Well I guess this post couldn't have came on a more appropriate day. Today was the 9/15 tax deadline, which is usually the worst and most stressful work deadline of the year. However, today I was not working trying to wrap up projects or making sure that all the 3rd quarter estimates were done and payment vouchers emailed to clients. I'm not going to lie, it definitely wasn't a bad feeling to have it off my plate. I actually asked Colt earlier today if he knew what day it was. It scared him because he thought he had forgot something important. Unless you have worked in public accounting, you don't understand the meaning of deadline days!
On August 22nd, I made the call and resigned from my non-Mommy job at Saville. I think it was definitely time for me, and I think I had just been delaying letting go completely out of fear that I might regret it. Basically since Kinley was born, I've already been doing the Stay-at-Home mom thing but I also had a job. In my opinion, being a Stay-at-Home mom is hard enough on its own, without adding a job in there too... especially with a child that didn't sleep through the night until 11 months! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I think as a household, we're all a lot happier since I resigned and more relaxed (at least I am), and I know Colt was just tired of hearing me debate about childcare options, money, and whether or not I wanted to keep working!
I had worked at Saville since January 2008, since I was still living in Commerce and getting my degree. Overall, I had worked there a little over 8.5 years. It was the only job that I've had since college. They were super flexible with me after not only having a baby, but also with letting me work remotely after our move to Temple. These things, along with my fear of wondering if I would want to go back to work when Kinley gets a little older and of course, the whole money issue, is what made it so hard for me to actually give it up completely. A lot of the people at Saville were great too, and I still have friends there, but when you end up working remotely, there is a little disconnect from the social aspect of work as time goes on.
Before I had Kinley, I had talks with work about reducing my schedule to part-time after I had her and working about 20 hours a week. When I came back from maternity leave, I did this for a while. However, I ended up having Kinley at home with me all the time. While she was a newborn, it was a little easier to get 20 hours of work in because she slept more. I could baby wear her or put her next to me since she wasn't mobile and get some work done. One con of doing this is that I think by wearing her and letting her sleep up against me while I worked, she got spoiled to it and wanted to be held all the time when she slept! I tried getting up super early before her so I could work before she got up, but it never failed, no matter what time I would get up, she would get up too! Since Kinley wasn't sleeping well on her own or for very long periods of time in a row, it made it a little more difficult.
At the end of 2015, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was tired. I still wasn't working out and really taking care of myself. After a lot of debate, I called one of our partners with plans on resigning. She talked me into taking a leave of absence until January 2016. Then in January, the plan was to basically work contract and just give them as many hours as I could. Her point of view that she presented was that she was willing to buy as many hours as I could give, and she also understood my fears of not wanting to quit completely at the time because if I wanted to "restart" in a few years, I would be out of the loop. This plan would somewhat let me have the "best of both worlds." When January rolled around, my new reduced schedule seemed to work. I worked about 10 hours a week for the most part, until spring tax season. Basically I worked every chance I could. I would put Kinley down to nap, run and pick up the house, sometimes take a quick shower and then run to my computer to try to get some work in. It never failed though that as soon as I got started on something, she would wake up! Around the April deadline, I still ended up working more. I worked more at night after Kinley went to bed because I felt like I needed to, and I ended up running myself in the ground. After that deadline passed, I cut back a little more and was working anywhere from 5-10 hours a week, and in those last few months it was closer to only 5 hours a week. I had another call in the middle of the summer and asked if it was really worth it to Saville for me to only work 5 hours a week because that was all I could and was willing to do at the time. I was told that in her opinion, it was still worth it because it was 5 hours someone else didn't have to do.
However, as time went on, I kept feeling like I never had any time. Anytime Kinley slept, and sometimes even when she was awake, I was trying to work. I ended up being logged on pretty much all day just to try to get an hour or two of work in. Sometimes that didn't even happen. Also, even when I wasn't working, I was still checking emails on my phone and worrying about what I needed to be doing. Close to the time that I ended up resigning, I ended up working on a large return, and it literally took me almost a whole week to finish reviewing it. When you can only work an hour or two and you start and stop, it doesn't work very well and isn't very efficient! Also, one day I ended up playing phone tag with a client literally ALL day long. I think these things really made me decide to go ahead and call it quits. Me "trying" to work basically was me having no downtime at all. If you have a baby, you need a little me time in the middle of the day because that's the only break you get! I wasn't getting that and didn't have any time to do anything that I actually needed or wanted to do.
Then of course, there was the money issue. By the end, I felt like I was kinda just working for the extra money. I know everyone has this idea that doctors make lots of money, but residents, not so much... not to mention the student loans you have to pay off for medical school. Obviously, we had budgeted and knew we could easily make it on just Colt's salary, but I made good money so it was still hard to give up money that I could be making. My salary when I worked full time was pretty much double Colt's resident salary so the fact that I could make that, and just wasn't willing to, was hard for me to wrap my head around! I was just used to working and making my own money. In the past when I spent unnecessary money, I would always think, well that was only an hour or two hours of me working and so on... I know I'm a weirdo. Of course, I asked Colt a million times if he would resent me not working, and of course, a million times, he told me definitely not, which I knew without asking him. His opinion is that what I can give Kinley, you can't really put a price on. He's never really worried about the money aspect. The only reason he wanted me to work was that if I truly still enjoyed it and wanted to work. He eventually told me that if I didn't go ahead and resign, that he was just going to make my decision for me and unplug my computer!
My main hesitation with quitting was the fact that I knew that Saville, mainly one of the partners, had bent over backwards being flexible and trying to make this work for me so that I could be home with Kinley but also still have a career. I felt like I had the opportunity to work from home, work as much as I wanted, and still keep her home with me. I felt like I would be crazy to turn it down! Ultimately, I wasn't motivated to work anymore though. I craved being able to spend that hour or two a day doing something other than running to my computer.
After I resigned, I spent the rest of that week emailing clients to say goodbye and finalize the transition of a few things. I finally deleted my email from my phone a week ago! It was hard for me not to check it when I still had it on my phone. Although, I'm not formally going to have a "job," my plan is to keep up my CPA license, and I'm also doing a few things on the side. I am currently doing bookkeeping for the gym that I go to, along with their payroll tax and federal tax returns. I do my brother's sales tax and excise tax quarterly. Plus, I'm going to be doing a few other peoples taxes in April that I helped last year. I think it will give me a little something extra to do but not take up too much of my time.
So far, although it was bittersweet leaving Saville, I think it has been the best decision, and I also haven't missed working yet. Honestly, I haven't had time to! When I look back at my days now, I can't imagine how I was working. That little hour or two of nap time fills up fast! Who knows... maybe now that I'm not running to my computer to work, I might not stay 8 months behind on this thing called a blog!!
However, as time went on, I kept feeling like I never had any time. Anytime Kinley slept, and sometimes even when she was awake, I was trying to work. I ended up being logged on pretty much all day just to try to get an hour or two of work in. Sometimes that didn't even happen. Also, even when I wasn't working, I was still checking emails on my phone and worrying about what I needed to be doing. Close to the time that I ended up resigning, I ended up working on a large return, and it literally took me almost a whole week to finish reviewing it. When you can only work an hour or two and you start and stop, it doesn't work very well and isn't very efficient! Also, one day I ended up playing phone tag with a client literally ALL day long. I think these things really made me decide to go ahead and call it quits. Me "trying" to work basically was me having no downtime at all. If you have a baby, you need a little me time in the middle of the day because that's the only break you get! I wasn't getting that and didn't have any time to do anything that I actually needed or wanted to do.
Then of course, there was the money issue. By the end, I felt like I was kinda just working for the extra money. I know everyone has this idea that doctors make lots of money, but residents, not so much... not to mention the student loans you have to pay off for medical school. Obviously, we had budgeted and knew we could easily make it on just Colt's salary, but I made good money so it was still hard to give up money that I could be making. My salary when I worked full time was pretty much double Colt's resident salary so the fact that I could make that, and just wasn't willing to, was hard for me to wrap my head around! I was just used to working and making my own money. In the past when I spent unnecessary money, I would always think, well that was only an hour or two hours of me working and so on... I know I'm a weirdo. Of course, I asked Colt a million times if he would resent me not working, and of course, a million times, he told me definitely not, which I knew without asking him. His opinion is that what I can give Kinley, you can't really put a price on. He's never really worried about the money aspect. The only reason he wanted me to work was that if I truly still enjoyed it and wanted to work. He eventually told me that if I didn't go ahead and resign, that he was just going to make my decision for me and unplug my computer!
My main hesitation with quitting was the fact that I knew that Saville, mainly one of the partners, had bent over backwards being flexible and trying to make this work for me so that I could be home with Kinley but also still have a career. I felt like I had the opportunity to work from home, work as much as I wanted, and still keep her home with me. I felt like I would be crazy to turn it down! Ultimately, I wasn't motivated to work anymore though. I craved being able to spend that hour or two a day doing something other than running to my computer.
After I resigned, I spent the rest of that week emailing clients to say goodbye and finalize the transition of a few things. I finally deleted my email from my phone a week ago! It was hard for me not to check it when I still had it on my phone. Although, I'm not formally going to have a "job," my plan is to keep up my CPA license, and I'm also doing a few things on the side. I am currently doing bookkeeping for the gym that I go to, along with their payroll tax and federal tax returns. I do my brother's sales tax and excise tax quarterly. Plus, I'm going to be doing a few other peoples taxes in April that I helped last year. I think it will give me a little something extra to do but not take up too much of my time.
So far, although it was bittersweet leaving Saville, I think it has been the best decision, and I also haven't missed working yet. Honestly, I haven't had time to! When I look back at my days now, I can't imagine how I was working. That little hour or two of nap time fills up fast! Who knows... maybe now that I'm not running to my computer to work, I might not stay 8 months behind on this thing called a blog!!
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