Friday, September 30, 2005

Well it's official...

Yesterday afternoon, Scotto put in his 2-weeks notice at a job he's had for 29 years. It was such a hard day for him. Mixed feelings on SO many levels left him confused and irritable. I wanted to be there for him. To tell him he made the right decision. To tell him it was ok. To tell him that I understand how hard it had to have been for him. But as any good wife knows, a man doesn't talk 'til a man is good and ready to talk. So last night, about 10:30pm, he was good and ready lol.

The company that he's been working for for the past 29 years is a company that I'm POSITIVE he was thinking he'd retire at. Unfortunately, this is one of those companies that believes that the grass is greener on the other side of the border. The intent is to move all the plants down to Mexico within the next two years. Right now, it's just a rumor. But I have worked at the company he has been working at, that's how I met him. The rumor mill at this company is more reliable than any line of crap that flies out of the mouths of managers there.

He had no choice. It was jump or be pushed. This job has already taken us 250 miles away from all of our family when the plant he originally worked for closed and he was transferred up here. Not that we don't love it up in the Northwoods area of our beautiful state, but all of our family is southeast. Not here. Here, we have no one. Nothing but this job.

My loving husband has always said that there were only two jobs he'd ever leave his current job for. Well, he got one of those jobs. He knows our future with this new company looks very bright. It's not his head that's screaming at him now though. It's his heart. Twenty-nine years of loyalty and lay-offs and hard times, and overtimes...it is all suddenly running through his head like a lifetime of memories flashing before one at the end of their life.

I feel for him, I really do. I wish there were more that I could do. What I DID do was sit down with him, next to him. I held his hand. I told him that no matter what he chose to do, I'd be by his side 100%. I told him that as hard as it was giving notice for his job, deep down we knew it was the right thing to do. This new job has so much promise for the future of the whole family, and I know he realizes as much. It's hard to explain to the man that you love that he's not leaving because HE is disloyal, but because he works for a company that was disloyal to him. It's hard for a man to leave a job he loved even if it was with a company he didn't.

I hate to see him hurting. He's so strong, you'd never know there was a problem if you didn't know him for as long as I have. We ended our conversation last night with a very long hug. He looked me in my eyes and said "I may need this pep talk again next week". Next week, and every day in between, I'll be right here, heart open...mind open to give him whatever he needs.

4 comments:

GUYK said...

You are a good woman. Without my sweetthings support I would have had a tough time of it when I was in the USAF. It was a job that demanded most of my time and energy most of the time and she understood that and supported me. Many women didn't and gave the spouses alternatives-and often times the husband chose his job. I am so glad I was never put into that position. I know I would have left the service but I would never have been happy with a woman who gave me an alternative of my job or her.

Northwoods Woman said...

give him a hug for me!

Handy Home-dweller said...

awwwww tell him it's all going to be ok. he's not alone. *hug*

sue said...

Wow. You sound like a wonderful, supportive wife. What a strong marriage you must have. That's got to be hard on him. Glad he at least has a job on the horizon that he thinks he'll like. That may make things go a little easier.