(Welcome, Wander-Lust readers! And muchas gracias to Daphne at Phoxxe.com for the blush-worthy feature.)
I gave my notice at work today.
Now, you may, or may not have noticed a distinct lack of entries about my working life here. There’s a really good reason for that. You see, two weeks after I started working at my present job, I was blogging something about Winnipeg and pickup trucks. Or was it perogi? Or the preponderance of baseball-cap wearing, massively homophobic men, and the relationship between male-pattern baldness and said caps? Something stupid like that. In the process of this, I made a somewhat snarky remark about salespeople.
I came into work the next day, and there was an e-mail from one of my newly minted coworkers, who happened to be, natch, a salesguy. All the e-mail contained was the comment I made on my site, as if to say, “Gotcha!”. And ever since then, I’ve never posted about work, even when I was frustrated, or pissed off, or if something hilarious happened.
I’ve also noticed the work proxy server appearing in my server logs every once in a while, so I know that people from work come here occassionally. As much as it would have felt good to get stuff out of my system here every once in a while, it just wasn’t worth dealing with the possibility of more stress if I ended up stepping on someone’s ego, or offending someone’s fragile sensibilities.
But, I’ve told my employer that come the 3rd of May, I will no longer consider myself in their employ. While that doesn’t mean the floodgates are now open, that does give me at least a little leeway to talk about what’s going on ‘round these parts.
I’ve 
given notice at work because I was offered (and accepted) a position with the local trades college here as a digital media / Web instructor. It’s full-time, with 2-3 hours of teaching each day and the rest of the time spent marking assignments, helping students out, working on freelance projects, and generally acting like Gabe Kotter (except sans moustache - Asians should never grow facial hair - it looks all stringy, and patchy, and dreadful, and that’s another entry altogether).
I’m really excited about the new job, and I’m even more excited about getting out of corporate work for a little while. Don’t get me wrong: working for big companies has been good to me, and good for my financial sense of wellbeing, which all things told isn’t something to complain too much about… but as a “creative type”, corporate work only provides so much sustenance.
Working as a designer / developer can also be rather lonely. In some way, it’s a lot like being a writer - it’s just you, the computer, and an idea that you’re coaxing along to fruition. I used to do some teaching back when I lived in Toronto, and the socialness of the classroom can’t be beat. You want a community? Just spend some time in a class full of people who are actually eager and interested in what they’re learning.
I’ve missed that sense of camaraderie, and I’ve missed the incredibly fulfilling feeling one gets when you see someone getting what you’re trying to teach. The eyes come alive, the head nods, and the smiles appear. As feelings go, it’s pretty damn sweet.
This was what I was trying to say without actually coming out and saying it. The fact of the matter is I was planning to move to Montreal if I didn’t get this job anyway, so I would have quit sooner rather than later. But, my life is now careening off into another, competely unexpected direction. As my friend Barb would say, “It’s all good.”
I am very excited.
