Good to Be Back

Just a couple months ago, I was on my third day at a new job, having recently left Bluegrass Care Navigators to take a “dream” position that seemingly matched up perfectly with my education and past work experience. Things had been going very well: my work team was great, the organization’s mission was important for the community, and the creative challenges were exciting prospects for me. But in the afternoon, my phone lit up and I saw the notification of a video captured by my home security camera. Watching the short video clip, I saw my 8-year-old son wandering around the backyard of our house, looking for a way inside. It was his first day as a latchkey kid, and it wasn’t going well. I explained the situation to my new coworkers, and though I was able to go help him, it was apparent that leaving the office in the middle of the afternoon was frowned upon, even in a situation like that. Regret washed over me as I realized that I had made a mistake taking the job.

In that moment I understood just how important it was for me to be there for my kids in those little moments. When I was my son’s age, I also had parents who both worked, and I was often home alone whether I wanted to be or not. I suddenly felt like I had given up a big part of my family’s comfort level with this new position. My spouse works an hour from our home most days, so during the pandemic I had become the point person for our kids, making sure they were out the door for school and picking them up in the afternoon. Life has been complicated for everyone the past few years, and our family was no different. As my spouse needed to take on more responsibilities at her work, I had to ensure that I had enough flexibility with my work schedule to make myself available for our children. The flexibility that BCN’s remote work policy offers hasn’t just been a nice benefit to have, it literally allowed us to continue to function as a family for the past few years.

After six years at BCN as the designer and art director in Marketing & Communications, I hadn’t even been looking for a reason to leave. Managing our brand and producing creative content in support of our teams out in the field has been a fulfilling experience for me. And after moving to the new position, I was having a hard time naming anything that the new job had that BCN didn’t already have. A great team? Check. A mission that matters? Definitely. Creative challenges? Of course. I already had all of those things right where I was. On paper, the new job was exactly what I had been hunting for the past 20 years, but the truth was, it was a great job for me 20 years ago—not now. This is all to say that I’m thankful for the fresh perspective that this little bump in the road has given me.

And, please, if you see any job listings you think I might be interested in, don’t send them my way. I’m not going anywhere.