Finally! (Be Forewarned, Long Post Ahead...)

Finally, after more than three months of intensive job-searching, Greg has a new job! Yes! Honestly, when we first started this whole process, I thought for sure we would be out of Greg's job and into a new one well before now, especially with how good the Utah job market is supposed to be right now. But obviously, the Lord had other plans for it. For those of you guys who don't know what happened a few months back, here's the short version (it really is shortened, I promise!)...

Back in the fall, Greg was feeling really anxious to get out of T-Mobile because of some policy changes they were making. So he posted his resume online and a headhunter called him in December about a store manager position at a place called A World of Tile down in Salt Lake. We were thrilled because it got us out of T-Mobile, plus the company was projecting his salary to be six-figures (between salary and comission) and who wouldn't be thrilled about that?! So he ended up getting the job and started the second week in January. The weird thing was that I just felt sick about it the weekend before he started, and he got the exact same feeling when he walked in to work that first day. Well, come to find out, his manager and the CEO had been extremely deceptive with him about pay and benefits up until that point. According to them, the pay had the potential of being six-figures, but only in about 5 years after the store had gone through a major overhaul. So until then, we would be living off of an income that didn't even pay all of our bills. They also told us we would have full benefits for $250 a month, so we were thinking that means health, dental, vision - everything! But we were wrong (or should I say, they were wrong) - it's actually $550 a month just for health. Lovely! Extra expenses we hadn't even budgeted for... And on top of it all, they expected him to work no less than 55 hours a week over the span of 6 days. Maybe we are crazy, but 6 days a week of work is a lot (unless you're a doctor, I guess), especially when he is going to school full-time too! And just recently, they have actually been wanting him to work 60 hours, which to me is just a little out of control. Not that I'm bitter or anything... :)

Anyway, needless to say, we have been looking for a new job since the day Greg started this one, and honestly, I never knew how hard it would be to find a new one! We applied for so many jobs, I can't even count the number. Yet it was impossible to even get a call-back, and if we did and were lucky enough to get an interview (which only happened twice), Greg still didn't get the job. It was really grating, and after time, Greg and I got extremely frustrated. Eventually, we decided it was time to do a fast just so we could have some direction since we felt like we were getting nowhere. The day we did that, Greg felt like he needed to talk to a guy in our ward who works for Qwest in Salt Lake and see if they are hiring. We had applied for a job there before, but as usual, couldn't even get a call-back. Fortunately, he said they were hiring in his department, and he felt that Greg would be a great candidate for it.

So, after a lot of help from him (and the Lord, I'm sure), here we are with a new job at Qwest! Greg will be an account manager down there, and he is thrilled that he will no longer have people under him to manage. :) According to him, he's sick of dealing with other people's problems! The best part about the job is that it's Monday-Friday 8-5!!! I know I may sound really stupid, but Greg has been in retail ever since we got married and having him working Saturdays is getting really old! The only concern we had initially with this job is that he will still be commuting (which we were trying to avoid when we were looking for new jobs), but fortunately, we live two blocks away from a commuter rail stop (which starts tomorrow), and as a Weber State student, he can ride anything UTA for free! So once commuter rail gets into downtown, he can just hook up with Trax and be at work.

Anyway, sorry this was a long post, but we are just thrilled and glad to finally be working for a good, reputable company again! This current company has been a joke and we are looking forward to putting it all behind us. :) -Ash