It’s been a while. But sometimes real life (RL) kicks you in the teeth, and doesn’t stop there. Kind of what happened to me. Not to get overly detailed since it is the boring RL stuff, but things definitely didn’t go as planned.

The real world (RW) company I work for – the one who helps to pay all my RW bills – hit a patch of insanity, work wise. Long hours started to become the norm, and then some extra responsibilities started to fall onto my shoulders (and other co-works as well) to pick up the slack as some folks left the company for other prospects. Then, over the winter of 2018, word started to make its way through the team that there was a possible corporate purchase in the future. Didn’t think much of it right off, rumor mills are good at stirring up shit after all, but it ended up being true.

Not that we found out about it semi-officially until early spring 2019. Then the rumor mill went into overdrive, and we all started to plan for the “what ifs” that come when you hear your company is about to be purchased. Especially when there’s not exactly a huge flow of information to the ones who keep the company running on the day-to-day. But, hey, owners and management seem to think it’s all them (delusional fucks that they are). The “little people” (ie: the ones pulling the 10-16 hour days keeping the money flowing, the product exiting, and the clients happy) aren’t that important, right?

*Insert an epic, viewing of the brain, eye-roll here*

Mid-spring we finally got confirmation that the sale was progressing, and that we were in fact being purchased. By a competitor in fact, one I’d frankly never heard of except for during the last six months the rumor mill was going wild. Before that … *crickets*

Things took a bit longer than I think the owners of both (ours and theirs) companies originally planned on, because my boss was a half-way decent human being who wanted to ensure that the staff he still had at that time, would continue to have jobs at their same pay rates. There were a few other stipulations that caused some delay, but they were relatively minor in the grand scheme. In the end, we were officially bought, things started to transition, and then THE MOVE talk began. The company would purchased us had a much larger facility, and since our building was on the chopping block to be demo’ed at some point in the sort-of-not-really near future, it all just made sense.

Fall 2019 utter chaos! Between moving a whole company, integrating two very different team dynamics, and learning a new system for all our day-to-day projects – it was rather hellish to be kind. And the ever looming “what if they decide I’m not needed here” thoughts likely didn’t help. Stress be a bitch, yo!

The learning curve was sharp, the work was familiar (huge help!), and generally the other team was lovely, warm, welcoming, and straight up helpful to those of us walking in “blind”. Not to say there weren’t some hiccups, speed bumps, and less than happy folks – but that was, thankfully, in the minority. Coming into the New Year, 2020, looked good, like I might actually be able to get things back on track once more, and start writing on the regular.

Shouldn’t have thought it. Should NOT have thought it!

We all know how 2020 has gone, not going to rehash it. But will say that I was one of the very few in my city who still kept going to work, which I’m grateful for – don’t get me wrong – but it was a whole new level of stress. With restrictions starting to ease slowly as the government in my area starts their phased re-openings to see what can, and can’t be done while still maintaining social distancing, there is some additional stress along with a hint of hope. It’s a wait and see type situation unfortunately. And since we haven’t peaked yet, who knows how well it will work. Cautious optimism with a dash of healthy pessimism is my current state of mind though.

And that there brings us all up to date. While things aren’t back to “normal”, whatever the fuck that means, the situation is settling down enough to take a breath, step back, and look to the future. Who knows what it may hold, but at least we’re working toward something.

So, I hope you all have a great day/week/rest of the month. And hopefully we can chat again soon. Until next time ~ Moira