I am now in my second week of the transition. My start date was on the 20th. It almost didn't happen. My new employer hired a third party to conduct a background check on me. I gave that third party all the information that they wanted.
The next day, they wanted some W2 forms to verify previous employment in Nevada and down here in Sorry Vista. I had those FAXed in, and asked for a callback to make sure that they got them by leaving a voicemail to the point of contact. I didn't hear anything until the next day. "Well now we want W2 forms for this other employer". And I'm thinking, why didn't they ask for those the previous day? I called my point of contact again, and left a message. Just like the previous day, he refused to return my phone call.
I then had to escalate it. I called my employer, and was referred to their corporate HR. I made them aware of the situation. Then within one hour, my phone call got returned. He admitted that he got some of the W2s, but he wanted another one sent again, and then some others. OK. I got them sent.
The next day, they claimed I gave them the wrong birthdate. Yeah, like I would do that. They refused to fix the date. I had to do it all over again. I called corporate, and corporate pretty much asked me to humor them. So I did.
The second time, it went thru, giving credence to a saying I came up with two years ago: you need to do things twice in order to get them done once.
The pain of onboarding may or may not be over yet. I got an assignment from someone else over in corporate. Yes, I filled out the W4 forms, but now I need to call this toll free number and get a confirmation number from Ernst & Young, who are somehow involved in determining something called WOTC eligibility, which I know that I am not eligible for. But I had to go over that with them all over again, was issued a confirmation number, and that was emailed to that corporate lady who came in out of left field to want that little tidbit of information.
Meanwhile, I'm not getting any real work done. I haven't been issued a laptop yet. That has to come from their customer, through whose network I must interact. My task lead (who is a great guy) told me it might take three weeks. Then, I can request that my badge be accessed to the labs that I will need to get into (not to mention the building where my office is). He pointed out that the customer is low on computers, and that there's no guarantee that I will get one that will actually work. He told me it would be his job to worry about that and not mine. While I am waiting, I am reviewing test procedures and documentation for some rather specialized methods of radio communication. One standard I am very familiar with and the others are new. Being a ham radio operator, I'm being paid a good salary to read this. That said, they'll be getting their money's worth out of me once we are up and rolling with funded task orders.
As I (think I) explained previously, this is essentially my old job again. The employer back then lost the contract to the employer I have now, and it has taken both the new employer and the customer 18 months or so to transition this. Neither side expected that length of time.
I'll have to be honest about something. I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing going back to this job. The Good Lord opened that door, and as painful as it has been for me to get settled, I ought to stay in this one. The task lead is a great guy. The engineering manager who hired me likely is also but I have yet to meet him in person (I'll try to get that taken care of this week). The deputy program manager is as down to earth as anyone can come. And the company has an excellent reputation.
On the other fronts in life, I have been very busy in ham radio (still). I put up a new antenna for the 40 meter band and results have been great. I've already worked Spain, France, Curacao, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Japan, Korea and Australia. Lots of hams are complaining about conditions lately (and I remember when they were better), but when there's a solar minimum then great things happen on 40 and 80 meters.
You just have to go where the fish are biting.
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