Opinionated Bean

I returned to the workforce on April 21st, after a long time away from my spreadsheets. I spent the winter recovering from a rather major surgical procedure - which nearly wiped me out. By the end of March I was ready to return to work — for several reasons, one being that I was bored with television; there’s only so many times I can watch documentaries on the architectural history of Britain or “Cash in the Attic” on BBC Canada. Second reason is fairly boring - I was broke.

I was on Medical Unemployment Benefits, but that ran out on February 2nd. Seems that when the Federal Government was revamping the Employment Benefits scheme so that maternity leave went from 15 weeks to 52 weeks they never thought of individuals who might need more than 15 weeks home-rest for surgery. I had the Chief of Urology signing requests to have my benefits extended and all I got as a response was that I should apply for welfare - which means I’d have to first drain my bank account and my retirement fund before I’d qualify for a hefty $560 per month.

So here I sit, at my new job as Chief Accountant. I know the honeymoon period isn’t over, I’m too starry eyed to take in any realities. But I must say, I am really enjoying it here. I have my own little office - no more cubicles for me - which gives me space to mutter to myself. I find I work best when I mutter, which is very difficult in a cube environment where co-workers can give you funny looks. I have also go through a monthend and in the space of 5 days I did 14.25hrs of overtime; I was shocked at how low it was.

In my previous position I would have clocked that amount of O/T in 3 days and would have been rushed the whole time. Here I did O/T in 5 days, still managed to have a comfortable lunch each day, and not be overly rushed. I produced good quality work that I could be proud of. And I expect the O/T to drop as this was my first monthend, and I was exposed to a lot all at once. I’ve since made my notes and am ready for the next monthend.

I enjoy the idea of being able to leave the office when there is still daylight.

I had two job offers at approximately the same time - within hours of each other actually. I have never been in a situation in which I was that “desirable”, but I have to admit, I enjoyed it.

It was between two very large companies working two very divergent industries: one is a telecom has has its fingers in cable internet, cable television, magazine publishing and mobile phones; the other, a huge multi-national advertising firm with office spanning the globe with a parent company in the UK.

I now get a snazzy new title - Chief Accountant

And to think, I have  become queen of the coupons so I could save my shekkels to eke out an existence whilst recovering from surgery.

Huzzah I say! Huzzah!!