Behind

Sorry about being such a bad poster of late. I'm just really feeling like the world is moving fast. And it won't be better for a while.

My new job is, in a word, wonderful. There are a million positive things. There are, of course negatives, and a few are big. As of tomorrow there are 2 of us doing 4 jobs in the OT department. Since some days I have evals and evals take a lot of time, keeping things going is going to be tricky. When I was hired they were very honest that I'd need to spend a great deal of time organizing things due to weeks of not having my position filled. I've done this, and things are much better, but I still have quite a bit to do to have this even accurate. This also is a problem when there's not enough help. Another negative is that the short-term disability does not have to accept me, (which they won't), and even if they did they exclude mental health. I'm going to beg them to reconsider this. I don't want to have to leave because of it, and right now I'm not planning to because I'm healthy, but it's a scary issue. My last 2 disability leaves have been 16-18 weeks each, and that's too long to have no income.

On the plus side, I LOVE the people I work with. I also love the atmosphere. It's very laid-back and there's no worrying about Evil Managers; all that I have met have been wonderful. They have a very therapist-centered approach that gives me leniency to do things MY way, even if my way isn't typical. I've heard "that your call, you're in charge" more than in my total career to date.

The nursing home is really, really nice. Often if you ring for help in a nursing home you wait a long time. And if it is a therapist ringing the aides can be angry. Here I've gotten no attitude and the wait is always less than a couple minutes. There is no smell, ever.

So, at this point I am planning to stay put. When the economy improves I'll move closer. (I'll have to sell my house).

And now I must get to work.