Concerns About Returning to Work

I had a job interview yesterday and they liked me enough to invite me back to a second interview to meet the rest of the staff. This is getting starting to get serious. I like this place. It’s inpatient treatment, the clientele is the population I seem to gravitate towards, men with addictions, mental illness, and criminal histories, in other words, the not-cute.

I like the people who interviewed me. It seems like a decent place to work. The pay, well, is not so great. It’s less that I was getting before. However, it’s downtown, a great location. The benefit package is pretty decent, too. The big problem is that it is 40 hours per week and I don’t know if I’m up to that yet. I still tire more easily than I would like. I’m not up to running at full throttle yet.

I’ll keep pursuing this possibility, however. If the staff likes me enough, then I’ll teach a class there and then run a process group. That way, they’ll get a sense of what I’m like and I’ll get a sense of what they, their clients, and the facility are like. I could be back to work as soon as November 6th, which is an interesting coincidence because November 6th, 2006 was when I officially went on leave last year to start treatment for breast cancer. I didn’t start chemo until a couple of weeks after that because of a false positive of my remaining breast from an MRI. I was a basket case, not looking forward to chemo, with great justification. It turned out to be a lot more brutal than I could have imagined.

I haven’t worked full time since I went on leave and for good reason. It’s only in the last month or so that I have been able to get through a full day without a nap. And my brain is clearing up now. I can keep appointments straight again. I can think clearly, but again, that’s only in the past month that I’ve been able to do so. I’m wondering when to disclose my (temporary) disabilities. I’m sure that in one more month I’ll be in even better shape, but I’m worried that the first month may be a problem. On the other hand, I may not get the job, so such concerns are premature.