Do they really want to go back or do they go back because they need to?

Having been laid off from my last three positions, I’m not 100% sure that I would want to go back to those companies.  Of course, two of them are out of business at this point, so there’s no chance there and the one that’s still in business I think that I’d be looking over my shoulder the entire time waiting for the ax to fall again.

I doubt that they’d start me back at my old salary, give me my seniority, benefits, etc. back either, so really there wouldn’t be a lot of incentive to go back for me.  Sure there may be a huge benefit and cost savings for them as they get someone who’s essentially been with the company for 6 1/2 years already, but I’m at the point in my career where honestly I want to know what’s in it for me too because if I don’t see a clear path up the ladder then it really isn’t worth it to me to spend my time there.

Spent a great summer evening at the ballpark tonight.  It was our Company Party.  We had great food before the game, a health fair, Peanuts and Cracker Jacks, an awesome game (which the Bees won), all of which was capped off with Fireworks.

My family and I rode Trax to the game from the office, otherwise we would have stayed for the base run afterwards too, but it was really late and a school night so we had to get home.

At my last job, a couple of the employees attended some kind of disaster preparedness or recovery (I’m really not sure which) seminar.  Upon their return one of them knowing that I am heavily involved with Scouting said something to me about being CPR Trained and being the person in the office that knew it.

I let them know that I was not CPR trained but if the company wanted to help pay for me to attend the training (it’s less than $100), I’d be happy to take the time and get trained.  It’s just not a requirement to be a Scout leader and it’s not something that I’ve done yet.

The reaction was kind of “Well when you get trained, let us know and we’ll use you as our CPR person”.  A few more times over the next several months the topic came up again, and my answer was always the same, “Help pay for it, and I’d be happy to do it”.  I just wasn’t going to go do it because they asked me to, at my expense so that they could claim that they had someone CPR trained in their office, seemed like that was a situation where they gained more than I did.  Of course, after being laid off and then being asked to other things at no cost, it shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.

Another thing that I suggested was that the office really should get an AED device.  There wasn’t one there and in my opinion, there needed to be one.  I was literally laughed at and mocked for making such a suggestion, on several occasions.

Now I realize that they aren’t cheap, but I also know that they save lives.  I was told that everyone working there was young and in good shape and that such a device wasn’t needed and even if someone did happen to have an issue that the Fire Department was just minutes away.  After that I told my wife that if I just happened to have a heart attack while working there and died, that she should look into her legal options.

So while watching the news tonight I had a huge smile on my face when I saw thisreport.  I don’t know the details of the ordinance, and this company isn’t located in South Jordan (they are literally only a few blocks away though), but it’s good to see that some people are taking things like this seriously.

And for the record, my new company does have one and I know exactly where it is located just in case it’s needed.  The funny thing is it’s within 20 feet of the vending machines.

One of the things that I noticed last week while my wife and I were at Disneyland, was the attention to detail.

Sure everything is really well done, that’s pretty well known about Disney, but the things that really impressed me were the little things.

Never did I see a light bulb that was burned out (trust me I looked for one), nor did I see any maintenance workers working on anything, repairing anything, or anything that appeared to be closed for maintenance reasons, though I’m sure that it existed, it just didn’t appear to be that way.

The other thing that kept going through my head was just the pure logistics that must go into keeping that place up and running everyday.  With all of the food that the serve up each day, never did I see vehicles driving through the either park delivering it, nor was I told that they were out of a particular item.  Figuring out and managing all of that has to fall to a staff of people somewhere.

For a person that thinks in very logical patterns that would be a dream job and one that would also likely put me in the grave early, but I’d probably love every minute of it.

I started my new job today.  It’s going to be great and I must say, I don’t miss the old one at all.

Everyone I met today seems great and I’m very excited to get my feet under me and move forward with everything.  It’s going to be a whole new set of challenges, but I like that they are there to tackle and can’t wait to get going.