Back from the dead! Yes, I had to catch everyone up on the latest few months of my life. Came home, worked here for a bit and then was offered a role in....DALLAS! No, I was not excited about going to Dallas at all. I was excited about the lower cost of living, the possibility of starting up my barrel racing career again and the fact that the role sounded really, really cool. I was totally jazzed and was chomping at the bit to get out there! I organised an apartment, looked at where I could buy a car, etc.... It was all ready. I even shipped my stuff over before the contract was signed... (this was due to personal reasons of having to move my things by Aug 4th). But everyone was saying it was all ready to go, one more signature and the contract would be to me by the following week! I convinced my VP to send me for three weeks to attend a training and start planning with my new manager. All was well.... I had been in headquarters reading documents for a couple of weeks, trying to piece things together, but I knew I had to get out there to make things happen. Face to face, rolling up sleeves and getting to the root of the problems...

I gathered my remaining things, gave some other things away and stuffed what was left into two huge suitcases and I was off to Dallas, ready to help my company, improve things for our customers and really do something rewarding... God I was excited!

The SECOND I landed I got a snot-o-gram from HR demanding to know why I was in Dallas??? Didn't I know that I was not approved to be there??? Where is PROOF that I should be working there??? Well after a few calls I assured them it was a business trip and that it was approved. Funny enough, I was trying to SAVE THE COMPANY MONEY!!! What a horrifying thought, I figured since everyone seemed to think that it was almost approved, that my contract would be ready while I was in Dallas and I would save the company some money by not having to incur the cost of another flight. God forbid I try to do something like this! I even had leavers drinks, realising that I MIGHT come back, but then again might not. Either way, people would have a good party and some drinks on me, so why complain?? (This would later come to bite me in the ass when they infered that I was officially "moving" over). What are these HR folks? The Gestapo? I think the answer is YES! But I think this is a common HR theme. I do wonder if there is actually an HR person on the planet that cares about people and helping them. They tend to be the knee breakers that send you nasty emails and generally create misery and suffering in the workplace.

They then took my time in Dallas down to 2 weeks and said I could start planning and then had to come back. Fine.... I could lay the ground-work and get started. I was excited! By the end of the week I had met all the key people, done a great job of winning almost every bid simulation with my team at training and started talking about a plan of action with my boss. 

THEN, I got a call that Friday informing me that the "chances of me being approved to move to Dallas were almost 0" and that I should "consider its not even happening"... WOW! My manager tried many tactics to see if she could move me over. By the beginning of the next week I was being asked to incur a $13,000 moving expense PERSONALLY if I wanted to keep my role... Wait a second, I'm happy to do everything I can to keep costs down and make things easier on the company but I'm not going to pay my own moving expense to move to a city I'm not that crazy about. They had to be kidding...but actually weren't.

I went home later that week and by the end of the following week the entire team had been demolished, my VP left on sabbatical and my role was gone. Wow, that's pretty amazing. After weeks of back and forth and dragging me through the mud I had no role and was sitting back in London in shock.

Well, after a bit of personal introspection and some beers (actually many beers + nice friends listening to me + cocktails + long walks along the river + other interventions) , I have decided not to let this get me down. Interview tomorrow in the cafe, looking for a new apartment and a new start today! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Hooray!!