A couple people have sent PMs asking what's up with me changing jobs, so here are the details:
In late November last year, I was made redundant effective Feb 28th because my employer is doing really badly financially - they had to let a total of 65 people, or 15% of the company, go!
However, I did get something very nice: Although I am still employed and paid until Feb 28th, I didn't have to work anymore after Dec 31st, so I basically got two months paid vacation!
The new job is with FaktorZehn GmbH - they are a consulting agency, but with much better focus on work-life balance than most - I had a "technical interview" with a couple developers, and they confirmed this. Clients are insurance companies, which some people think are boring to work for but I disagree - my brother works for one, and he says you can end up doing things that really save big sums of money.
It will be 100% remote to start with, after that there may be travel to clients, but not all the time - about a few days every two weeks, according to what I was told. I've thought about this, and am OK with it, since working from home all the time gets boring after a while. Also, I got a good salary boost!
As for why it starts April 1st: During the interview, I explained that March 1st would be my earliest possible starting date, but left out the part about not having to work Jan-Feb.
So they said they would be fine with me taking March off, and starting April - and after thinking about it, I said yes. I can afford it easily, and this isn't something you get all the time, so why not?
Plus, it means I have more time for OW
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)