Do I have a job??

For those of you who haven't heard, I (Jeff) was given a heads up back in January that the American Red Cross was going to be going through major budget cuts thanks to a $200+ million deficit by 2010. Mind you, this information was conveyed to me when Madison was 3 weeks old!! So, that put a damper on things. We have had a few conference calls to discuss what's going to happen, but nothing official at this point. The only for sure thing at this point that I know is that I will find out one way or the other very soon if I still have a job. The board of governors gave the official approval to the budget last week. Once I am notified I will still have my job for an additional 60 days. After the 60 days is up then severance kicks in (1 week of pay for every year of service plus an additional 2 weeks as well as any PTO that I have left over).

It's been very hard and I wish I would know one way or the other because we have put a lot of things on hold. At this point, I am not even sure if I am lucky enough to get to keep my job that I want to stay with the organization. This whole ordeal has put a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't leave without another job, but it's something that I have thought of. The organization needs a lot of help being run like a true business. I can't count how many CEO's the organization has had since I have been with the organization (since 1999) Jen and I honestly didn't think that I would ever have to look for a job outside of the Red Cross.

I have been applying for jobs in the area. There aren't a lot of safety jobs in general and when the economy is in the toilet, companies are cutting back and safety can be one place that they look to cut. I actually have had a phone interview and a interview with a manufacturing company in Tulsa last week. It was an interesting experience to interview with strangers becaues it had been so long since I had done interviews with people that I didn't know. I am impatiently waiting to hear back from them. From what Jen and I have heard, the company is a really good company to work for. The job would require traveling, which I am used to. BUT the travel includes international travel!! To the U.K. and possibly China.

The other thing that this has done is to slowly light the fire to finish my masters. As Jen likes to say, you have been in school since I have known you! I have been done with the actual coursework for quite a while. The writing of the thesis/capstone is not going to great. I am actually writing it on the safety of blood as it's being transported because most people don't realize what little is done to protect the blood while it is being shipped. A lot of people also don't realize that blood is put into cargo holds of commercial planes on a daily basis. Besides the fact that a completed masters could help on the resume, I need to get it done before the University of Findlay tells me you have taken too long and you can't graduate! I had a co-worker email me an interesting newsletter a few weeks ago talking about a researcher who is developing radio frequency tracking of blood products. I contacted the researcher yesterday and found out that he is actually doing the work on behalf of a blood bank. So, I am going to contact the blood center to see if I can get some more information from them. I am hoping that this will add fire to the flame to get this stupid thesis done!!

Sorry to put a damper to the blog, but I wanted to let everyone know what was going on with me, which in turn effects Jen and Madison as well.