So, I mentioned some time ago that I had to lay off 60% of my staff in Redmond and that I would be temporarily working out of the Portland office.
Well, over the last three weeks, as I discussed the situation with my boss, my position in Central Oregon was eliminated and there is no guarantee that it will ever return. Even though I was a site supervisor, I did a good enough job re-establishing our relationship there that it became apparent it could be done mostly remote with a much lower paid office person and a Portland contact.
While that was sort of disheartening, it also became clear that the Program manager and our VP wanted to find a way to retain me -- that meant that someone who has been with the company for nearly 20 years was going to have to be terminated which left me conflicted.
My lease in Redmond was set to run until September so no matter what choice I made, I was going to have to break that lease; but that meant either I moved back to my house in South Carolina with no job, or take the move to Portland. Normally in this situation, the company would cover the costs of the move -- but with our contracts having been cut at every one of our facilities, there is no budget for travel or relocation assistance.
I considered getting a long term spot for my RV and just working four days and spending three days in Redmond until this was over, or my lease expired and then see what happened. Two problems arose. First, there were no long term spots anywhere near my work in Portland, they all had lengthy waiting lists. Second, even if there were an open spot, they were way more than I could justify while also paying rent in Redmond and a mortgage in SC.
Further complicating the decision process was my wife's work. She has been working at Target since we got to Redmond, but with the shutdown, she was unsure about a transfer.
I will be honest, if COBRA coverage were reasonably affordable, I would probably have stayed in Redmond, rode out the shutdown and then re-evaluated in August. But COBRA coverage is around $1200 per month for me and that made no sense to try and cover while being unemployed.
So, Leslie checked on a transfer to a Target down in Beaverton and that looks as if it is feasible. So, after much thought, we made the decision to break the lease in Redmond and take the move to Portland. It was always my goal to get back to the Portland office, just under different circumstances. A year ago, we started working on a plan to have me promoted to Program Manager; but due to the timing of our contract, the VP wanted to wait until there was more stability to start transferring program managers. Well, that never occurred, so I have been waiting around between Gaffney and now Redmond for that to get resolved.
Not sure if that will ever really change now. I feel a sort of survivor's guilt over another person getting laid off so that I could be retained. While I know that there is a reason that the VP wants me to remain with the company and there is comfort in that knowledge, another human is now going to be unemployed and that makes it a little bit sucky to be in this position.
Anyway, I got most of my home office and personal belongings down between Friday and today. I have a U-Haul and some help scheduled for May 7th when we will get to Beaverton semi-permanently.
I can tell you that we will be happy to be here once everything gets semi-back to normal. If there is a football season , even though the drive will be longer after games, it will be easier once mid-October gets here as I won't have to worry about driving up the mountain in the middle of the night in a snowstorm (like I did this past season).
Who knows, we may still even switch up our tailgate spot to an RV spot; then the stress will be really gone!
Well, over the last three weeks, as I discussed the situation with my boss, my position in Central Oregon was eliminated and there is no guarantee that it will ever return. Even though I was a site supervisor, I did a good enough job re-establishing our relationship there that it became apparent it could be done mostly remote with a much lower paid office person and a Portland contact.
While that was sort of disheartening, it also became clear that the Program manager and our VP wanted to find a way to retain me -- that meant that someone who has been with the company for nearly 20 years was going to have to be terminated which left me conflicted.
My lease in Redmond was set to run until September so no matter what choice I made, I was going to have to break that lease; but that meant either I moved back to my house in South Carolina with no job, or take the move to Portland. Normally in this situation, the company would cover the costs of the move -- but with our contracts having been cut at every one of our facilities, there is no budget for travel or relocation assistance.
I considered getting a long term spot for my RV and just working four days and spending three days in Redmond until this was over, or my lease expired and then see what happened. Two problems arose. First, there were no long term spots anywhere near my work in Portland, they all had lengthy waiting lists. Second, even if there were an open spot, they were way more than I could justify while also paying rent in Redmond and a mortgage in SC.
Further complicating the decision process was my wife's work. She has been working at Target since we got to Redmond, but with the shutdown, she was unsure about a transfer.
I will be honest, if COBRA coverage were reasonably affordable, I would probably have stayed in Redmond, rode out the shutdown and then re-evaluated in August. But COBRA coverage is around $1200 per month for me and that made no sense to try and cover while being unemployed.
So, Leslie checked on a transfer to a Target down in Beaverton and that looks as if it is feasible. So, after much thought, we made the decision to break the lease in Redmond and take the move to Portland. It was always my goal to get back to the Portland office, just under different circumstances. A year ago, we started working on a plan to have me promoted to Program Manager; but due to the timing of our contract, the VP wanted to wait until there was more stability to start transferring program managers. Well, that never occurred, so I have been waiting around between Gaffney and now Redmond for that to get resolved.
Not sure if that will ever really change now. I feel a sort of survivor's guilt over another person getting laid off so that I could be retained. While I know that there is a reason that the VP wants me to remain with the company and there is comfort in that knowledge, another human is now going to be unemployed and that makes it a little bit sucky to be in this position.
Anyway, I got most of my home office and personal belongings down between Friday and today. I have a U-Haul and some help scheduled for May 7th when we will get to Beaverton semi-permanently.
I can tell you that we will be happy to be here once everything gets semi-back to normal. If there is a football season , even though the drive will be longer after games, it will be easier once mid-October gets here as I won't have to worry about driving up the mountain in the middle of the night in a snowstorm (like I did this past season).
Who knows, we may still even switch up our tailgate spot to an RV spot; then the stress will be really gone!
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