phew....just secured my 1st job reference and more
Well, not exactly reference, but person most likely to be called when the time comes. I was worried because I had a *really* rough start in my lab job, but clearly 2 years later they've figured out they pay the lowest and are considered the worst to work at.
I postponed calling my lab supervisor for 1 day because I was too exhausted and stressed and hadn't figured out what to say/how to approach her. Called yesterday, but she left early and I missed her. That was a good thing...it gave me another day to further refine and rehearse to get out all stress, fear, upset, anger, etc.
It didn't just go well. It really could not have gone better. I told her that I was going to be looking at per diem work in other labs and wanted to let her know it was not because I planned to leave this lab, but because I planned to leave my other p/t job. I told I had planned to do it in the spring, but it was increasingly apparent that they're in trouble and that we're likely to all be replaced with temporaries so they can cut salaries and not pay benefits.
And I wanted to let her know since she was listed on the applications as my lab supervisor, she was likely to get called.
She was very grateful that I let her know and happy to schedule me for more hours.
Then I told her as soon as I was able to secure 3 days/week, I would be able to leave the other job and then be available every day.
And then she said it would help her if I could work every Saturday morning because she has somebody for every Sunday morning and Saturdays are a problem. She sounded really, really happy 
FABULOUS! Plus, now I could tell her that I actually *prefer* weekends and would be available every weekend. And then I asked her about the hospital in the opposite direction which was added to our lab chain last summer and she got pretty excited and said she would help me in any way that she can.
Next I'm going to call various co-workers to be references. The first I'm going to call is the 2nd shift tech. She told me long ago she wished she didn't keep having to work weekends; she rarely gets a full weekend off. I'm going to offer to do every Sunday 2nd shifts -- that will ensure she gets at least 2 full weekends off/month. More if the another tech wants to *her* keep 1 weekend shift each week.
these are tears of relief... It's going to be ok. I know it's going to be ok...
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