Today I recieved a call from my TMO office, and my household goods are officially slated for pick up and RIGHT ON SCHEDULE! My last day of work is exactly one week from today and I am going to pick up my altered uniforms sometime next week. Yippee!!
I love it when a plan comes together. I am really looking forward to starting this new adventure and phase in my life. I am really looking forward to my uniforms actually FITTING. Go figure. Uniforms that fit. Who'da thunk it?
My o' my. Handing in my resignation was a lot more difficult than i thought it would be. But, once it was over, I felt amazing relief. I was practically falling asleep on the way home from the office.
I knew that I would have to wait until at least 11am EST because my boss was in Phoenix at the time, and that would make it 8am there. Made for one heck of a long morning, i'll tell ya. I was actually shaky. I am still not sure why. I am more than confident in my decision, but still. There must have been something about having worked and succeded for the past 6 years in the same company that made this more stressful than say, giving notice after less than a year or something. Anyway, I sent my boss an email telling her to give me a call as soon as she was both near a phone and hooked up to the company's network. I wanted to make sure that I sent her the email while we were on the phone together. I didn't want her to read it without my actually being on the line with her. It just seemed more appropriate. So when I got a call from her at almost 11am, I figured she got my email. Turns out, however, that she did not get my email. She was calling from the airport in California on her way to Phoenix, but she was delayed, and needed some phone numbers from me. UGH! So i couldn't say anything. This went on 4 more times between 11am and about 3:30 pm my time. Each time the phone rang I was certain she was hooked up to the network, but she wasn't. She finally arrived in Phoenix, got to the facility and hooked up to the network and called me. I was actually shaking when I hit the 'send' button on my Outlook. She told me she got it and to wait a second while she opened it up. She began to read it out loud. She got past the first several words..."it is with deep regret that I submit to you this letter of resignation..." before saying "NO NO NO!!" really loudly. I felt awful. Once she regained control, she continued, occasionally stopping to add some sort of editoral comment like "Why couldn't you just be pregnant or something simple like that??".
When she began the next paragraph about my reason for leaving and my acceptance into Commissioned Officer Training for the Air Force, the tone of the entire conversation changed. She became proud of me. She said she understood and that she still loved me and that I could come back any time. Sweet relief. Of course, when she told our business executive, her initial reaction was "Why couldn't it have been one of my F---ing loosers who quit??" Actually, a very sweet sentiment from a powerful executive if you think about it. And she too, left the door open for me if I ever choose to return to the company.
So my clock is officially ticking, and I am down to my final two weeks. I am spending my time attempting to transition my projects to my colleagues, and with each successful transition, I become more and more excited about my final day. Bittersweet as it may be.
I finally got notice that my waiver was approved! I am as good as on my way to Commissioned Officer Training in Alabama.
I am going to be turning in my resignation to work tomorrow. THAT is pretty exciting. A bit nerve-wracking too, but exciting nonetheless. My boss is currently on the west coast, and being on the east coast, I wont be able to tell her until after 11am EST, but that's ok. It will give me more time to hone my speech.
Then, of course, comes the inevitible conversation with the managers of the facility where I am now. I will ask my boss to keep the news to herself for at least an hour while I meet with them, and the project teams I am currently on. Be interesting to see how this is going to go. Tomorrow ought to be a very different kind of day. Six years. I can't believe I am leaving my company after six years. On the other hand, I can't believe it's taken me six years to leave my company.
I just loathe waiting. I am supposed to give my notice TOMORROW, but I am at the mercy of waiting for an answer to my dreaded waiver question by my acessions officer. Lovely. I really wanted more than anything to be able to give my boss a face to face resignation. Tomorrow is the only day she was planning on coming into the office for the next month. Even worse, she will be traveling on the West coast for the next couple of weeks, and my last day of work needs to be June 18th. If I don't give her my letter of resignation tomorrow, I wont be able to give it to her in person. And I simply don't think that's right. They deserve to get a resignation from me in person.
So now the question of the day becomes, do I give my notice and risk getting a call from my accessions officer saying "sorry, things didn't work out" or do I give my notice knowing that he told me that 3 of the 4 approval channels have already been met and the likleyhood of the 4th approval coming through is very high? OR...do I wait, and NOT give my notice so that I end up giving my notice over the phone? Or via email? None of the choices seem good to me. But once again, I find my destiny lying in the hands of someone else, and a system that is not nearly as efficent as I am.
