The Other Work that I Do

Katherine here. So very long since I've blogged, and how infrequently I have posted over the last months! Too bad, as I really do enjoy blogging, and I think often of things I would like to blog --- and it helps me feel connected to all of our friends & family out there. So in an effort to improve this, I am sitting down to blog about the "newest" thing in my life, and what's fresh on my mind. I'll blog about the rest another time, including Ben's "first" Easter (first, in that it was the first Easter that we celebrated with him -- yes I know that he was around last Easter too).

I have a new job. It's with the same company, but it's totally different tasks and a in new group. So it might as well be a brand new job. My new title is "Recruiting Coordinator" -- and yes, I am now working in HR (although just for one year - end date of April 1, 2010)! I was surprised when I was "offered" the job in mid-March (I thought the greater powers out there were looking for a technical position for me later this fall), and it's really just been crazy since.

I found out two days before our Project's team building event (that I was responsible for planning), and then Ben and I were off to Ohio for Ben's spring break the next week. So it's been craziness ever since we returned. When they move people around in my company, it's a huge domino effect. The person who was the Recruiting Coordinator had to transition into his new role, while he was helping me transition into mine, while I was trying to transition my replacement into my old role. Whew! Yesterday, I handed off my final piece of work to my replacement, and tomorrow I move to my new office.

How do I feel about this job? In many regards, I'm totally excited. I am definitely ready to do something different (and this is definitely different), I like getting opportunities to use those "soft" skills, and I'm working with a bunch of women! I'm used to being the token female in a group - and HR is ALL (well, almost all) women! This is going to be a learning curve though, as I really do think women work a bit differently than men, and I'm going to have to learn to work with other females.

Apparently being "chosen" for this job is a big deal, and it has high visibility (I have a meeting with a VP on Monday). But it also entails needing to establish myself with a new group - and still being part-time, I have to re-establish expectations / boundaries. I had that pretty well figured out with my old group, which made working part-time doable.

Fortunately, Mark has been wonderfully supportive as I've been working longer hours to transition into this new role. I'm back to a full-time schedule in September, so perhaps this will help us transition to that point. And I've changed my schedule in the interim so that I work 4 days per week -- so even if they end up being close to full days, I still have glorious Wednesday's off (hence this blog post at 10 in the morning).

But now it's time to put a load of laundry in the washing machine, get caught up on personal email, and my work cell phone is ringing...

But at least today I posted on my blog, and that is another step towards feeling normal and like life is (relatively) under control. I've always said that being a part-time working mom afforded the best of both worlds. I told this to a friend, and she agreed, but said that it also brings about the worst of both. And I think we're both right.