Give 'em an inch....

Give 'em an Inch 

Five years ago I retired. Three months ago I went back to work. Why?

Since retiring I have maintained some contacts on campus and the other day one of them asked if I would cover for him while he went on vacation. He is the IT guy for a small department and he takes a month off in the summer during the quite time. He hires a person for an hour a day to monitor the servers, network, and his email account - and provide emergency user support. I said; "Sure, what the heck. That sounds like fun." It's only for a month. I can spare that from my busy life.

The first day there I ran into one of the professors who was also the IT Director for the college. After briefly catching up he mentioned that another department was looking for an IT Guy and had been having some bad luck over the years trying to find someone. Would I be interested in talking to them? I said; "Sure, what the heck. That might be fun."

The next day I got an email from the department administrator (whom I knew because she used to be head of HR for the college when I worked there).  Could I stop in and talk about the position?

We scheduled a meeting.

Hiram Smith Hall

The first thing she said when I sat down was; "What can we do for you?" This floored me and while I thought of an answer she suggested we take a tour.  As we walked through the recently remodeled but still classic building, she described the position as well as she could. Her perspective was 'non-IT' but this was the best she could do because they were currently without any IT support and the last person to leave didn't do so 'happily'. But I recognized what the job was - both from experience and from what I'd heard from other people - and believed that I would have no trouble filling it. It was a new slant on my old job so it sounded like it might be fun.

It turned out that what they could do for me was to provide a nice office, very flexible schedule working half time (basically any hours I wanted), a promise of full backing and support (and adoration from - almost - all). The salary wouldn't be all that great but it wouldn't effect my pension or social security. Kind of like a job at Walmart, only much more fun.

So I was torn. If you know me, you know that I don't do well with decisions. I see too many sides and it's hard to settle on one - for good. On the one hand, I have enjoyed retirement. It has given me the time to work on, and become somewhat proficient in, woodworking (custom furniture design and construction), music, writing, and most important; forestry and forest management. But in the end the timing turned out to be right. They caught me during my annual let-down after an intense baseball season (I umpire for high school, legion, and little league) and before I settled into my woodworking, writing, and farming (foresting) routine. So I said; "What the heck, it might be fun."

I started the following Monday.

To be continued...