My professional situation

The other day, I hinted that I probably won’t have a job to come back to after my mat leave. A few people have been wondering about that, so I thought instead of putting it a long comment I could do a post about it.

I have a really good job, but one which comes with not much security: I’m a contract employee, not a permanent one. I accepted this position at the end of 2007 after coming back from my first mat leave because it was a great company and provided an interesting trade-off: the pay was higher, and in terms of schedule it came with some much needed flexibility for the mother of a young child. Even though the position is technically full-time I never have to justify any absence or to make up for lost hours; I am only paid for the hours worked, I take as much time off as I want, etc. Of course the company also has a trade-off in paying me more: they don’t have to offer me any benefits, and every time my contract ends they have an option to easily let me go (although 10+ renewals later I'm still here). I have expressed my willingness to become a permanent employee, and my manager has actually been trying to do it since last year, but has never been granted the budget, and I don’t see this happening any time soon with the financial crisis.

On a day-to-day basis, it's the same: I am just like a regular employee, and well, I’ve been here longer than several permanent ones. But officially/legally the situation is different: they don’t employ me, they have a business-to-business contract with the company I created, which, in turn, provides my services. They don't give me a salary; they pay the company a "compensation" for my hours done... So there you go; once my contract is up in November, they don’t owe me anything. The "employer" that's paying my salary, that's responsible for giving me back work after my (second) mat leave would actually be… hhffm, me.

This is not a bad surprise; I’ve always been aware of this fact, and M and I have been trying to prepare for it since last summer. I’ve been diligently paying my dues and filing all the damn paperwork necessary so I am actually eligible for the maternity leave, which is paid for by the government. So on this front there should be no problem: I will have a year-long mat leave (and M will have 5 weeks off work), and it will be paid (although we’ll obviously have to adjust to a lower salary). And then? There’s the odd chance they could be interested in having me back after, but I’m not counting on it, and it wouldn’t make much sense for them after having trained a new person and employed her for a year. Plus, I’m not even sure it would interest me beyond some part-time work, and more so for the income security and to keep in touch with the people there. So basically, after that, I’m on my own.

And I’m not sure it’s necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it’s a little unnerving, especially since M’s job is not the most secure either. But I have a year to figure things out, and possibly try a few things out. The way we see it, is that this could/should/may be the change of life we’ve been talking about, we’ve been looking for. Neither of us is especially satisfied with the corporate world; I like this job, but it’s not where my heart really is, and after over a decade in the field, this is becoming more and more pressing. What do I have in mind? I'm not sure, but it could probably be a mix of several sources of income: doing some wedding flowers, some freelance writing, writing a book and trying to get it published… There’s also this idea we’ve always had to start our own business, get out of the 9-to-5 and build something together, aspire to a life that’s more meaningful, more oriented on the quality of life and family, etc. With baby number 2 our house will increasingly become too cramped, and so we're set on moving in the mid-term, and are frankly open to going *anywhere*. We’ve been brainstorming ideas for months (and years), yet haven’t really found our thing yet. But we’re working on it. Hard. And dreaming.