Announcement

For those of you that follow my blog, you may remember me making comments here and there about some upcoming job changes.  I haven't been able to say much because things weren't public yet, but now they are...and I'll still have a job after June 30th!!!!  It's a confusing situation if you don't work in the mental health field or know what an LME (Local Management Entity) is, so I'll try to explain things as easily as possible.  Basically where I work is merging with another county's LME to create an entirely new entity.   The new entity is called an MCO (Managed Care Organization) instead of an LME.  We were told about this a few months ago and knew that as of July 1, 2012 we would no longer be county employees. 

We had 3 options...
1.  Take severance
2.  Go through the RIF process with the county and be placed in another county job
3.  Apply with the new MCO

Over 50% of my co-workers decided to either retire or go with the RIF placement.  You can imagine the stress of 1) doing the same amount of work without 1/2 of your staff and 2) doing all of that work while not knowing where you'll be in a few months. 

For those of us that decided to stay, we applied for up to 5 jobs.  We interviewed for our top 2 positions and then we waited...and waited...and waited.  It got tricky because job functions and requirements were totally changed so lots of people didn't qualify for the jobs they currently do, or the job they currently did was changed in to something completely different.  It was a stressful period.  We were competing against our co-workers, friends, and another county for positions.  We didn't know salaries, benefits, or office locations....there were a LOT of sleepless nights and a LOT of wine was consumed.   

We got our calls about a week and a half ago offering us positions, I got my #1 choice and couldn't be happier.  We have 3 locations...1 in each county and then a Corporate in the middle.  My job will be located at Corporate.  I was really worried about having a longer drive, but it's not going to be quite as long as I originally anticipated.  We still don't have salaries or benefits, but they benefits they're proposing to the board are great...comparable to our county benefits (if not better) not to mention we get to transfer our vacation, sick leave and our years of service!  We know we'll start our jobs with our current salaries, so no real stress there, and they're going to reclassify positions so we'll hopefully get a little pay bump. 

We still have a bumpy road ahead, the transition is going to be time consuming and stressful.  But it's nice to know that I have a job, I'm safe, and I can still help provide for my family.  A lot of my favorite co-workers will be at the Corporate location with me, which will be great.  There are close to 100 positions that we didn't have enough staff to fill and those will be posted externally, so we're also helping the economy :)  God is great!