CBCat wrote:Damn gonna be working.
Not kidding when I say I have negotiated to have the NCAA days off work for as long as I have been a "professional" whateverthehellitisIdo.
The most "skin in the game" moment in the run? A minor, now defunct bank offered me a risk management position while I was unemployed with a 2 month old baby. My wife works, but as a school teacher, so my part is kind of necessary. They made their offer, and the money was actually better than I expected, so I did not counter. Well, not money. I noted the 90 day probationary period would cover the tournament, and there were to be no days off during that first evaluation period. So, risking my offer (I felt pretty comfortable. Fairly. Not totally worried), I countered that I would accept the pay and benefits as offered, but required March XX and YY off of work to tend to "personal matters."
The HR rep had no idea what that would be. The hiring manager, however, knew exactly what I was doing. He called me and said "do you really have the guts to do this? To counter our offer of a (SRM gobbledygook) position, just for basketball? What if we turn you down?"
I really didn't have a good answer for that, but I did say "this is really the best test of my character that you could ask for, XXXXManagerguy. If I was at work during the Arizona game, or most of the games, I wouldn't actually be working, much like the rest of the office. I recognize this, and am looking to create an equitable solution. I am being up front disclosing 'you should not pay me for these days, because my performance will not be up to my usual levels or pay grade'."
Luckily he laughed, said he loved the answer, and could I start Monday after next. I could, so he got HR on the phone to finalize the deal. And I went back into the workforce, minus those two tournament days, coming off of a great holiday season of unemployment, spending overnights with my baby daughter in what was the easiest first 2 months of parenthood ever...wife got up at 5am, took her until I woke up around noon, we tag teamed until 8p, then the wife went to sleep and I watched movies and played videogames with her in my arms or in her bassinet. I actually woke her into a crying fit while holding her when I started maniacally laughing after the Boise State hook-and-ladder vs OU in the Fiesta Bowl. I had quit my job in early December (hated the company), watched all the bowl games and hoops tournaments/early conference games, witnessed the birth of baby girl 2 in late December, watched the NFL games, then jumped back in the workforce on Feb. 11. It was a nice, fulfilling 3 month sabbatical. If I wasn't snipped, I'd shoot for another one some time, except right on March Madness...