(Un)Employment & the Workplace

[-$24,206] Buckle Up! Here We Go!

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Newish Leader is back again!

About a week ago, my Manager got chewed out admonished, again, by Newish Leader for my team’s output not being of high enough quality for Newish Leader.  In recent weeks, Newish Leader has been putting extra big-time pressure on Manager to ‘raise the bar’ for our team and to do it NOW.

I don’t know if this was triggered by one (me?) or two of us on the team whose work Newish Leader saw recently and didn’t like, or if it really is the whole team. I know Newish Leader likes some people on the team more than others, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it were the former.        Read More

[-$24,200] Of Age and Fuses

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Of Age and Fuses

Look at this picture. Do you see a young woman or an old woman?

At work this week, I was talking on a conference call with teammates and the banter led to a conversation about people’s ages. They each said the year they were born. (I didn’t volunteer mine.) I found out that the people that I’ve been working with on this project are ALL younger than me! Even the two leads who are 2 levels above me who I thought were years older. My jaw silently hit my desk.    Read More

[-$25,906] DDSW Considers Yet Another Student Loan Refinance. And a Milestone!

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Hey, look at that! My current balance -$25,906!

Since my last post, I forgot an additional payment that hadn’t yet processed. My servicer can be a bit slow with crediting multiple payments. Anyway, my balance is dropping! The smaller the better. Hooray 🙂

Another Student Loan Refinance?

I’m thinking about doing another refinance. Yes, another one, after the first and second times. Once I get my balance down to about 18k or so, I’m considering refinancing into another 5-year loan with another servicer. Why? Two reasons.      Read More

[-$31,700] Another Taxing Tax Season

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Work Update

I had my annual review meeting with Manager, who apparently, and miraculously, has no plans to fire me, despite what I perceive to be recent decreased performance. I’m getting a small cost of living salary increase of 1.7% and my annual bonus! I’ll be getting my bonus soon. I was really nervous going into the meeting as I didn’t know what to expect or if I’d have a job coming out of it, but was relieved that it went as well as it did. I have improvements to make, but I still have a job.

In fact, I’ve been assigned two new projects. Thankfully, these projects will be in line with the old workstyle, so I expect I’ll feel comfortable running them. I’m planning to stay where I am for the immediate future. It won’t be easy at all, but if I can somehow grind it out here for one more year and pay off / down this debt, a lot more avenues will open up to me starting next year. Newish Leader (my manager’s manager) has been more hands-off lately, and this trend should continue. I plan to stay under Newish Leader’s radar as much as possible.

I just need to be able to survive for one more year before I can escape for good.       Read More

[-$32,700] Debt and Work

Posted on by Double Debt Single Woman

Student Loan Update

FINALLY(!!!) I have my new account settled. Refinanced at the end of November. Earnest-Navient didn’t send out the overage refund check back to new servicer until the end of December, one month later. Then it took the new servicer until a few days ago, mid-January, to credit the check and update my account. OMG, almost 2 months?! Ugh. What were they using, the Pony Express?! In any event, it’s good to have that servicer transition over.

Oh, and I made a payment this week, which brings my balance to $32,700, down from the $35,000 I rang in the new year with. This is great, but I’m wondering if I should have held on to the cash. See below.

Work Update

This update is not a good one.       Read More