Back when Kaitlynn was 4 and in preschool, I wrote this post about returning to work part-time as a project manager for my former company, Total, on a short term project assignment. I worked about 10-20 hours per week, mostly from home with occasional trips to the downtown office. It was a perfect transition back into the workplace.
That assignment ended about a year after it began, and I was hopeful that it would lead to additional projects. Unfortunately, there wasn't a project fit at the time so I decided to wait it out to see if another opportunity at Total would come up. In the meantime, I threw myself into my home life, family, and volunteering at my kids' school. As I blogged about last year, as much as I wanted to enjoy the blessing of being a full-time wife, mother, and PTA volunteer, those just aren't the things that fulfill me.
So in early 2015, I put some feelers out to find another job. My goal was to find something part-time with flexibility of working from home, but that is pretty tough to find, especially when I was seeking a role outside of my former circle of work contacts. Through a neighbor, I managed to get an interview with a Houston technology company and it turned out that they had a role very similar to what I was looking for. They offered me the job, and despite the lower pay, I was so excited to work again that I accepted.
As I prepared for my upcoming position, I reached out to my former Total manager to meet for lunch. I consider her a great friend and was looking forward to catching up since we'd been out of touch for a few months. I picked her up at the Total offices downtown and I began to fill her in on my updates, including the new job, as we headed to lunch. When I finally sprung the news about my new position, her reaction wasn't quite what I expected.
"Well, that's disappointing," she said.
Huh??
It turns out that she had been working to create a new position in her current department at Total, and she had hoped to hire me for that role once she worked out the details. When I heard this, I immediately regretted taking the other job because I was so excited about the possibility of returning to my former company. In the end, it all worked out perfectly. I regretfully declined the technology firm position and accepted the role offered by my former Total manager.
My new position is a Project Manager in charge of overseeing new system implementations in the Purchasing department. I work out of my home office primarily and drive downtown as needed for meetings with occasional trips to our plant locations around the Houston and south Texas area.
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| My very first office selfie on a VERY bad hair day. |
The transition back to being a working wife and mother wasn't an easy one. Jeff will admit, my decision to work wasn't his preference. As much as he wanted me to be happy, it was sometimes difficult on the family for Mom to be preoccupied with the stresses of work. Occasionally, I had to ask Jeff to fill in for me with the kids if I had early meetings or long weeks of conferences. Some weeks I would be working full-time hours, and Jeff had to pick up the slack while he was working full-time as well.
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| Conference room selfie before a full day of workshops. |
A year later, I can say that the story of my return to work has a happy ending. A few months into my new role, Jeff paid me the biggest compliment by telling me that he had noticed how much happier I was. We have really learned to work together as a team to make sure we can fulfill all of our commitments at home and in the office. I am so thankful for his support, because I have been a much happier and more fulfilled person, wife, and mother.
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| Cuddling with my girl before school and work one morning. |
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| A sweet, surprise note from Jeff and Kaitlynn that I found hidden in my work notebook one day. |
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