Latest Round of Life Changing Decisions

So, my husband and I have decided the following after much pondering, discussing, and various other decision making tactics (not including "rock, paper, scissors" or a coin toss, I promise!).

1. I'm going to quit my job.

• My co-workers and I are apparently very bad communicators. Of the 9-person management team, I feel that only about three of them communicate effectively with me. While I send emails all the time on various subjects, and give progress reports when we have meetings, I don't feel that I get the same level of effort in return from the rest. It's more stressful than I can describe in words... My employees, or even customers, ask me very legit and simple questions to which I simply don't have answers. "Well, said that..." "Okay, let's do that then." What can I say, they implement things and make decisions that I can't defend, enforce, or even protest, because I don't know them.
• I stand up for myself and for my kids, and that's something I get reprimanded for. (Note that one of my peeves is when the other management personnel call them "the kids." The kids makes them children, mis-behaving, immature, etc. However, them being my kids means I guide, nurture, teach, respect, and lead them.) I firmly believe that if I've covered my bases, I should do what I can to make my staff happy, I'm all for staff morale. I was told "you have the staff's best interest at heart, but that's not what we need in a manager." Wtf? If there's a guard at each tower, who cares if I tell a 16 year old that he/she can go on a family vacation. What am I supposed to say, "no, while your whole family is in Hawaii, you are to stay home alone so that you can come to work. What's that you say, you aren't old enough for a drivers' license so you can't get to work if your parents/siblings aren't home to drive you? Sounds like a personal problem to me." Sure I may pull off what some would (and do) call logistical miracles to make it work sometimes, but I have only had to deny a time off request once for under-staffing. In that particular instance, I gave this person the fewest number of hours possible for the two days she needed off (a total of 5 hours), and she found herself a sub.
• When my work tells me that I can't do over 40 hours per week (official policy), and that if I do the hours will be held until a week that I don't work as much (what actually ends up happening in practice), you know what I do? I work my 40 hours and go home. I was explaining to another member of our management team that I couldn't be in charge if she went home early, because I was scheduled for a long lunch in the middle of her shift, while my side of the pool was closed. She asked me if it was really necessary for me to take a long lunch. (Strike one: Don't mess with my off time!) I explained that the reason why I scheduled myself a longer lunch was so that I wouldn't go over 40 hours because I worked a lot over the weekend, and the reply I got was, "well, I work more than 40 hours all the time." One, delegate more. Two, don't purposely go against policy. Three, don't drag me into going against policy and give me attitude when I won't. Pffft.
• My husband Charles is now making just a dollar short of his old hourly wage plus my current hourly wage. That's a net loss of only a dollar from me quitting, if you assume that I work 40 hours per week, which only happens during the summer. So in the end, we're still bringing in more.
  
• With our 1,000 hour cap, I would only be allowed to work an average of 15 hours per week from August 22nd through July 1st 2007. At three hours per day (if I didn't do weekends), can you even call that a job? It's not worth the stress, the gas money, or my time.

We're going to return my mom's car to her but not worry about getting the Explorer fixed just yet. Since Charles is commuting by train, the only single-car difficulties we'd have would be on the weekends, or if I was "busy" when it's pick up or drop off time to/from the train station, and that's been mitigated by decision #1.

I'm going to let some of my Red Cross stuff lapse. I'm going to try to keep up CPR instructor, Water Safety Instructor (swimming & water safety), and Lifeguard Training, with which I could get a combination of side jobs if I so desired. However, my instructor trainer stuff and my lifeguarding instructor stuff I'm not going to go out of my way to renew.


• I'm not going to stay on payroll so I can teach classes just so I can stay current. If I need these certifications at some later time, I will go re-earn them.

Once his health insurance kicks in and I've taken care of some health issues (my knees haven't acted up lately, but I have chronic back pain and I'm still getting my hypothyroidism in check), we're going to start a family. We've talked about it at length, with different possible time frames and everything. I think we're emotionally ready for it, I just need a little more work to be physically ready for it. (Me not working outside the home, apart from being something we both wanted before having kids, will also give me the time and energy to take care of my health better.)

So, that's the plan! Now, how and when to announce #1 is my current project! My team is hosting a beach party on Saturday, and fall "re-applications" are due on Sunday. I need to tell them before then. I will probably have a talk with my boss, and do a bland letter just for the record, not a tell-all letter like my last one. Then I'll talk to my guards about it at our pre-party meeting.