[DCLissa17]

Hi FV people!

I'm pretty new to the forums here, so hopefully I posted this in a good place to get some replies.

I have an opportunity that has come up and I am conflicted on what is the best option at this point so hoping to get some opinions/advice. Here's the situation:

I work as a emergency/critical care veterinary technician for a wonderful company in a major metro area. Seriously, this is the cream of the crop for hospitals in this state. I've been here FT for 2 1/2 years. I have an advanced certification that i attained last year, I'm a shift lead, I've been licensed for 8 years and in the field for 10. I make nearly top of the pay scale for this career field. I work graveyard shift, which is what I prefer (by FAR).

I rent an apartment about 30 min from my job. I own a house about 2 hours away that I rent to basically the perfect tenants. I moved from the house in order to take this job 3 years ago because quality ER hospitals no longer existed close enough to commute.

Due to many factors, I have decided that when my current tenants leave, I will move back to my house (2hrs from work). There is now another branch of my current work that is just over an hour commute from the hosue, so that is doable. My tenants are long-term. They may leave when the lease is up in 4 months (unlikely) or it may be another 3+ years before they leave. I do not want to kick them out ahead of time. I am underwater on the house by 30-60K so no chance or interest in selling. No need to foreclose or short-sell. I am not interested or capable of buying a second home close to my current workplace.

The dilemma right now:

The sister branch hospital will have an opening for a FT graveyard shift tech in the next couple of months. There are only 2 of these positions at all and the availability of them can be few and far between. Considering my future plans to move back to my house and try to at that time transfer as soon as possible to this sister hospital, it seems reasonable to consider moving into this position now. But there are a lot of factors at play.

Pros to moving now:
- I want to be at this hospital once I move back to my house
- I really want to work graveyard shift and if I wait to transfer until I know I'm moving, I might be stuck commuting 2 hours for weeks to months and/or I might get stuck having to take a day or swing shift which is definitely more stressful and overal far less desirable than the opening graveyard shift
- I *may* be able to get in on the ground floor as a head floor tech and/or head training tech

Cons to moving now:
- It's a longer commute from my current apartment - 45min-1hr each way as opposed to 30min now.
- It may be 2+ years before I move back to the house
- I JUST moved to 2 days/wk (PT) at my current job (my choice for burnout reasons) and the open position is 3 days/wk (FT) - this is not necessarily set in stone, I may be able to work it to stay PT
- Currently I'm a shift lead which = $1/hr. The sister hospital doesn't have shift leads to they might take that pay away? - however they may institute a shift lead/head tech/training tech position that I may be able to take which would probably mean staying at least at the same pay level.
- I don't know some of the people I'd be working with at the sister hospital so unknown if there would be any interpersonal issues. I currently really like the people I work with at my current hospital.
- I am really accustomed and happy with the dynamic/flow at my current hospital and it is different at the sister hospital - in overall atmosphere and with the caseload and scheduling dynamics- not necessarily bad but definitely different.

Some of the cons are bigger issues, some of them are more minor. I guess my issue is that i really like and am happy with where I am now. Is it worth potentially rocking the boat in order to put myself into a good position for a change that may be up to a few years down the road? Or should I just stay where I am and figure it out when the time comes? Whenever my tenants DO leave, I'll hopefully have 2+ months notice to get moved in some way to the sister hospital. And then I am definitely first in line for any open graveyard shift. I haven't formally declared my interest in this opening graveyard because I wanted to figure out if I would honestly be seriously interested first. Help!

 

[telephus]

Personally, I'd go for the change in position and tell the tenants that you'll be moving in after the end of the lease.

First reason: if you're burned out at your current hospital enough to go part time, a change of scenery would be good. I know where you are is comfortable and there is the fear of the unknown, but you know that this place has burned you out before.

Secondly, this is just my impression from the post I could be wrong, you like the house and want to keep it. Therefore, you would want to live in it. I know you don't want to kick the tenants out, but I wouldn't let awesome tenants keep me from living in a house I owned and wanted to live in. I would give them notice way in advance (like now, if they have 3 months left on the lease) that you want to move back in, and then worst case is that you're stuck with a crappy commute for a couple months.

Thirdly - monetary issues don't seem to be a big concern for you (meaning that the $1/hr difference isn't going to push you over the edge) and the new position is full time not part time, so you'd be making more anyways.

 

[DCLissa17]

Thanks telephus,

I went ahead and spoke to my HR manager yesterday to just kind of feel her out about the possibility of PT vs. FT and the training/etc. addition. It sounds like it would definitely have to be FT and doesn't look good about the added supervisory stuff for right now. However, they may have already hired someone for the position so this may all be a moot point! (though I guess it's good to be thinking about it all). I did let her know about my eventual intentions to move back to my house and transfer to the sister hospital so that she can keep that in mind as things come up in the future. They are SO supportive of their employees here, they will do a lot to keep up happy.

Just to address the points that you brought up (it's good for me to lay it out in writing to look back on)

1. Burnout- lots of factors here, none directly related to the current hospital itself. We have been tightly staffed and over the winter we had some turnover and the typical sickdays so often working shorthanded or with staff on overtime. It was also VERY busy this winter which is quite unusual so they were calling people in and just overall it was more stressful than usual. Overtime/call in is all voluntary. I was working extra myself because it's hard to turn down extra money + for a few months this spring I thought I might buy a 2nd house up here and was trying to save money for a downpayment (since determined I don't want nor can really afford a 2nd house, just want to go back to the one I have now- eventually). We had a larger than normal number of surgeries on the overnight shift (HUGE time-suck for me) and just really emotionally draining cases. So by late spring I was exhausted and really needed a break in general. I went to 2days/wk mid-July (tho all of August I picked up one more/wk so I'm STILL working 40hrs - but it FEELS in my head like i'm PT, lol!) and I'm much more relaxed and in a better frame of mind already. The coworkers on my shifts are all people I like a lot and work really really well with.

2. My house - I definitely like it, want to keep it, and want to live there again. Eventually. On the other hand, I'm not in a rush to move back. I have a great apartment in a little waterfront community that is really nice (toooo nice to afford a house here, boo!) and it's close to my current work, which I really love also. The house is a house with a yard and no carpets and a washer/dryer and closer to my last couple of good friends in the area so it's where I want to be long-term. My tenants pay rent on time, cause no trouble, never call me with minor things, and are doing a TON of free work on the property/landscaping to close the (previous) gap between their rent and my mortgage. (they pay $800, my PITI is $1,000 - however the property is underwater now, so in all honesty, current value/rental market is probably $800/mo - so no upping that rent!) Since I'm not in a rush for any particular reason and I like where I am right now, I'd hate to kick them out early just to shake up my world.

3. Money is ok. That $1/hr wouldn't make or break me, true. And if I moved now I'd be back at FT so it wouldn't be an overall loss from my current PT. Though I would be FT again and not sure if that itself is a dealbreaker. It's a longer commute again so 3 days vs. 2 days + commute might push me closer to burnout again and I don't know for sure what other stress factors may be present at the sister hospital that I don't have at the current hospital. Losing the $1/hr while STAYING PT is a dealbreaker - my budget is too tight for that. Part of the reason why I was able to go PT was that last year I got 3 separate $1/hr raises for various things and after taking a hard look at the budget, realized that I could afford to go PT if I am frugal and decrease the amounts I am putting into my various sinking funds. So I decided to do it! But can't really afford to lose any money and still stay PT.

Like I said, for this particular opportunity, this is probably all moot. But who knows? In 6 months another opportunity may come up so it's good to start the mental ball rolling.