Movement on Job Front (Part 3 of our Arctic Adventure)

Part 1
Part2

After five months of waiting for a move on the job front, suddenly there was something.

And it wasn't good.

On a Tuesday afternoon in early February Dave got word that his store (he was an assistant grocery manager) would be closing within the month and that was all he was told at that time. When he came home and told me that I was scared and frustrated. I had been laid off from my job in October and had since then been working on starting up my own home-based bookkeeping business, and while business was picking up, it was not nearly enough to really support us if Dave were to be out of work. So fear set in. How would we survive? We were barely making it already and Dave being out of work would only add to the financial crunch.

On Wednesday when Dave arrived at the store he was given some good news and some bad news. The bad was that the store would be closing sooner than previously thought. The good news was that the company was going to take all of the managers from the division (5 stores) and throw them all back in the pool to re-interview for the existing management position. So basically there was 20 managers and 16 positions. In that moment God gave me a sense of peace. I knew my husband was very well qualified and had more experience than most everyone else. Oh, and by the way, the interviews were the next day. Yep, Thursday.

Dave interviewed the next day and then we waited. Through the weekend. Finally, the next Tuesday we heard that Dave had gotten one of the positions in an area store. Unfortunately, we learned that it was going to be in a store that was 40 minutes one way from our house AND it was in the neighboring state that had a state income tax AND that state is none to friendly in offering refunds to employees who live in our state, but work in their state. So, not only was his gas expenses and commute time more than quadrupling, but he also had to take a 9% pay cut because of the state income tax. But he still had a job and we would just have to adjust our lifestyles and cinch the belt tighter, and I would have to put all of my effort into growing my business quickly.

And so we set out learning how to live on less, and being thankful that Dave still had a job in an economy when many did not.

And still he continued searching.

Three weeks later the phone rings, and rings again and rings again. Suddenly Dave has a job offer, an interview scheduled for the next day and another interview for the following week! After talking over the one job offer Dave and I decide that it is not the right job for him (or our family) so he turns it down. The next day is a phone interview with a grocery chain in Alaska. Dave hangs up from that interview feeling very confident that he had done well. The very next day the gal calls Dave back and gives him a tentative offer, along with a warning to "research this, look at where we are asking you to go, and really discuss this with your wife." She then asked Dave to take the weekend and call her back on Monday if he was truly interested.

It was that evening that my husband came to me and told me about this possible job offer. He was very excited! Then he told me where the company was asking us to go. I had never heard of Kotzebue Alaska, so I immediately went online and Googled it. Then I promptly turned to my husband and said, "Hell no, I'm not going there."

To be continued..........