This morning I wrote my resignation for BTS. After 3 years I have decided to cut my losses and move on. The fact that I am moving on to the company that gobbled up a previous employer and has pioneered voice recognition is somewhat important, especially since it means I get to keep the 9 years of seniority I built up before being laid off in 2003 and won't have to go through all that again. Three weeks of vacation time at the start of a new job is nothing to sneeze at.
I am leaving BTS with only one week of work to go since I had already scheduled next week off. I did not make this move without due consideration. I gave BTS a chance to meet the new offer of 10-1/5 cents per line and they flatly refused just has they have refused for 3 years to raise my pay. I also asked for a shift change and they hemmed and hawed and said it would take time to replace me since I am the lead on the 2nd shift, a fact that was unknown to me prior to this, and a fact that should have earned me a raise in pay when it happened 2 years ago. Even though they are moving off voice recognition reports and back to typing reports on accounts I already know very well, it's not enough of a draw to keep me there. If they think it will take "a good dea of time" to find someone to replace me on 2nd shift in order for me to transition to a different shift, they will have to rethink their position since they have exactly 2 weeks now.
With this change in employers I will get paid holidays whether I work them or not, health benefits (vision, dental, and health) that do not cost the price of my mortgage ($60 a month), keeping previous seniority, 3 weeks of vacation, sick time, the removal of the permanent knot between my shoulder blades, and the return of my peace of mind. There is a downside of course. I will have to learn the way the new doctors speak and the new hospital is a teaching hospital with residents dictating, which means long dictations that will end with not many lines typed and saved, but I can hope that the new hospital doesn't let the residents dictate all the time and, working the shift that I will be on, very few residents dictating at all. I will have to work Tuesday through Saturday, but that means I will also have a week day off so I can run into town and do errands without running back home to work. I might even take the time to stop at a restaurant, get out of the car, and sit down for a leisurely meal.
And 3 weeks of vacation from the start.
I am not completely happy about having to learn a new hospital and new software or having to deal with yet more crapy voice recognition generated files, but I am happy that most of my needs will be met and my income will be double what it is now every single month. That is to be preferred to the static slave wages I've had with BTS. So I cast my fears and trepidations aside, accepted the job with Nuance, sent the resignation letter to BTS, and will now move into a brighter future. It's not all perfect, but what is any more? It's a conditional happily ever after for now. I'm still looking forward to national and international best selling author with millions in the bank and an end to wage slavery. THAT is my real happily ever after.
That is all. Disperse.
