On occasion I have had some crises of faith regarding whether I belonged working in the performing arts. However, I have never had a day when it seemed events were conspiring to tell me to find another line of work as I did yesterday. June 16 being Bloomsday provides a nice rhyme for the title of this entry. However, if you find James Joyce’s writing style to be strange, it might be an apt comparison because the day was rather strange.
I will keep names anonymous and details very general because there are some very nice people working hard to get me a job and I don’t want to seem ungrateful for their efforts.
It all started last week when I was offered a job by a gentleman at Organization A. It was a nice offer at what appears to be a very exciting place to work. However, I had an interview set for June 16 with Organization B which really sounded exciting and captured my imagination to some degree. I was sort of torn between putting Org A off until I could interview at Org B and the idea that it might do a disservice to Org B if I interviewed there knowing I had a job offer elsewhere.
I make every attempt to deal fairly openly and honestly with people. I try not to cynically play people off against each other to exploit a situation only for myself. In the end though, being practical and slightly paranoid, I decided I couldn’t official count on having the other job until I got it in writing.
It was fortunate that I took this stance because the next person up the hierarchy at Org A called me and offered me the job at significantly less salary. Apparently the person who offered me the job went on vacation without noting the salary I had been offered. Much to the superior’s credit, he resolved to personally work on getting me the salary I had been offered.
Meanwhile, I planned my trip to Org B in earnest. I was still intrigued by the opportunity and knew now I was correct in not counting my chickens too early. The trip to Org B was 2.5 hours but I gave myself 3.5 in case of traffic. Worse came to worse, I got there early and wandered around the neighborhood and reviewed my notes for the interview.
About 1.5 into the trip, my car broke down. The really crappy part was that I had taken my car in last week because I heard a sound that implied this would happen. The garage told me I was wrong, the problem was elsewhere and didn’t actually look in the place I felt it originated. However, I was right and a squeak turned into a crunch as my wheel bearing fused to the spindle and I went from 65 to 0 pretty quickly. It took me 4 hours to get it towed and fixed.
By that time Org B didn’t feel it was worth my coming down and said they would try to reschedule. I don’t hold much hope of actually landing the job though. I limped back home, depressed.
Once home I got an email from Org A saying they were sending my appointment before the chief executive for approval. Since I was told the chief executive had to approve the higher salary offer, I found reason for optimism.
Then I got a call in the evening that informed me that the position approval might be delayed slightly as the board had fired the chief executive and it might take the interim replacement a little bit to sort things out.
I have always thought of Fate as a subtle force, but after a day like that, it is difficult not to envision someone really yanking hard on the strings.
