Nicole feels

My two week "trial" is over.

It culminated with a nice chat with Boss-man, the promised $1 an hour raise and the news that I am actually salary.

What that means is my weekly salary is based on an hourly wage of $XX. I like the idea of salary simply for the fact that they are not watching the clock and I am not watching the clock.

In theory.

If I find I am consistently working over 40 week after week, I will have a talk about other incentives. The hourly wage my salary is based on isn't bad. But it is not worth consistently putting in 9+hour days.

I have a 90-day review which should give me enough time to know how the hours are really panning out and what not. I will be eligible for commission/profit sharing then also, so that may be of a better advantage to me.

I staffed my first position last night. I was nervous about it, though I felt like he was a good pick. His last assignment ended this week, through nothing he did wrong, it just simply ended. He came into the office every day inquiring about job availability.

So, I called him, he wanted to go, I assigned him, left a message with the client and came home. And I prayed he'd show.

And he did!

Whoopeeeeee!

During my review today I was only "cited" for one improvement, and Boss-man even admitted it wasn't really anything I was doing wrong, just something I needed to improve in the weeks to come. And his first questions to me concerned how I was feeling personally and how the family was doing.

Pretty cool.

Since I *thought* I was hourly this week and had been watching the hours and had been told by Sass that I couldn't go over forty, I was approved to leave early today. It was nice to get out and take care of some errands. Kaytlin is having a slumber party tonight. 5 giggly girls in pjs in our family room who I had to go to S@m's to buy pizza and chocolate cake for.

I am so glad my bedroom is at the other end of the house.

As far as Rob's job front, it goes from one extreme to the next. Just two Fridays ago we were unsure he even had a job. Today the word came down that they will be working 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Starting tomorrow.

There goes our Saturdays.

My hope is that they can arrange for every few Saturdays off. Maybe rotate them or something. They decided to switch from 3 to 2 drivers, hence the 20 hours of overtime per week.

He will get paid for that overtime, which will be nice, but I'd rather have him home all weekend. This may be a good career move for him, however, as he may be hired after the project is complete to go on as a local tech.

I think I mentioned that I had my first inquiry into my marital status by an associate this week. I also had a guy tell me I looked 25.

The dear, sweet soul! He was either being very nice or is severely farsighted.

On the other end of the spectrum, one prospective client continually responded to every question I asked with "yes m'am" or "no m'am". I finally told him he was making me feel old, and he profusely apologized.

Poor kid.

So, overall, other than being pretty pooped, things are going well for both of us on the job front. I think we are all settling in.

Now if I could just muster the energy to get on the treadmill each day, finish the painting, and get rid of the seemingly 100 or so stinkin' boxes still in the garage...