Okay, this is a lot but hear me out.

I am a speech therapist who has been practicing since 2015. Last year I was working 4 jobs (1 full-time in schools, and the other 3 were Part-time/PRN). So basically doing around 50+ hours each week, but with 2 kids (3 and 2 years old) I was exhausted and needed a change. I just felt like I was spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere. This June I applied for hospital based SLP job based on the advice of the wife of an OT that I know. I did the interview, was offered the position, negotiated a salary $80,000 per year plus a $5,000 sign on bonus payable within the first month of employment. I do not have to work a certain amount of hours/years to receive or retain the bonus, and the position is “salaried,” and has great benefits.

I also did an extensive health physical for the position that included giving 3 vials of blood and getting another MMR vaccine (this was 3rd time I’ve gotten the MMR). I’ve been waiting to get orientation information and an official date to start the job. However they have been taking forever to to complete the background check for me. It’s been over a month now and they’ve pushed back my start date twice already.

I started getting antsy. Since I’ve been covering my current bills doing PRN speech therapy jobs, but with erratic hours. So I ended up applying to a school job so that I would at least have some options if the hospital job never actually materialized. I explained everything to the school recruiter over the phone. So I interviewed for the school SLP job and was offered the position. That same day, the hospital got back to me that I could start this Monday. I contacted the school recruiter and told her that I couldn’t accept the school job because the hospital job had finally come through. And she offered me $78 dollars per hour for the rest of the school year to accept the position instead of going to the hospital. I would be a contract worker and it’s for school hours. I think there are roughly around 875 hours of instructional hours left in the school year here. I haven’t gotten official word on how many exact hours there are. I would not have a job for the summer. Though the contract company did say they might be able to find me a temp SLP job during the summer months if I wanted/needed one, and there is no guarantee that the school would hire me again for the following school year. Though they told me during the interview that they anticipate still having a need. For me to go full-time with the district they would have to buy out my contract with the referring contract company. I have no idea how much exactly that is but I know it runs into the tens of thousands $$$.

The hospital job starts Monday and it’s full-time and I’d work directly for them and have amenities like PTO and paid holidays.

What should I do? $78 an hour is a lot of money for me, but it’s not permanent, and I don’t get sick days or holiday pay, and no guarantees that could stay on as an SLP there next year or beyond. #SLP #healthcare #schools #speechtherapy #speechlanguagepathology #jobsearch #hiringnews #resume #interview

There's a big debate about whether it's better to try and keep schools open so that parents who have to go into work can still earn and support their families. But of course, the other side says it's too dangerous. What do you think? #losangeles #coronavirus #stayathome #schools