Answers to Prayers

Any of you that brave the sheer volume of the writing that I do on this blog are probably fully aware of the situation at work and how long the whole situation has been dragging on and on. This week, I thought I had come to a final decision as far as Kristy was concerned. She said she needed full 40 hours a week coverage, and that was that. My options after her decision were my own to make, but as far as our relationship was concerned, I was going to be leaving as soon as I’d trained my replacement.

Well…Not so much!

I had an email from Kristy today reprimanding me for some small details that had gone unchecked and she reminded me that I needed to be more observant and she was counting on me to be her second set of eyes to catch those kinds of things and keep her looking good. I had to agree. I’ve been so caught up in the great big projects that I’ve been cranking out that I have sent out a letter without a signature, missed taking out a duplicate page in a medical record, and didn’t realize that I needed to cancel the testimony of a witness when the case was settled at the last minute and it didn’t go to court. I’m so sorry. Honestly, I’ve told Jon several times lately that I feel like I need to be thinking outside the box…making contingency plans for what to do if something changes in a case that Kristy is working on. I have wanted to be a better paralegal/secretary and just be better at knowing procedures and programs so that she is more pleased with my work. If nothing else, I’ll want a good recommendation when I leave, right?

Kirsty’s letter went on to say that she was also still stewing over the whole Friday dilemma and letting me go, and she had another proposition for me. What if she were to hire a part-time paralegal to do a good percentage of the work, cut my own hours back to 25 hours per week, 6.25 hours Monday through Thursday and call it good? (Didn’t I suggest that a while ago?) Apparently, she just really didn’t want to let me go. But, if I were going to cut back my hours anyway while considering working for that other attorney, dealing with my own issues regarding insurance, then why not allow Kristy the same option? I guess she’d got to thinking, and if she didn’t have to train some one, or even wait for someone else to BE trained, and could just give medical records to a paralegal to summarize, then my schedule would be freed enough to cut back my time. Two employees, but Kristy is still only paying for about 40 hours a week. Since both employees would be part time and ineligible for health benefits, Kristy would also be freed of paying for the insurance for either employee. Hmm. Her aversion to splitting the duties and the possibilities of things getting confused between two people like that were starting to fade in light of the monetary gains. Interesting.

I took a trip into the hall and called Jon to talk. I gave him the proposal, and asked what he thought. He wanted to be sure that we had the option of keeping our benefits intact if we were to pay for them ourselves, but aside from that, he thought it was the perfect situation. He asked me what I thought about it, and I said that honestly, I felt like it was an answer to prayer! I knew that Kristy was so adverse to change, and she’d tried to call my bluff in needing more time away, but she really just didn’t want to let me go, and if this was the only way she could keep me, then it was going to be worth a little bending of her rules. Wow!!!

I wrote Kristy back as soon as I got back to my desk and I apologized for the mistakes that had been made lately, and agreed that I needed to be more conscientious, especially if she was serious about the option of continuing to work for her. I also told her that I was certainly interested in continuing with her under the new hours, but I wanted to be sure that she wasn’t just settling or grasping at straws when two or three months from now she was going to realize that the situation drove her nuts and she should never have split the work between two employees. It was a perfect solution for me, but again, this is HER company and she needs to do deep down what’s best for her…without any thoughts about me. If she was sure about that, and could ask the appropriate controller about my options for insurance, then I was ready to say yes right now!

Her response was as follows: “Thanks for the good attitude. That’s why I like you!” She’s going to look into the insurance options and will propose the change of my hours to the appropriate attorneys and then she’ll get back to me with our next step.

Eek!

I guess we were right! We had to have the faith to make it an all or nothing situation and jump into the unknown…and the Lord has turned it into half and half! It’s still going to be a tight winter, and with the fewer hours cutting my pay in half…and half of that going towards the insurance…the money I do make might not be worth the time, but it’s going to be a great experiment! I can’t wait to focus more time on the wedding business…to have Fridays completely off without worrying about getting 8 hours of typing in over the weekend…to get off at 3:30 on all the other days so that I can make it to my florist and not make Jon pick up flowers for my wedding gigs. What an amazing solution!!!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! It looks like this may actually work out right! I usually hate that moment when you feel like you’ve been kicked to the curb…that you are not in control and you are being forced into a situation not of your choosing, so you fight against it and worry and cry…and then you get to the other end of that situation and you realize how much better off you are than you would have been if the Lord had let you have your own way! Today I’m at the other end, and I don’t hate that moment anymore. Hurrah for this new moment!

~ by bylorena on October 9, 2008.