The New Job: Month 1

I meant to write this post on Wednesday, the end of my first month at the SEC, but I ended up spending the 2.5 hours after the kids went to bed at Marshall's, Ross, Home Depot, and Target. Thursday was the same, though about half that time was spent returning things purchased the night before. My life right now is a mass of receipts, dust, and stuff in piles where it isn't supposed to be. I do love this house, and it's going to look amazing when it's done, but my home is not my calm happy place right now and it's all driving me a little crazy. Ten more days, give or take, and all the projects should be done. I can't wait.

But back to the point of this post (there are three separate piles of stuff staring at me while I type this, I couldn't write without addressing them because they are driving me CRAZY, but yes, moving on) -- I've been at my new job for 5 weeks! And never for one fraction of one second have I regretted the move, the hassle, the expense, the pay cut, or the fact that my new house is a mess. The job is awesome. The switch from a "work whenever the partners want you to/check your blackberry every hour you're at home" type job to a 7:30-4 job with absolutely no outside duty hours checking in is a change so fundamental it can't be described or understood unless it's lived. But I'm going to try.

First off, the things I do miss about the firm:

- The pay, of course. My pay cut wasn't that bad (about $30,000/year, not including bonuses I could have earned at the firm and definitely won't earn at the SEC) because my firm doesn't actually pay market (you get the market salary if and only if you hit 2,000 hours, in the form of a year-end lump sum to make up the difference; I missed this last year because the start of the year was so slow in my section- it didn't matter that I had a bunch of 200+ hour months at the end of the year), but it still stings. It stings more when you're renovating a house, but we'll even out. We never really lived off two salaries because JP had just started his job and we were sending every extra dollar to loans, so the only adjustment will be sending less extra in each month (or not at all, I've given myself a year to relax about those). But still, that first direct deposited (smaller) paycheck was a bit of a gut check.

- Water and sodas. Silly, but true. I now have a water dispenser in my office (I know everyone suggested an electric kettle, which I have at home, but there is no potable water at the office at all. The tap water is disgusting and I'm not a picky water drinker.), which I love, but when that 5 gallon bottle ran out I went right back to dehydrated and headachey within a day. Apparently I'm a little addicted to my daily 12 cups of hot tea. I also miss the free lunches- we got free lunches for any CLE, section meetings, birthdays, random days we felt going somewhere nice... the firm Amex got a lot of use. There is no SEC Amex. I'm going to have to start bringing my lunch because even at $7, I can't be buying it everyday.

- Unmonitored internet. Our internet usage is very tightly monitored and regulated. The most exciting website I visit each day is cnn.com. As I wrote before, I do get a whole lot more done every day because of this, and because I can't/don't "make up hours" at night or on the weekends, it is important to work hard while I'm there, but it is still a big change. I used to manage all our finances, pay bills, online shop, make cards/photo book/party invites, write blog posts etc. all during work hours. Now I have to reserve all of that for nighttime. If you've emailed me in the last month, this is why I haven't responded. It's also why I can't blog as much as I used to. It is amazing how many things I used to look up during the day that I can't now - amazon products, restaurant reviews, travel planning... I now keep a list of stuff to look up when I get home so I don't forget.

- Flexibility. This is the biggest adjustment. My hours are unquestionably better at the SEC, but they are also less flexible. At the firm, no one really cared where you were as long as you were getting your work done and your hours billed. Now, between the hours of 7:30 and 4, my desk is exactly where I need to be. 2:00 doctor appointment? That requires entering in 1.0 hours of sick leave. Leaving at 3:00 to see your daughter's Easter show? 1.0 hours of annual leave. It's all a lot more formal. At the firm, I'd come and go as needed and no one kept track of sick days or vacation days. Now I earn 4 hours of leave every two weeks. This means I'll have a day for my friend's wedding in May, but not my brother's graduation later that month. The flipside of this is that if I ever work an extra hour in a day (like staying until 5:00 because of a conference call), I've now earned an extra hour of leave for the future. And the major upside is that I ONLY work those hours. A more than worthwhile trade-off, but a trade-off nonetheless.

What I love about the new job/don't miss about the old one:

- Owning my career. I have gotten better experience in the last 30 days than my 3.5 years at the firm combined. I own my cases, I make the calls, I decide on strategy... it is terrifying and thrilling and a whole lot of trial by fire. It is also awesome. I am definitely gaining expertise in something highly sought after and even though I love what I'm doing, as an obsessive future planner and primary breadwinner of a family of four, I also love knowing that I can go back to firm life any time I want, and I'll be in a much better position than I ever could have attained if I hadn't left. Experience and expertise are power, and other than being two sections' preferred brief writer, I wasn't ever going to get any in a declining general commercial litigation practice.

- The people. I love my new co-workers. When you're working with a bunch of people who are giving up anywhere from $50-500,000/year to work where they are working, it generally means they really like what they're doing. And it is so much fun to be around people who are excited about their work, who are happy in their personal life, and who all think working at the SEC was the best decision they ever made. And since so many are transplants from big firms in DC, they're also very concerned with making sure the new girl feels like part of the family. Other than the fact that I still don't know where the fax machine is, I'd say I've settled in pretty well.

- The work. The work itself is great. I love investigating our cases- mining databases, making calls, and piecing together a story. I still get scared a few times a day- like when I have to make a call and I'm afraid someone will ask a question I won't know the answer to, and much of what I do just generally feels uncomfortable. But new things are supposed to be uncomfortable and I just have to believe I'll feel confident someday. Hopefully soon.

- The power. I can sign subpoenas. There are NO discovery fights. I get calls returned within minutes, generally from someone a whole lot higher up than the person I called in the first place. I get to spend my time on substance and not nonsense. It's awesome.

- My life. On Thursday it was 78 and beautiful. I got home with the kids at about 5:15 and saw that JP was on a call, so we put our feet in the pool to wait for him to finish. The kid started kicking and splashing, so I grabbed a chair and sat off to the side, watching them splash and giggle. By 5:45 both were naked and running and playing on the top two steps, hunting for diving rings (Landon would "hide" some for Claire on the top step and she'd throw some out into the pool for Landon to swim to), and I just got to sit and watch. It was okay that I hadn't started dinner yet - we wouldn't have even been home yet in Austin. It was a gorgeous afternoon. My phone was still in the car, my blackberry wasn't even on... I'm with my kids a lot and I think they get a lot of attention from me, but in that moment, I couldn't remember the last time I'd spent 30 full minutes doing nothing but be with them without a single distraction. No TV, iPhone, book, laptop, laundry, papers to file, nothing. JP came out to join us a few minutes later and by 6:00 they were bundled in towels and he was simmering some tomato cream sauce on the stove for dinner and the evening went on like any other evening. But that 30 minutes pretty well captures the biggest change in my life in the last month and no list of pros and cons can fully capture it.