Drama Deficiency

Maybe life had become too simple. The baby never cries. I'm practically sleeping through the night. The girls are loving our summer life. The diet is going well. My mother is visiting, and everyone enjoys each other's company. Dave continues to study Mandarin, and feels that passing the Mandarin test in November is entirely reasonable. Life rolls along rather smoothly these days.

And so, just to keep things interesting, I've got some new drama to share.

Uncle H--, Dave's employer for the past 10 years, has recently merged with another large company. Dave feels good about the merger, and not terribly surprised. He feels that he's front-line staff, and so not in particular danger of losing his job. But upon further reflection, he did make a startling discovery. His job apparently breaks into 3 primary responsibilities. Upon completion of this merger, people who carried those 3 primary responsibilities immediately prior to Dave will all be working for the same organization, in the same city. He began to feel a bit redundant.

Now, this could be quite advantageous. Should he be laid off in December, and offered a job with the Foreign Service in early January, he would receive a severance package commensurate to his decade of loyalty, and have a new job all lined up. The close timing would ensure that the State Department would "match" his current salary. Of course, they don't really mean "match;" they mean, take into account how much he was paid and put him at the top of the pay-scale for his tenure. This means about a 50% pay cut. But should he come in with no paycheck for the previous 45 days, there would be no salary to match. He would begin this new career as if it were his first. A serious blow, especially when you consider government salaries.

He's not worried, so I'm not worried. But life never dulls in this house!