Contingent

Winter is tough on a lot of people for a plethora of causes. It’s been harder on me than most years (in sobriety) because of a few different things that just sort of combined to put me in a position where I needed to look for more work. I went down to four days per week in January, and I’ve been using my vacation to get my checks up to 40 hours but I can’t go over, and I am desperately missing my overtime. Also, I’m running out of vacation, and soon my checks won’t be enough to cover my bills.

I saw this coming from a ways back and I was proactive enough to have had a few offers of employment in my main field of interest: foodservice. The offers were not close to luring me away from my current pay and benefits, so I looked around at other opportunities in the area and one kept popping up, so I applied.

The United States Postal Service is hiring for hundreds of positions in Minnesota right now, and I applied for a few of them. One of them—close-by—is quite appealing so I was excited when I applied and was offered an opportunity to take a few tests, all of which I passed. It’s a long process, getting a federal job like this, and it’s been a month since I submitted my application. On Tuesday of this week I received an email from the postmaster in Hutchinson (10 miles from home) that I was on the top of the hiring list of eligible hires ranked by test score, so she said I would receive a formal conditional offer of employment sometime this week, which I received today. I accepted it.

It’s a huge leap. Maybe even a jump, but not just a step. It’s a change, and I think it will be a good one for me. The offer is contingent on me passing a drug test and a background screening, which I will fail. Not the drug test--obviously my background is sketchy at best, but I disclosed that in my interview and she told me that as long as I’m honest about it from the start, it’s normally not an issue.

I feel as if I’ve written all of this before, but it’s been so long since I’ve written a post, I have no idea where I left off.

Now, I haven’t done anything foolish like quit my day job, but I have informed them of the process, and they are aware that my time may be limited.

 

This is a career move. This could be the last job I ever have. Or it could be the biggest mistake I’ve ever made (other than smoking crack.) I have pondered heavily the latter, and decided that the former had far more pros than cons, some of which I will list right now.

1.       Only a ten minute drive from home.

2.       I’m outside in the summer, in a vehicle in the winter.

3.       Postal worker retirement age is 56.

4.       Federal benefits after one year.

5.       Many opportunities for advancement.

6.       I can look through people’s mail for money and gold.

7.       Full-time year-round.

 

Now, there are more pros, and just a few cons, but I think that numbers one and seven are what I’m really looking for in life, and why I accepted the offer the minute I saw it. And it’s just an offer; I still have to have some serious talks about my felonious background, which they may not like. Either way, I tried and I keep trying to push the envelope. Get it?

 

I will keep you all posted. Get it?

Stamps.