A really strange day!

I got to work this morning about 8, and worked for a couple of hours when my main boss walked up to me and said "Don't freak out and you have to trust me". I said "why? what's going on?" She then said, "we're leaving". Of course, I immediately freaked out.

Turns out that the head of our department has been negotiating with a law firm in Atlanta to open a branch in Dallas...with our department being its first employees.

Before the lawyers could give us secretaries any information at all, including the offer letter they had for us, we had to turn in our notice at the existing firm. Let me tell you, that took a gigantic leap of faith for me...but I only hesitated for a split second, because I love the women I work for and I'm very happy with my job, and if I stayed at the existing firm, there wouldn't be a job for me in the long run...we've seen this happen before and the secretaries who stayed ultimately ended up jobless.

So, I turned in my notice and received my offer letter. It gives me a 3% raise on what I'm making right now...and I just got a 4% raise on July 1, so effectively, I just received a 7% raise! The insurance benefits are about the same, and so is the 401k.

The only downside to this transition is that we accrued vacation and sick leave, but they let us take it ahead of the accrual. I've always tried to make sure that I didn't get ahead of myself, but hadn't checked lately. I meant to do it before I left the office today, but a lot of people were waiting for me, so I had to walk away from my computer before I could check. If I'm ahead of the accrual, they can take that out of my last check.

Also, we have a flex medical card that so much of my check goes into each pay period - but again, you can spend ahead of the accrual, and I know I'm ahead of that....and I think they'll take that out of my last check too.

Effectively, I could not receive a paycheck on the 15th, which would hurt us a lot, but thank God, it's not the 1st of the month when the house payment is due, and Scott's vacation check comes in this week...but of course, it's already promised out (we're supposed to be buying a golf cart so I can get up and down this hill without killing my knees). If push came to shove, we could probably cancel the cart. I'm just hoping I'm not TOO far ahead of my flex accrual.

The new offices are really nice...bright, airy and roomy, which, after being in a cubicle for 2 years, are going to be very good for me.

The best part of this whole thing is that because this is a new firm in Dallas, and they're looking to expand, we're getting in on the ground floor, which means there may be some room to advance in the future. Everyone from the Atlanta office (they were there setting us up) has been with the firm for 10, 15, 18 years, and they love to promote from within.

So...a really strange day...but a great one!