Can working for the government be rewarding?

I've often asked myself that question sometimes, usually when my work day has bitten the big one and I would find myself scratching my head and mumbling, "WTF?" to myself.

The answer I come up with, more often than not, is a resounding "YES!"

For the past 12 years, while working in four different agencies on five separate occasions (Library{twice}, Attorney General, Corrections and Children & Families), I have met wonderful people and made some lasting friendships at each stop. Additionally, I've learned things and expanded my horizons that I never would have thought previously possible. And as strange as it sounds, even though it has taken me years to realize this, that being laid off from work in 2003 was a blessing in disguise.

You may be asking yourself, "Georgie, how can being laid off and becoming seriously broke for 1 1/2 years be a blessing?" The answer my good reader, is quite simple and really remarkable.

Being laid off was a bad thing yes, as I didn't regain my financial footing until about early 2005. But because I listened to a good supervisor in December 2003, who genuinely wanted to see me get ahead and make something of myself, I made a decision to leave the agency that had eventually brought me back to work.

Leaving the only workplace I'd ever known for my entire state career (almost 8 years at the time) was truly hard to do. I had made great friends and felt like I could spend my entire career working at the library (history and reading were my two favorite hobbies). But in making that decision to leave, started a chain of events which right now as I type, has no end in sight.

To whit: in transferring to Corrections, I met some truly unique individuals and made lasting friendships. In turn, they inspired me in 2005 to write my first novel. To a lesser degree, the agency, with all of its turmoil, inspired me to leave in 2006 and transfer to agency that six months prior, my opinion was that it should be gutted and rebuilt from scratch (still think that today). By 2007, when things had calmed down enough at work, I went exploring my local newspaper website The Hartford Courant.

Commenting on a story, earned an invite to join the Topix community, which I did on February 10, 2007. Doing that put a series of events in motion that has culminated in the following things:

• I decided to self-publish my novel
• I met a wonderful group of people, one of which writes a blog called "GumbyTheCat" (see link elsewhere on the main page), who in turn suggested...
• That I create a blog

So in essence, I would like to thank my state government for laying me off from work in 2003. In one small way, it has been very rewarding, in the effect that I've met wonderful people in the CyberWorld, who in turn inspired me to create this very blog.