BLOBBY'S BLOG

You Better Work

Oh RuPaul - you have an insightful comment for everything!

For those who aren't aware, my partner was downsized last July. I was much more upset about it than he was. For him, it was a great relief. He likened it jumping a sinking ship. Not like a the recent events that has everyone plunging from Carnival Cruises.

In reality, he was pushed - but I got the idea: he didn't go down with a disaster that was the company he worked for. Going to a start-up was risky, but together we agreed it would be good for him to do something daring and new. And in the months preceding his end-date, we discussed if he should even stay since we both knew the venture was struggling financially.

What we didn't see coming was a month and a half later the outplacement of my position in an organization I had been with for 11 years.

The original plan was for me to keep up his spirits while he did a job search. Now it was more of a see-saw thing - or could have been. It's been a tough eight months - but it could have been so much harder.

Me finally getting a job, while he was still looking, could have been bad, as men has much more fragile egos than we ever care to let on. But we really rose above it and he could not have been happier for me. Yes, I took a substantial pay-cut when I didn't have to, but the work/life balance is leaps and bounds better than anything I could have imagined. In retrospect, being let go to take my new position was probably the best thing that could have happened. But that's easy to say now.

Now it is his turn. Layed-off a mere eight weeks or so before I was, he'll now start a new position a mere eight weeks after I started mine. Neither job is where we thought we'd be. It's a completely new direction for both of us. But things come together and for the better.

We're excited and thrilled - not (only) because of the jobs, but due to where we are, how we got here and from what we are now capable of going....together.

..and for the record, one Mr. David G chastised me for being a dark cloud back at the first of the year - but he was the first person to say to me: "geeeze, isn't there anything wrong with your new job?" Who's the dark cloud now?????


a companion piece has been cross-posted to Gay Men Rule.