Happy New Year !

Oh my, what a week! It was an emotional roller coaster, thanks to a colleague who took the Cat's Away, Mice Will Play method to a whole new level. Since I have a difficult time with confrontation, I spent a couple of days working on a pretty sweet ulcer, until, finally, she went too far and was called on the carpet. Sweet, sweet justice, just in time for my day off. One more week until my boss is back in town and hopefully this crap will be cleared up definitively.

Benita asked in the comments of my last post about the "golden ticket," and you're right, there isn't anything like it in the states. It's basically a contract that makes it really difficult for the employee to be fired. One the one hand, the employee has to screw up pretty bad to be let go, by making a number of fautes professionelles, a very serious accusation, for example. It can be a risky proposition for the employers, as there are stories of employees that get their CDI and then stop showing up for work, but more realistically, if they find that their employee is not living up to the employers expectations, it's not so easy to let them go. There is no notion of "Right to Work" here (which is a contradiction in terms, in which an employer can fire an employee without giving a reason and is perfectly legal in many US States). Also, there is no notion of having to earn vacation - everyone that works is entitled to five weeks vacation, starting from their first day of work. Quite different from what I'm used to!

Last weekend we met with the couple that will be watching Fry four days a week. She's the full time nanny, and he works outside the home but helps his wife watch the kids on Mondays when she's supposed to have a "day off." She is also watching a three year old that will start half days at school on Monday, and a two and a half year old. We'll be meeting with them again tomorrow afternoon to go through the details of the contract but we felt really comfortable with them very quickly so we feel like we got lucky and found a good one on the first go. I'm concerned that we don't have time to do a period of adaption (going with him for an hour and then increasing the time alone with the nanny slowly) but she's had to start without the adaption before and it ended up fine. I feel bad putting it on Stéphane but I'm awfully glad it's not me dropping him off next week, I don't think I could handle it! At least I'll be able to pick him up early the first couple of days.

We celebrated the New Year in much the same way we did last year: Fry went to bed at his usual time and Stéphane and I made a delicious fondue (made even better thanks to my Swiss Miss friend, Ms Mac), and then I crashed out around 10ish after watching an old French movies from the '60s (love Bourvil!). Getting up at 5am is taking its toll! In any case, we're really excited about 2010, but all depends on how the next couple of months go with this new job. We're hoping for the best, as this job has the potential to be a really sweet gig and great for all of us! Wishing you the best for your health and happiness in 2010!