Made a Mistake - How to Recover...

CaniacMom

I live in NC.  I work for a large company in the sales department for specialized equipment.  I am currently in inside sales as a technical specialist.  My DH's company announced about 6 months ago that they were closing & he took a job in TX.  We have two kids - one a Junior in HS & one who is almost 3.  Our plan is to put the house here on the market after Christmas & for me and the 3yo to move when it sells.  Our oldest DS was going to stay with a grandparent (both sets live here) to finish HS in NC.  In interest of transparency, inability to hide that DH is not around, hopes of company to have time to find me a job I told my direct supervisor who is based in IA that I planned to move to TX and hoped the company could work with me.  The location I work in was shut-down for manufacturing over 2 years ago and there are only 30-35 of us left there (sales support, aftermarket support).  My job could very easily be done from home. Upper management & HR have deemed that someone in my job classification cannot work in a non-company location - even though I have only seen my supervisor 2 times in 8 months I have worked for him.

I have always wanted to work in outside sales as a District Rep.  They have started a trainee program so I have applied for that as I love my industry and want to stay in it.  They really want people fresh out of college - these are the people who will move into those jobs when the men in them now (all 55 yo or older) retire.  I feel that they have skipped a whole generation of us in our 30's -early 40's by not allowing us a chance to move up in our department.  The Sales Director has someone in my location ask questions of me 'indirectly' that he really could not ask himself about child care arrangements.  I have been with the company for over 8 years and have traveled numerous times (at least 40 nights a year) without an issue.  The only time I did not travel to in my career that I was asked to was for sales meeting scheduled the same week as a cruise that we had booked 6 months in advance and scheduled the time off and they gave a 1 week notice of the meeting.

The mistakes I feel that I have made:

1.  Telling them way too soon that I planned to move halfway across the country

2.  Because the person who asked me questions is someone I am close to I answered them and in all reality I should not have.  Men do not have to explain their child care arrangements so why should I?  If they tell me the job involves travel and I accept it that should be end of discussion.

I am especially disappointed in number 2 as our company has been on a huge kick of moving women up and making our company more welcoming to women and then I still get ignorant questions.

I am stressed on what to do.  Maybe it is time to walk away from this company.  Three of our competitors have locations in the area I am moving to and I can name 10 dealers for equipment in the area who sell competitive equipment.  I feel like I could find a job  - probably a promotion.  The problem is our industry is large but small so someone will hear that I am applying for jobs if I start looking too soon.