I don't really talk about my day job here on the blog, mostly due to the nature of the work, but also because I'd bore everyone to death. I'm changing things up today as it kinda affects the state of the blog.

I was working for a government contracting company. Two months ago, we received word that we lost the re-compete for the contract that we were on. The government chose another firm whose proposal bid was significantly lower in cost than ours. Can't say I blame them as budget cuts are affecting everyone. This is just the nature of the business and fairly common in the DC area where there is a large contractor presence. It just so happened to be a first-time experience for many of us -- some of my coworkers have been on this project since its inception 20 years ago! After the initial surprise wore off, we were all kinda left in this discombobulated, surreal state of mind with so many questions and no immediate answers.

This is the only company (and only project) I've worked at since graduating from college, so I could be talking out of my ass here. I've never left a company voluntarily, nor been fired, nor been laid off. I still think it's a unique situation that we were put in because everyone will be going their separate ways at around the same time. In the meanwhile, we were still expected to report to work for the next two months during this "transition period" between contracts. What motivation is there to produce quality work when you know you'll never see the finish line? We were in the middle of a software build, but now... I'll leave that sentence unfinished, haha. I imagine it's also odd to openly talk about interviewing for new jobs while still at your current job. In some ways, the atmosphere is more relaxed and everyone seems friendlier because there are no more taboo topics. Hey boss, I'm stepping out for a couple hours for an interview. No problem, good luck!

For me, I didn't really feel a sense of panic aside from a knee-jerk reaction. My thinking was, two months is a long time to be unmotivated at work, but is a good amount of time to look for a new job. I may be naive in my thinking, but I felt everyone had marketable skills and shouldn't be unemployed for long. After the two month transition period, our company would keep employees on for a few more weeks. Then, we'd be able to start collecting unemployment checks for a couple months. Perhaps this false sense of optimism stems from knowing that I will be cashing out all my vacation hours once I leave my current company. That's a good chunk of change to tide me over for awhile. Hoarding finally pays off! When I laid out my plan to DH, he was jealous that I could essentially be on a months-long "sabbatical". But happily agreed to be my sugar daddy in the worst-case scenario. Whew.

All my thoughts up until now were written literally days after we lost the contract. I've had two months to process everything and figured it's finally time to finish writing this post. The one constant emotion throughout it all has been overwhelming sadness. Sadness for the breakup of my work family, sadness for having to hand our "baby" over to new parents, sadness for selfish reasons like how I've taken so many perks for granted (ie: flexible work schedule).

I lucked out and was able to find a new job fairly quickly. Same type of work, same industry, just with a new employer and new customer. On paper, the new job checks off all my requirements, many of which are even better compared to my old job. The one thing I was really hoping for was to find a job that allowed me to start at a later date so I have the chance to finish out the current contract and then take a few weeks off to chill. Perhaps it's loyalty to our customer, not wanting to leave management in a bind, curiosity to see how the new company handles the transition, or all of the above, but I'm happy to have gotten my wish.

The last two months have been... interesting, for lack of a better word. It's been eye-opening to see how other companies operate, in regards to day-to-day operations, handling of professional relationships, and just the handling of knowledge transfer during this transition period. On the blog front, I don't know if it's apparent that I've been wearing more business casual outfits. I will no longer be allowed to dress casually at my new job, so I've been slowly preparing myself the last few weeks. RIP jeans (especially holey jeans!), short skirts, and flip flops.

You can bet I'll be making the most of my unemployed situation. Expect non-work appropriate outfits for the next few weeks of the casual and dressy variety. After that, I'm not exactly sure of the state of the blog. I hope to mix and match pieces to create new business casual outfits fairly often. Though a more realistic outlook is probably sporadic blog posts as I focus on my new job while rotating between a select few business casual outfits for real life, likely from the pool below:

Thank you in advance for bearing with me through life changes!