Working Downtown

So here is the story of how I came to switch jobs. 

On Friday, July 27 at 7:24am, I received a text from my best friend’s mom, Debra, saying she needed an assistant for her and another vice president. She asked if I’d be willing to discuss further. 

I let her know I was happy at Alpine but that I’d be open to listening. 

She said I am sharp and would be a good part of the team. We talked that evening. She told me a little about the position and the company and asked me to send my resume. So I did. 

She asked me to come have lunch and see the office, which I did on Monday, July 29. Don’t worry, I was clocked out, and used basically all my lunch time for the week to do this. So she and Aaron took me to lunch at Cheesecake Factory. We discussed a lot of the things at my current job that I find most challenging or frustrating. I asked a couple of questions as well. We walked over to the office and she showed me around.

We sat and chatted for a minute, and I told her I really was happy at Alpine. She was disappointed and told me she had two other candidates but wanted me there. 

That night at the Bees game, we had some things go amiss with one of our company homes, and I laughed and showed her a screen shot to say “Hey this is what I was talking about today.”

She said again she’d love to have me join them. 

Two days later on August 1, she asked one more time, “Just a final check in to be sure you are definitely not interested even at a much higher salary.” This raised my eyebrows, so I let her know what I made at Alpine, and that they had 401K matching, as well as a Health Savings Account. My insurance plans weren’t great at Alpine, but my monthly contributions were pretty low, so that was nice. 

She said she would email me the benefits info, and asked me to come in to meet with the CIO. I was able to swing it at the end of \the work day on Thursday, August 2. We chatted about a lot of things. He said he wouldn’t want someone who would be looking to switch jobs in a year or two. I assured him that I hadn’t sought this out and was originally planning to stay where I was at, even though I wasn’t passionate about that field. So Debra advocated for me and my stable, long-term nature. 

They asked me how much I would want. I told her that since I’m happy where I’m at, my commute would double and start going with morning traffic, and since I was giving up my 401K, I would probably ask a lot to switch. So I did.

I thought it might be too high of a number and that she might come back lower. But by the next day, she came at me with an offer over the phone, and emailed me my offer letter on Saturday. 

I told her I’d need the weekend to think about it, and that it would also depend on my monthly insurance premiums. I reached out to the HR rep for information on plans and what my contribution would be. I fasted about it on Sunday and felt good about accepting the offer. The only real whispering I got was, “Wait for the insurance information.” So I waited and waited. He got the info to me on Tuesday. And that was the deciding factor—it was going to be $5 or $12 for medical and $17 for dental. With much lower deductibles than what I have currently. 

I told Debra I’d look over the offer again and that I thought I would accept it. Wednesday was our company hosted golf tournament, and I wasn’t about to ruin my bosses’ day with my news, so I waited until Thursday, August 9 to let them know.

I sat two of them down together and told them, and had to call the third one with the news. They responded really kindly. They were disappointed, which was reassuring to me that at least I wasn’t a total failure in my job. One of my bosses was asking all kinds of questions, almost like I was his daughter and he wanted to make sure I had done my research about this place. I really appreciated his concern. Overall they were really understanding and knew I had to do what was best for me. 

I gave them two weeks and a day’s notice, so my last day was August 24. 

The next couple of weeks were full of them teasing me about leaving, asking me if I changed my mind overnight, etc. I had several people come to my office after hearing the news and telling me they’d miss me. That was really nice. 

I did my best to write a big training manual/instruction document for some of the duties of my job. With passwords/logins and a few screen shots, it ended up being somewhere around 15 pages long. 

My bosses took me to lunch the Wednesday before I left. I chose Pizza Studio because it’s the best. 

On my last day, they were all out of the office for a pre-planned thing. So it was quiet. I finished up some things, turned in my key and credit card, and left at lunch time. My coworker Jeff took me and Brittney to lunch at Cubby’s. That was super nice of him. 

And my new adventure began on Monday this week. I’ve driven every day. I’ve come to work a different way all three days this week, and I’ve gone home a different way the past two days. We’ll see about tonight. My boss told me that Trax is an option if they don’t have to pay for my parking card. But I’d like to have the option of both, so I may just pay for a Trax pass. I’ll try it out probably tomorrow and see how it goes. Might be nice to just listen to audiobooks or podcasts, or get some coaching work done or articles written. 

So far the downsides of being downtown are 

- The ordeal of getting to and from my car (we’re in P4 of the City Creek parking lot; it’s a bit of a walk both to the elevator and from one elevator to the next). So errands will be a bigger ordeal.

- Traffic so far has been somewhat unpredictable. 

- I can’t easily stop by the grocery store if I need to pick something up (in Draper I was between Smith’s and Harmon’s) either midday or on the way home. 

- No Swig close by (and driving down to Thirst would be an ordeal). 

- No Dollar Tree close by.

- I have to get up earlier to get my workout done earlier to be on time, whether I drive or take Trax (train leaves at 7:53). 

- I just switched to a dentist in Draper and may need to find a new one downtown. 

- I can’t really do things like oil changes on my lunch break when it takes so long just to get to and from my car.

- It takes just as long to get from the freeway exit to work as it does from home to the freeway exit.

BUT 

- I can walk to GNC at City Creek, so that’s cool. I think I just need to take a loop around City Creek to see what’s accessible for me. 

- I discovered today that I can walk to the pharmacy, get a DDP, add their sugar free vanilla syrup, and add my creamer at work. Plus, it’s cheaper than Swig (they have refill cards). And includes a walk. I’ll take it. 

- I am across the street from the temple and have never done a session at Salt Lake Temple before. 

- Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is in walking distance, and Ruby Snap and Chip Cookies are close by, among many other delicious treats to hit up on the way home. 

- Lots of other restaurants and cafes to try, and reliable go-tos like Core Life and Costa Vida. 

- General great views and potential for nice walks around town