Today I received an offer for a temporary, part-time position

At my old employer, covering for someone on maternity leave. It was a decent offer--contracted employment, decent amount per hour [more than the one job I'd had there, but quite a bit less than I had been making when my two jobs there were averaged], only eleven hours a week, and an alternative of using a short-term parking pass since it would just be for twelve weeks. It was understood that I would leave if I found a full-time job at any time. It would work with my schedule and appointments. But we weren't sure how it would affect my unemployment, so I told the person offering it that I would research it and get back with her tomorrow.

While I do really want to help them out, and it would be great to see my old co-workers again, I hesitated to immediately say yes. So I did my research and then sat down and drew out a table in a Word document with the Pros (of which there were four) and Cons (of which there were 12). The greatest Con is that 80% of your gross part-time wages are deducted from your unemployment benefits, plus there'd be about $35/month for the parking, so when I did the numbers, over the course of a month, I would come out ahead by only $42, but would be giving up 11 hours a week that could be put into job searching/interviewing. So really, it would be a matter of virtually volunteering the hours. If it were going to lead to full-time employment, or give me valuable training in an area that I would rather leave librarianship for, then I would have that as a bonus, and I would consider it. But this was in no way going to work to my benefit.

I called her this afternoon and let her know what the numbers were and that I couldn't really devote that time without some return on investment, and she, of course, understood. I wanted to let her know as soon as possible so she could look for an alternative.

Sometimes (and in my case, often) we make decisions purely with the heart, based on emotion. This time I really sat down and thought out the consequences. One of the Cons, for example, though minor for some, perhaps, was that I would delay and restart the 'grieving' process of leaving the employer and its culture and people. In essence, this was a Band-Aid that would put me temporarily back into there and then, when it was finished, would be ripped off again and have to heal. It's also a stressful job, and there'd be the hassle of parking on UK's campus. There were other Cons, but those were important ones for me.

Of course, I'm available for full-time work with a future. I didn't 'refuse work' or anything, as it was temporary and part-time, at about 78% of my previous pay. It wasn't a bad offer, it just wasn't right for me. I know they would have liked to have me there because I've covered there before and wouldn't require as much training. But hopefully they'll find someone who can do a good job who will benefit more than I would have.

One of my biggest weaknesses is that I am a 'people-pleaser' who has great difficulty saying 'no'. It was hard to do in this case, but I think it was the best decision.