However, there is one small problem. While I do have this feeling of indifference towards what anybody back there would say about me, I wonder if I said the right thing. I'm not trying to burn my bridges, is what I'm saying, so I kind of blurted out something that I'm afraid might bite me in the ass.
I haven't told them I'm going to a rival scoring company. Legally, I don't think it's any of their business; I'm an at-will "gig" worker, so I can come and go as I please for any reason or for no reason, the same way they could just not ever hire me again for any reason or for no reason. (This Republican way of employment is kind of the reason why I still want to vent to that company my reasons for quitting.) But just in case they would get mad -- after all, beyond this project, I wouldn't mind coming back here year after year, just like I have the past several -- I think it's best to hide that fact from them. (Aside: I have seen a few people that have worked in both places, though not necessarily at the same time. One of them I saw at the place I'm leaving now working at the place I'm going to last year, I think. Another person who moonlighted in both places, like me, is going to be working on this new project I'm going to starting today. So it's probably OK, but again, I don't volunteer that fact.)
One problem. When you tell people you're leaving for another job, they'll naturally ask: "Where are you going to?" I still don't think it's wise to blurt out you're going to a competitor. So after some thought, I decided to lie and told everyone who asked that question that I'm going to the health insurance company I was working for over the winter, and they asked me to come back and do something similar to what I did then. My real reason for leaving -- that I could not on principle take instruction from someone who learned the material at the same time as I -- is replaced by two reasons that might make more sense to people: That this job pays better (though just by a buck per hour) and that the length of the assignment is longer than the ones at this building.
Should expand on that last point. If I were to stick it out at the old building, I have been told that I would rejoin a project from which I landed on this cavalcade of a disaster, and that would take me to around the 4th of July. When I went to the new place, I was given one assignment but lined up for two more which, taken together, would take me to mid-August. Presumably, then, I'm getting myself into a better situation, at least when it comes to length of work. However, I was only assured that these subsequent projects are going to be offered to me. Really, I have no guaranteed work beyond the six weeks slated for this particular project. And when you add my general rule regarding these test scoring projects -- you really have only half the projected time guarantee -- I could be back on the dole in three weeks. I still think it was better for me to jump. But if I get let go before the end of April, I reserve my right to change my mind and beat myself over the head with a tire iron.
Anyway, the health insurance company is the job I told everyone there I am going to, starting today. They didn't ask too many questions after that, thank Buddha. But now I'm scared that anybody who's double-dealing there and here would see me tomorrow, think nothing of the fact that we're essentially cheating on our companies, and tell someone in authority that they saw me at this new test scoring place when I told them I was working somewhere else. I'm not sure you can be let go because you're working for a rival. But I think I would get fired for lying. And that would be burning my bridges.
Man, all of this web of intrigue, all due to a simple question that's often uttered as polite curiosity -- "What's your new job?" I hope I haven't boxed myself in.
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