On Making Decisions…

Had an interesting email in my inbox this morning. One of those internal office sorts of emails wanting to offer me a different position in the company, with the added bonus of getting a rather high level of clearance. In the government world, this is a very Big Thing. It almost certainly means more money. That level of clearance is practically a golden ticket to getting employment pretty much anywhere you want, at least in the world of government contracting.

But. (There’s always a but, isn’t there?)

A few years ago, I would have jumped at the chance. In fact, when I got hired on at the company I’m at right now, I was actually up for two positions – the one I have, and another that would have gotten me the clearance. In the end, I turned down the clearance position. There were several reasons for this, a major one being that I was nine weeks pregnant with Lucy and I knew I was going to need to take some time off when she arrived. I didn’t think I would be able to swing that at one of those other sorts of jobs. (And it turns out I was very right – Lucy ended up being hospitalized twice within the first four months, requiring a lot of extra time..)

See, here’s the thing. I know I bitched in one of my previous posts about being on overhead – i.e. I can be required to work some fairly obnoxious hours at times and I get no bonuses, but on the other hand? I can work from home if I need to. I can pick up and go to doctor’s appointments, come in late, leave early, take a longer lunch. No one cares. My boss trusts me to get my work done. He’s not a micro manager, and all my coworkers have kids about the same age. They get it.

I suppose I will at least find out what the position entails, but additional money aside, I can already tell you it will undoubtedly require a longer commute, stricter hours, stricter dress code. If I’m stuck inside a SCIF, there’s *no* chance of bringing work home, or logging into a server after hours. There’s probably little in the way of external internet. Or cell phones. Or iPods.

But for me, it’s not really about the money, or the possibility of moving up the management chain. I’ve got no interest in managing anyone right now, although I certainly could if I wanted to. With the kids where they are and the writing career finally starting to happen, it’s all about flexibility. I’m comfortable where I’m at, and mostly happy.

Why go messing with something that works, when I don’t *need* to?

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