Saturday, January 8, 2011

Changes

My first blog of 2011 talked about changes for this new year and I took a big step yesterday and gave my notice for my job. I'd been going back and forth for over 2 months debating to continue and struggle with maintaining a full time job while juggling caring for Everett. For those of you that may not know what I do, I work for Peak Development as a property manager. I work for a wonderful man who owns two beautiful multi-use highrises in Gresham.

The Beranger is located in Historic Downtown Gresham with 24 high-end condominiums and several commercial spaces including Gloss Salon, Edward Jones, and Hillcrest Chiropractic.

The Crossings is a larger building consisting of 81 units and commercial spaces including Big Town Hero, Gresham Integrated Care, Edward Jones, and NW Counseling Services. This is where we live and are graciously compensated with a beautiful 2 bedroom loft.


This building is where the grunt end of my work is. With a much higher turnover rate and a higher demand for management, it has consumed much of my time, stress, and in many ways (in which I guess I have allowed) affected my personal life. It's really the entire job as a whole, but I have finally realized that it has been overriding the undivided time I should be giving to Everett. I work and live onsite and am required to answer the phone (not failing to mention that my cell phone is off the hook!), show apartments at the drop of a hat, office work, posting of notices to the tenants, and in the scope of things, handle all tenant, perspective tenant, vendor, and city-related aspects. With Everett becoming so active, it's been difficult to haul him down the elevator to the main lobby to meet with people (and on top of that, keep my fingers crossed that he'll behave) and to have him hanging on my leg begging for attention while I do a work email or talk on the phone. Somewhat equal to Everett deserving my attention, I also feel that the owner deserves the same as well for his buildings and it finally came to a head that I couldn't give both my efforts. Each required me full time and I finally made the decision of what was most important to me. And that was being a full time mother, not a full time property manager.

I've been working in property management going on 10 years now and it's always been a job that I have enjoyed and I will truly miss having my foot in this line of work and mostly, I will truly miss working for probably the best boss I've ever had. He is one of the most genuine types of business men that you could ever encounter. And with his supportive, understanding, and kind personality, I guess I can only pray that should I ever choose to go back to work, I would have the opportunity to work for him again or even have the chance to work for someone like him.

It's been a very emotional decision and I actually get a little teary-eyed at the thought of not only being able to not have this job and work for a great boss, but at the thought of letting go of years and years of schooling and training to have such a job and to finally let my license expire. The Oregon Real Estate Agency allows any license to stay in an "inactive" state and with this, I just imagine my license just sitting there, disintegrating, and my decade of hard work disappearing. I know, this analogy sounds a bit pathetic but this is a big step for me and while I know that the job God has given me is to raise my child with His love, I am letting go of the last bit of my adult individual that doesn't involve baby snot on my shirt or baby food in my hair or a puff stuck to my butt. I'm not sure if any of you other moms understand this struggling concept (because I'm kind of having a difficult time putting it into blog words) but I have known a few who voluntarily made the decision to quit their job to become a stay-at-home mom but yet, took a bit of time to adjust.

But don't get me wrong! I very much look forward to dedicating all my time to Everett and having the opportunity to get out and explore everything with him. Everett absolutely loves getting out of the house and I was beginning to tell when he was getting a little stir-crazy with having myself as the only form of interaction but yet, I wasn't really able to get out during the week. I'm so glad that my job won't be holding him/us back anymore and I am so excited to get him involved in things.

Well, at the beginning of this new year, I did say that I was looking forward to some changes and here's one big one I can definitely look forward to!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations to you for making such a big step... you are also very lucky that you are able to make this choice. :) Good luck to you guys. Are you moving?

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  2. Congratulations on the new change. Being a mom, I can totally understand. The job you had seemed to be the most awesome job... for someone without a kid! Good luck with the SAHM gig!

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