It's Official

[liralen]

My boss announced that I'm going on a six month leave of absence, starting the 2nd of February, 2007 through to September 2007.

So I'll probably have a job if I decide to come back. I can extend our health insurance for the whole of the leave by paying for it all.

I haven't taken this much time off on purpose, since the middle of high school, because I was working summers when I could.

It's a very odd feeling.

A friend of mine asked, in email, "What are you going to do?" And when my typing was more than a page and a half of listing of things I wanted to do, I realized that I've actually been going a lot of background processing on what is next? She answered, well then I'm not entering the pool on when you're coming back. *grin*

She may be wise.

But I decided to take this smaller step just in case I do get the "I'm not making money" night sweats or something. I've been so driven for so long, it's starting to really sound nice to be driven by something other than money...

Comments

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

As far as I've heard, the generally understood wisdom is that if someone takes a long leave of absence, they rarely come back.

You're the exception to a lot of rules, but that's where I'd put my money. What work challenges are better than raising Jet anyway?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Very, very true. :-)

There aren't any better than raising Jet, I think, and even the folks I might be leaving in a "lurch" understand some of that, I think.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

that's pretty cool.

when i moved back east, i was unemployed for 7 months (i had expected more like 4 -- oh well). while i was dealing with a bunch of depression related to the move and the whole "nobody wants to hire me" thing, i could still see my way clear to the idea that i was going to enjoy being retired. the whole "get up and putter around doing small projects while drinking tea" thing really appealed to me.

i think the'll be all manner of things to keep you busy and plenty of work to do. just not with that company. and they'll fare better without you than you probably fear they will. (not that they won't miss you, but they'll manage)

WOOHOO RETIREMENT.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

WOOHOOO!!! *grin*

Yeah, I was laid off and the whole "nobody wants to hire me" thing was really depressing, so it's one of those reasons I'm doing the leave instead of just jumping. I need to separate what was just 'not working' and what was 'unlovable'... :-)

But, yes. Drinking tea and puttering would be very, very nice.

And, yes, the big trap of "BUT THEY NEEEED ME!" I'm essential! And the whole self-esteem tied with being *NEEDED* is a very hard thing to escape from. I still have shreds of it tearing away as we interview for my replacement... *sigh* But they'll manage. They're managing without John or even a replacement even close to him, for gosh sake, they can manage without me. *grin*

But, yes. Woohoo!!

[marith.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Congratulations on taking the big step!

I think you're wise to have done it this way, with the safety net. You may never need or use it, but you'll feel better knowing it is there.

Enjoy your tea and puttering and projects and Jet! It sounds really wonderful. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! *hugs* It's been a weird row to hoe, but we're there now.

Yes. Tea and puttering and John and Jet sound very, very, very good to me at the moment.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I am about to speak heresy.

People aren't plug-compatible mass-produced parts which will all function to the same specs.

Except maybe accountants, but there's been a pretty big chunk of spec-violation in larger businesses over the last decade or two. Manufacturing? Absolutely NOT to the same specs, and treated as if they were, which is why techs tend to burn out, suffer RSI, or otherwise have only an average five year lifespan in any given job.

The armed forces in general try to get plug-compatible entities and they do it by using methods which would be considered intolerable, unacceptable in any other place short of a religious cult.

Knowing that you and John have unique, highly valuable skills and that you bring an incredible amount to whatever positions you work in, on the one hand, makes the managers very sorry to lose you, but they really should beware of trying to replace you with identical versions. If they find people who can bring the same class of engineering skills, they will still need to consider other skills in about a dozen areas, and since nobody is going to be perfect in all of those areas, they need to consider which areas will benefit the group. Unfortunately those other skills and personality traits are never explicit in the job description.

So, yeah. It's possible to find synergy where one or two people can fill in for a truly awesome engineer. On the other hand, when you can get the likes of Fermi and Feynman and Oppenheimer and friends in a Manhattan Project (please, please, without the hundreds of unintended deaths in the surrounding communities) you can get something that changes the world in a million ways - but sometimes you need a Ken Bainbridge to get them to work together because of the massive egomania, competitive and secretive habits from academia, etc. etc.

Companies, sadly, tend to reward people as though they were competitors rather than collaborators. This is especially true at Intel, and generally at any company that uses the foul and stupid 'ranking and rating' process to force collaboration out the window.

But yeah, they can manage without you. They did before you were there, before John was there. They did better in some areas with John, and better in probably other areas with you, but the smart thing is not to simply replace you with someone who is expected to BE you. It's to find someone else who can do the approximate job, and bring positive synergy in whatever areas they do.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yup.

At least the other managers were pretty straightforward about just going, "Yup... we know you like Phyllis, but we can't get you a Phyllis..." :-)

[incandescens]

Go you! And I hope you enjoy it.

(Packs up a parcel of chocolate . . .)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hope I enjoy it, too. :-)

Yay!!! CHOCOLATE! *giggles*

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

Ringing in late, but catching up on LJ after a couple busy days...

Congratulations on making it official!

I'm so lazy, I've wanted to be retired since I was 12.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! :-)