So Long John Deere!

After over 10 years of working for John Deere, Jon worked his last day for the company this month and moved on to a different company.  We will always love John Deere and the big role in played in our first decade of our lives together.  We will always be grateful for the experiences we've had, the people we've met, and the opportunities we've had to move and see different places with Deere.  People who work for Deere used to always joke about the "golden handcuffs" of working for Deere.  The job/company/benefits that came with working for Deere made it too hard to ever leave, even if you wanted to!  We always though we'd be working for Deere for life, because we didn't foresee ever wanting to leave the comfort, security, and benefits of Deere, and we also didn't foresee another company ever being able to tempt us away!  

Well, the last year has been interesting, for more reasons than just Covid.  Deere got a new CEO and the company started doing a lot of cutback and restructuring.  They've had a couple of voluntary separations- trying to get people to leave.  They've also closed some offices and shuffled a lot of peoples jobs around.   This caused a lot of unrest amongst the employees and several of the people we know who worked for Deere either lost their jobs, or decided that they wanted to take the voluntary separation and leave.  Jon's job stayed safe through all of this, and we were thankful for that stability throughout this crazy year!  Still, as things started to change and shift within Deere, Jon really wasn't feeling like he had any clear paths for advancement within Deere anymore.  It was really demotivating for him.  

At the same time, we have stayed in touch with our good friends Justin and Alissa Thompson from our early years in Davenport, and Justin has been telling Jon for years that he'd like him to come out and work for him.  Off and on over the years he has reached out trying to get Jon on board but it has just never seemed like the right time.  Last February, we decided that we needed to actually go out and see Justin's company he's built in person, and give it some real thought.  After interviewing with the company- Arizona Pain Relief- Jon was really interested but we just didn't feel like we could leave Iowa.  Jon asked if they would consider letting him work the job as a remote position and they told him "no" so sadly we had to turn down the offer.  After a few weeks, Jon reached out to them again and asked if they could do a sort-of trial and Jon could do some part-time work for them remote for a year and they could see how it went.  They agreed, and Jon has been doing about 5 hours a week for them over the last year.  

Well, Covid hit, and the entire world has been working remote for the past year.  Jon was starting to think that his part-time work for Justin was fizzling out, but then out of the blue, around the middle of February this year, Justin told him that they were thinking they could actually do this job as a full-time remote position.  We did a lot of thinking, discussing, praying, and after some negotiating back and forth, we decided to take the job!  He went from being and audit supervisor at John Deere to the VP of Finance at Arizona Pain Relief!

It's an adjustment for sure, and we are still figuring things out, but Jon is really enjoying the change of pace with this new job!  He agreed to fly out there a few days a month to be there in the office, but for this first month he has gone out twice already.  He enjoys being in the office and the people he is working with.  There is a lot to learn and figure out still but it's an exciting opportunity!  We'll see what the next decade brings!