And SOOOO much happened since then. Most of it very, very good! Turned out the guy back in early autumn was a scammer… yeah! I nearly got totally burned on that. In the back of my mind I had known, there were some red flags that I had tried to ignore, where his story hadn’t added up. But when he started talking about money… I knew enough and cut of all contact and reported him.
That didn’t stop me from internet dating sites though, and through a German site, I talked to a few people, met up with two that it didn’t click with. And then ended up chatting with someone that it seemed to click with pretty well. He lived in Lüneburg, pretty far up North, near Hamburg.
So, after chatting a couple of weeks and then phoning, he came down to visit and that seemed to click really well as well. At a certain age, you get to the point where you do not want to beat around the bush too much. He came down to visit about every 2 weeks till Christmas, we paid alternatively for those trips. His living situation was such that it was hard for me to go visit him (living up 2 flights of stairs amongst others.)
Once December rolled around, I had my trip to Texas planned and paid for back in June / July time frame… and his work situation at the time was sucking too, as well as living situation…. so I suggested he move down here…
Which he did… and we’ve been living together since I got back from the US… we get on really, really well…. we are such a great team. Even in the years with the idiot, there was no team work… I never felt supported or loved much… but J is wonderful. He is currently without work, but with my salary that is not an issue. He does sooooo much for me, so helpful in many ways…
And he loves to cook! I haven’t eaten in the canteen in months at work… since I don’t eat big portions, and he makes a little more anyway, there is always something for me to take and heat up at work and eat at my desk. Much nicer food too!
We’ve managed to do a lot of stuff that I never had energy for, like Ebay my stuff… since March we’ve sold my old, too big, clothes via ebay, and other stuff too that was saleable…. and done pretty decent out of it. It certainly helped the finances! I guess in many ways the difference has been that, since I am pretty independent and was happy alone, I’ve now realised how much nicer it CAN be with the right person and being such a great team! Anyway, we are happy and that is the main thing that counts!
In other BIG news… at work there have been some major changes with a partnership with an engineering services company… in January the news was, 2000 jobs will go there, with 60% of the powertrain people affected. The company would be in the same location and to start with work mainly for Opel, and they have other areas where they are active so there are chances to go other places… If I were 10 years younger and much healthier, I would see it as an opportunity… however. I am not.
The work’s council negotiated that the voluntary redundancy package from last year would be available, and people in Engineering had 3 weeks to decide if they would be interested. After that, they would deduct the number of people deciding to leave from the 2000, and only those would go, then specific people would get a letter to say they might be affected. After that, those people would get another 2 weeks to decide to take the package, or already join that company voluntary. The third phase would be, the remainder of the needed jobs would go to a different Opel company and that company would then be sold and the jobs transferred. We were told the new company holds fast to our current conditions etc.
Anyway, my initial thought was… let’s see what happens, if I have to move my job to the new company, so what. About 1000 people had taken the package, another 1800 had been written to, and of those about 60% would be going…. which was about half of the original quantity. The other thing that happened was that just as the phase 2, the 2 weeks started, I had a 10 day training, and that was from 08:00 – 16:00 each day… meaning I HAD to be at work for 7:45. Instead of being able to use my flexi time to adjust for how I felt in the mornings. It also meant that I had to be concentrating the whole time, be really there and not take my little breaks…. so yeah. By Friday afternoon I was totally toasted. I spent most of the weekend sleeping or not doing much and wondered how I would manage the week after….
That is when, after talking with J, I decided to get the ‘Beratung’ from HR, where they would tell me my options (the voluntary package had 3 possibilities) and how much they would pay… That meeting was on the following Thursday AM… I had done a loose calculation based on the formulae they had published and it was a reasonable number… By Tuesday night, the end of the training, I was toast again and I only managed those last two days by upping my cortisone dosage! I struggled through Wednesday, and went to the meeting on the Thursday morning. It turned out that I was getting about 20% more than I thought based on my calculation. And they had set it up such that I could chose to leave at the end of the year and have the money paid out in January so it doesn’t affect the taxes as much. And, Germany has a separate tax structure for redundancy pay (irrespective of voluntary or involuntary), meaning that it doesn’t get taxed as if you won the lottery.
J and I talked a lot that weekend, about what to do, but above all, what the training had shown me… if I have to move to a new company, with my current health, I’d be in trouble soon, despite having the disabled protections. And I wouldn’t want to work that way either. With the money being considerably more than anticipated, I would be able to pay off my big loan, maybe even part of my apartment, and still have money left over to live on for a while. And with a lot less financial burdens, I would have a lot more options as to what I need to work-wise to manage.
J and I have even been talking about starting our own business at some point. But above all, I need time off, to not worry about work, to see how healthy I can get without that stress. To be able to get my knees fixed without having to worry about when I have to go back to work etc. After 3 months of job-less I would qualify for unemployment benefits, at least to help for a while… and it would give me time to figure out what I really want to do… continue in the automotive field, our own business… not work except some minor part time work. Something totally different… I never have the energy to figure that out. I am always, either working, or recovering to work again. So yeah… I signed the package and handed it in on the Monday (after we’d been to talk to a tax-advisor on what to remember)….
BEST DECISION EVER (besides asking J to move down) :).
So happy for the all the positive changes you’ve experienced!