My new job

I'm going public. I'm ready to make this statement.

My new job is da bomb!

I have had enough speech therapy jobs at this point in my career to be able to tell within the first week if it's going to be a "good" job or a "bad" job or an "OK but with irritating features" job .

Here's my "stream of thought" list of why previous jobs were less than ideal and how my new job compares.

1) I have my own office. It's not huge, but it's big enough and I do not share it with anyone. The door locks and I have the key. That means evaluation and therapy sessions will not be interrupted and my stuff won't be stolen. Always good.

2) Last year I would go up to 4-7 weeks between paychecks. Sometimes I would get paid 2 weeks in a row. Sometimes my paycheck would be for 1 week, sometimes 2 weeks, sometimes 3 weeks and sometimes 4 weeks. It was always an adventure. A horrible, nerve-wracking, we have no money to buy food adventure. I worked until Wednesday at 12:30 this week. I submitted my billing when I left and less than 24 hours later I had my check in my hand. (And there is not a penny of it left 5 hours later but at least now we won't be evicted.)

3) I have always, always, always had to call parents, schedule and reschedule my own meetings and do every single page of the evaluation report and IEP (Individualized Education Program) including corrections, copies, sending home copies and filing. We had our first little special ed. training this week where I was told that all of the stuff I just mentioned will be taken care of by the Special Education Director. All I have to do for the IEP is the present levels, goals and service time. All I have to do for evaluation reports is the speech/language section. Meetings will be scheduled for me. Paperwork after the meeting is not my responsibility. Now, all of you non-speech therapists out there are probably thinking: cool. Sounds nice. My reaction: my jaw dropped literally to the ground, I gasped for air and I got a little bit teary eyed. Then I called my mom and told her about it and her reaction was to get off the phone so she could call her speech therapist friend, because it's just unheard of. Words just cannot express how phenomenal this is. It's like 80% of the tediousness of my job. Gone. Seriously. Just imagine that you have always had to unload the dishwasher, put all the dishes up, load the dishwasher with dirty dishes, add the soap, turn it on and then handwash dishes, dry those and put those up and then wipe down the counters. And then mop the floor. And now, after years, someone tells you that all you have to do is add the soap and press "on". That's a good comparison.

4) I am working less hours for more money. There's nothing more to say about that.

5) Supplies. They actually have therapy and evaluation supplies. A lot of them. Like, so many I had to get rid of some of them to make room in the office. It's unheard of.

I know that there will be negatives to this job. It's just a reality. There is no perfect job out there. I will probably find myself complaining about something or other during the school year. That's just a reality too, because people, myself included, just complain. It's human nature. But, I have really, really high hopes that this is the job for me. And I'm very happy to be there. Once my office is neat and organized (which will be soon since I can't stand it being undone), I'll take some pictures and share them.