I found a bump...

Ok, I'm back.

After making my post leading up to the decision I have to make, I went to work like normal. After I clock in, my boss says she has to talk to me about some things, which she does usually when I come off of vacation. No biggie.

First, I was missing a refund slip from last week. Wow, first one in four years. Then she asks when I wanted to drop down to part-time status cause she needs to know soon.

Um, What?

We had chatted about me possibly scaling back and working my schedule around some when the house started, since I will be needing some time here and there to oversee things. We had even mentioned about me demoting myself from Assistant Manager down to Senior Bookseller or even Part-Time Bookseller. The biggest drawback is the pay, with me taking a huge cut from what I currently make to go down to either level. The conversations never went any further than that though.

But now I HAVE to make a decision, and fairly soon, as my decision affects several other people in my store. If I decide one thing, then certain things happen, but if I go another way, other things happen. I guess I am sort of the keystone in the whole ordeal.

My decision boils down to basically being between a rock and a hard place. You see, I need a lot more time than I have now to be able to build the house that we are going to build. However, to get that time, I need to scale back at work some way to free up the time. By scaling back at my job, I'll have to step down from my current position, since I have to work 40 hours to keep it and the pay. By stepping down to a different position, I'll take a noticeable hit in the wallet so to speak, which in turn will affect our chances of qualifying for financing for the new house, since so far everything has been based on my current pay.

See my problem? Puts my headache in perspective now doesnt it? :)

My wife makes really good money at her new job, and she is getting a promotion soon, which will absorb some of the loss we will feel if I step down. But as we learned at Petsmart, nothing in retail is guaranteed, and I wouldnt want to take the leap I need to and then fall into a hole that I didnt see.

I just dont know what to do. Having more time would be a huge help for the family, especially with my wife working as much as she is currently and with the kiddies heading off to school soon. And with the house of course. But the loss of authority and pay at work is a huge drawback.

I dunno......