I just scored a solid job upgrade in large part due to the rona and now I feel guilty

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/19/2020 at 22:35 • Filed to: None

Howdy folks, allow me to tell you a tale of personal good fortune. I don’t intend to brag at all, but I’m happy about this, but I also can’t stop feeling like I’m benefitting from more than my fair share of luck in slapping this shit together while so many others are suffering. I can explain!

I started working exactly a year ago for a civil engineering company running their recruiting. I didn’t have a manager title but I did the recruiting and a lot of other management level stuff like workforce planning etc. This was a good job with good health insurance that I was planning to stick around at for several years. It was also killing my soul.

Without getting into it, basically the people I worked for were not my vibe at all. I was in bizarro world. Anything I could say about the ridiculousness of the place, y’all would say was INSANE to put up with. But not going there.

Even with this aggravation I was shooting for sticking around for 3 years because:

I’ve had too many short-term jobs and wanted/needed to stick around somewhere.

No deductible health insurance.

I had the opportunity to kick ass with those extra responsibilities, and I could hopefully work my way to a better title/money. But they were a good feather in my cap to be able to talk about.

The employee stock ownership plan and company 401k matching contributions take 6 years to fully vest (yikes).

Then in March after a brief period of incompetent flailing in response to the earliest signs of the pandemic, they furloughed me while continuing to pay my kickass health insurance in full. They would supposedly claw back my would-be payroll deductions from my future pay whenever I eventually went back to work.

At least it wasn’t too long before the stimulus passed where I had to ruminate over WTF I would do for money, but we have savings and can get help from fam if needed. Then it was a good several more weeks before the unemployment money started flowing after bureaucratic hurdles, but we had plenty of cushion.

I waited a couple weeks before I started looking for new jobs, and applying in mass quantities, and I do this shit for a living I can bang through an application right quick , I kept my expectations ve ry low. After several weeks of no responses other than canned rejection emails that were far inferior to my canned rejection emails, I noticed a familiar company name.

(oh and there’s also the part where I got a bunch of cheap used pro camera gear and started a youtube cooking channel but that’s it’s whole other thing nvm... )

This place is a federal contracting company that I had done a freelance recruiting thing for last year when I was doing 1099 shit before I took my current job. They offered a job to a guy I found them but he backed out of it for something else. The posting on Indeed said 3 days old but the company’s website said a posting date of Dec 2019. That was a whole other reality.

But I said fuck it, I have the direct contact info of the president who’s a friend of a friend and that’s how I did that freelance thing for them, and the HR director, so I emailed the president, “still looking for a recruiter?” He was, in fact, and then I heard from the HR director, fast forward to a few chats, video interview yesterday, and offer today.

Hoo boy! I got...

10 holidays like the feds

2x the PTO

2 days/week working from home when the world is eventually right side back up because it’s in fucking goddamn Tyson’s Corner, VA down the street from the last fed contracting company I worked for and the traffic is brutal driving home to far superior Rockville, MD. My current job is on the other end of Rockville from my house in a stress-free 17 minutes. Or it would be except my boss is a stickler about arrival times even though other depts aren’t whoopsie I’m not supposed to spill tea

Director title that we never even discussed in the interview but I guess they liked what I had to say about the stuff beyond plain recruiting enough that their initial offer letter went straight to it.

Health insurance has a $6k deductible for family but the company puts $4500 on an HSA debit card for you (premium is less than current job)

A sizable raise

Way chiller people instead of insanity and I’m already sorta friends with the president

Current full WFH until at least September and generally no expectation of anyone coming to the office until the feds do that which hopefully no Trumpkin political appointee goes crazy on that one prettyplease

Oh and my wife is starting her new job as a contact tracer soon, which is paying more than she had been making doing massage therapy, but less than she’s currently making on unemployment (SORRY REPUBLICAN CONGRESSPEOPLE SHE IS YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE BROUGHT TO LIFE).

So...my household’s job situation just became DC as fuck, and being in the DC business is generally a good place to economically weather a crisis. We’re coming out fucking aces while the world burns, and our good luck has come essentially directly as a result of the world burning. We’re trying to convince ourselves we’re not terrible people for this. Mostly succeeding.

Phew.

DISCUSSION (24)

dogisbadob > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 22:39

You did what anybody would do in the same situation. People who lsoe their jobs find other jobs and use every resource at their disposal. It’s not always what you know but who you know

Plus, your old job was a shi tty environment anyway. You do not need to feel guilty.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 22:48

Congratulations! That sounds like a major win, both for you and your wife.

And I don’t think theres any need to feel shitty. You did what any normal person would do. Just enjoy your successes and be happy. And as a recruiter/hr person, excuse me, director, you may be in a unique opportunity to use your newfound success to pay it forward in the future.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 22:51

Congratulations on the new jobs! Always remember that you have to take care of you and yours before worrying about anyone else. Don’t feel guilty that your hard work landed you a position when the world has gone wonky. You deserve what you’ve earned.

PatBateman > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 22:51

Don’t feel bad. Ride that shit all the way to EVP in charge of HR.

Textured Soy Protein > Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/19/2020 at 23:02

This is actually very much my philosophy . One thing I stressed in the interview when they asked about how do I “sell” candidates on a job, I said I don’t sell candidates I give them the information they need to make a decision because it’s their livelihood . That’s no shit what I believe but I may have made their heads explode in a good way?

boredalways > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 23:09

Why would you feel guilty in this situation? You earned this position fair and square, period. Yes, I can understand the uneasiness of celebrating while through no fault of your own, others are suffering. So stop the pitty party and feel good in knowing that you’ve achieved something great for yourself and your family!

Congratulations!

...Now if it turns out you are working for a company that happens to be profiting off others' suffering...well...

Spanfeller is a twat > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 23:27

In the end, our actions as individuals affect the aggregate in unusual, often miniscule, ways, so don’t beat yourself up about getting a good job even in what is in general a bad economy. If guilt is eating you alive, you can donate money and use your newfound power to change practices you disagree with. If you don’t donate or change practices it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person either. Don’t be so hard on yourself, if anything by satiating the market when it needs it the most, you and your wife are doing good by people that depend on your labour . Congratulations on your new position!

Chariotoflove > Textured Soy Protein
05/19/2020 at 23:39

Lose the guilt. Enjoy your success. You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, taking care of yourself and yours. Congratulations!

Textured Soy Protein > boredalways
05/19/2020 at 23:55

I checked into which parts of the govt they support and it’s not the icky part for the most part.

boredalways > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 00:16

I was teasing, of course!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 00:19

Woo! Congrats.

PyramidHat > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 00:24

Good on ya!

pip bip - choose Corrour > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 00:28

Don’t feel guilty

just-a-scratch > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 01:27

Excellent news. Congratulations!

And, of course, none of that is anything to feel guilty about.

TorqueToYield > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 06:49

HSAs can work out well if you don’t have a lot of medical expenses every year or have enough income to fund them up to your max out of pocket per year.

They’re before tax write-off like a 401k but after you have enough deposited (I think it was like $3k or something) you can invest that money in the market and the returns if you sell are tax free like a roth 401k.

I had like $5k in an HSA like 10 years ago that I never touched and it nearly doubled in the market when I went to use it when I had my first kid. That was nice.

Sovande > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 08:17

Tysons is a tough place to work. It’s awful to get to from most places. It sucks looking for work right now. The last place I interviewed made me an offer and then backed out and instituting a hiring freeze.

Good luck to both you and your wife. I wouldn't look at it as taking advantage or anything, you are both obviously smart skilled people who others can trust to get things done in this environment.

Textured Soy Protein > boredalways
05/20/2020 at 09:23

I know but I really did check on that. I wouldn’t want to work for a fed contractor that say, builds child cages for ICE detention centers.

Textured Soy Protein > Sovande
05/20/2020 at 09:26

Getting there from Rockville in the morning isn’t too bad. It’s just getting home at night that sucks. That was made worse by my often staying in the office until 5:30-6 pm for no particularly good reason. I’ve driven thru there at around 4 pm and there was a little beltway traffic from maybe a little south of 193 to the bridge but nothing like my old commutes home. I can deal with doing it 3x a week especially if I can hit the road more like 4-4:30.

Textured Soy Protein > TorqueToYield
05/20/2020 at 09:29

I’m not sure the exact machinations of this deductible funding they do. Since the intent is to cover the deductible, I’m not sure if those contributions are really like normal HSA contributions you can save up over time, or more of a use it or lose it FSA style situation. It would be nice if it were the former but I’m not going to assume it is. I’ll find out soon.

Sovande > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 09:36

I keep getting leads to jobs in MD and while they would be completely feasible today, with nobody working, they won’t be viable once things get back to normal. It sucks. I refuse to play the commute game, it kills my quality of life. I can't sit in traffic for two hours a day.

Textured Soy Protein > Sovande
05/20/2020 at 09:48

Yeah commuting is rough. As you might imagine, doing recruiting in the DMV I talk with a *lot* of people about their commutes lol. I was hesitant to go back to Tyson’s but I just had this feeling I could wheel my way into at least a partial tw situation, and it worked out.

My new boss mentioned to me that they’re getting a lot of productivity out of people working from home so who knows, maybe I’ll do it more than 2 days a week when shit gets normal-ish, but I at least have those 2 days in writing.

I recall that you're in construction estimating or something along those lines, right? I'm assuming that has to be done mostly in person. I'm not sure if this would be helpful, but there are various construction/civil engineering staffing agencies that hit me up trying to place candidates with my soon to be former employer. I could give you some of those companies if you want to reach out to them.

Sovande > Textured Soy Protein
05/20/2020 at 09:53

It’s interesting, the people I know in the industry (construction - as you recalled) seem to be managing just fine at home but none of the companies I have spoken with have any work from home policy or the desire to put one in place. It’s wild.

I would love to move on to another field, but at 45 years old, that’s a bit of a stretch.

Any help would be amazing. I’ve been trying to target engineering firms and government contractors. Misterstrachan@gmail.com

Textured Soy Protein > Sovande
05/20/2020 at 10:50

My soon- to-be former employer is and isn’t being smart about wfh. Civil engineering in most states is considered essential (especially transportation and water utilities) so any engineers they have projects for are working at home. The company didn’t have enough laptops with GPUs for CAD so they sent the engineers home with their work desktops.

But the president of the company is an old school stuck in his ways idiot and his official stance is, “our offices remain open and are following CDC guidelines, those who can work from home should.”

T hey had several senior people coming in some/most days to meet as a coronavirus “task force” for the company, even though that could easily have been done as a conference call or group video call. Nothing else about those folks jobs requires being in the office.

Oh and sometimes the engineers when they’re in the office use large plotters to print blueprints and such and they email the whole office to let them know the plotter is being used. I randomly got a "plotter's in use" email well after everybody got sent home.

Contrast that with my new boss who is like, yeah we’re getting a ton of productivity from people working at home we’re not in any rush to have everybody back in the office.

Anyway, I’ll go thru my work email and send you a list of people at these agencies. Worth a shot.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TorqueToYield
05/31/2020 at 20:40

You replied to me in the JR thread and I wanted to reply to you, but not there, because I already said too much and I don’t want to get caught up in a s**tstorm . I suspect that guy would have cause to press charges if he felt so inclined. Even if JR could prove that the guy had broken his window, it’s no grounds for an assault, which is what that was. We don’t know if that guy broke JR’s window...

The entire thing makes me ill.