beyond tomorrow.
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