Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Catch Up, Why the Delay?

For those of you saying, "I thought he was leaving in September. Why is he still here?" an explanation.

My letter making the formal offer to me for the position, was supposed to come in July. It didn't arrive till August. By that time I was busy preparing for a two-week trip to South America (Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo) to present a seminar on measurement uncertainty. I wasn't able to schedule the numerous exams and tests the IAEA wanted till after Labor Day in September. I got them all finished that week and faxed the results to Vienna. Then I waited, and waited, and finally after two weeks I received an e-mail from the IAEA informing me that they wanted me to have more tests and obtain a clearance from a cardiologist to obtain medical clearance.

Well you can't just drop in to see a cardiologist. And when I finally did see him, he wasn't going to grant me clearance without ordering more tests, including a treadmill stress test. More time to get the test. Then I had to wait three weeks for the cardiologist to complete his evaluation of the stress test results. Then I scanned the results in and e-mailed them to Vienna. After about a week I receive medical clearance from the doctor.

So I e-mail the HR department to ask if a given date is reasonable. I wait a full two weeks before they reply to me to tell me that it's fine, except by this time the Thanksgiving weekend has begun and I can't get the DOE administrative people, who are all off for the holiday, to sign off on my departure in time to leave the last week in November.

Thus I now leave the first week in December. And it looks like it's really going to happen.

Whew!!!! All I could think of was the Tom Petty song line "The waiting is the hardest part."

It's Official!

It's official; I have my start date at the IAEA. My last day with DOE will be this Monday, December 3. I leave for Vienna on Wednesday, December 5, arriving on Thursday, December 6. My first day at the IAEA will be Monday, December 10. So the adventure is about to begin after a 10 week delay.