from the husband: "jobs"
Hey there, blog fans! So I know it has been a while but here I am again. So Jenny has asked me to write another post for her fans. Recently I have gone through a big transition and she thinks that maybe it could help some of you in situations you may be experiencing. I never really know if my situation will help anybody but if it does, then I guess it’s worth sharing.
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| Artwork by Jenny Highsmith |
I had a job. Now please see what I am saying here. I had a "job". I did not have a career, or a passion, or a venture. I had a "job". I think all of us in our 20s, and maybe 30s, and even others I know have "jobs", but not careers. Let me explain what I mean here. I imagine that people who have a career wake up and it's like that scene out of Cinderella where the birds and mice sing with you in the morning and help you get dressed while you dance. OK, maybe not. I imagine they are
n’t always happy with what they do. However I imagine that many of them are happier with what they are doing, unlike those people unfortunate enough to have a "job". And to be clear by "job", I mean, p
lace you got hired and took a position because you needed a paycheck because you like ramen but you don’t ‘everyday-of-the-week’ like Ramen, and gas is nice because it beats the heck out of pedaling, and taxes always seem to follow you and find you like some kind of rabid coonhound, and those little luxuries like power and water are kind of convenient even though you think you have it in you to "Bear Grills it" for a while and live in the national park across the way for a few weeks on nuts, fish, and by liberating the occasional hiker’s picnic, and because the thought of moving back into your parents' house is totally unacceptable not because they're bad parents, but the wife and I just won’t fit in that twin I grew up in and I’d rather my mother not get back in the habit of laying out my clothes....
You know... a job.
Don’t get me wrong. I was lucky to have a job (cough cough, a paycheck, cough cough).
I think I was like many people my age. I tried to see the silver lining. I worked hard to get ahead, and make the right moves. I thought, if I can learn this business, hone my skills and get the right people to notice, maybe they’ll move me into something that doesn't
drain out my very life force like a Dementor, Kryptonite, or another movie about penguins.
As a side note, and trust me I take side notes very seriously, I had no idea how miserable I was. I think that when we are in the position of having a ‘j’ word, that for some reason we kid ourselves into thinking we are happier than we are or maybe that we are just a step away from some kind of happiness. I did that, and it kept me sane. Feeling sane. Maybe not actually sane. Who knows?
So I worked hard and I was promoted, twice, in seven months. I was now on level playing field with employees who had been there for over 3 years and I felt like I was right on track. Except I still had that feeling like I was lying to myself or somehow being tricked. I can trick me. I’m really sneaky like that. You won’t find that on my list of skills on LinkedIn, but it should totally be on there.
So that was one problem. The next was one that I sincerely hope and pray that none of you are experiencing. So when you get promoted, you usually get a new boss. I got 2. Yay me. I had one boss directly one step up the shiny corporate ladder and another that was one more step up. I came into my new position with that same energy and drive that had gotten me there so quickly thinking that it would serve me equally well and help continue my success. Well that energy was met by boss1 with nothing short of apathy dressed in pretty words. You all know the type, the boss that is great at sounding good but accomplishes literally nothing. They pride themselves on being fantastic "delegators". These people are about as helpful as a space heater in summertime. Anyway, I wasn’t going to let a lack of enthusiasm ruin mine so I plugged away. Well in the first 3 months of the year, I did good work. Boss1 took 4 vacations totaling 2 full weeks out of the office and on top of that I was now doing their job, which was very embarrassing when my boss' boss' boss found out...
It went on this way for a few months. I then realized there might be a potential problem 6 months out which would give us plenty of time to fix it and do right by our customers. Me being the nerd I am got on Excel and ran some numbers. It did not look good. The problem could be fixed if it was simply addressed. So I took it to boss1. Boss1 told me to not worry about it, there was nothing we could do and to continue with my sales. Well since my sales were directly dependent on the problem being fixed, I found myself worried. Sometime not too long after that boss2 found out about my concerns from boss1. Boss2 is that boss that cannot handle a problem, and will refuse to ever admit that anything is wrong. He called me into a meeting with boss1 and I showed him why I was concerned and backed up every concern with the information that illustrated the need for worry. (PS always do this respectfully with no tone, or ‘colorful adjectives’.) Well at this point boss2 saw that for the past 4 weeks my charts had correctly predicted the trajectory of the problem and that went over about as well as a snowball fight in hell. He was threatened. How do I know he was threatened you ask? Well it had something to do with the weekly cursing sessions that followed where I would come in and sit quietly while he practiced his extensive use of 4 letter words. Thus began my discontent.
Well eventually time passed and we arrived at the final dates in question. Guess what? My 6 month predictions were spot on... yay me... which is sad, really. But who doesn't like being right just a little bit? Well I did the best I could to appease my customers and let me say that old fashioned customer service goes a long way. Hint: pick up the phone and have a good conversation with your customers. After that, write them a letter. On paper. Its this stuff made from trees and you can send it to them in this thing called mail. It’s older than email. Weird, but it works. So I kept my mouth shut about the "lack of production" mainly because "I told you so" would have tasted SO GOOD coming out of my mouth I might have died from the sheer ecstasy and that would have just been too bad.
Now I'll stop to mention that no job, no thing, is worth behaving poorly. By poorly I mean in a way that is contradictory to your beliefs, religion, and morality. You are the sum total of your actions, so do not let outside circumstances dictate who you are due to a momentary lapse in discipline.
Now I'll stop to mention that no job, no thing, is worth behaving poorly. By poorly I mean in a way that is contradictory to your beliefs, religion, and morality. You are the sum total of your actions, so do not let outside circumstances dictate who you are due to a momentary lapse in discipline.
Then the situation went from bad to worse. Boss2 gave everyone in my position some numbers he wanted us to send to our customers. I had serious suspicions as to the validity because they just didn't look right. Again being a total nerd I checked the numbers myself. Let’s just say for example 61.1% is not 70%. 315 is also not 450. I took my numbers and my math to boss1 claiming that maybe boss2 had a bug in his calculations COUGH COUGH and that I would like to make sure they are correct. About 10 minutes later I was with boss2 in my umpteenth ‘vocabulary lesson’ being told that I will send out his numbers. Well I think lying, especially to people who give you lots of money, is not only immoral, but dangerous, and frankly pretty stupid.
At this point waking up and heading into work every day was very hard. I just felt listless and gray. Growing up with four sisters I developed pretty thick skin, it is also just a benefit of my personality type. However my weekly barrages became more and more abrasive and honestly it was wearing me down. It affected my life outside of work and even my energy levels. I wasn't dying, I could do it everyday because I had to, but I just would have rather not...
After the math fiasco, job boards and websites became close friends after work. Good folks helped me spice up the resume and ask around. A few months later I found a job. It turns out I found a great job, with a great boss. It's nice. I'll be totally honest it is still a "job" but there are such things out there as good jobs.
My motivation to write this was to let those of you who may be in a bad situation know that it is not worth being in a job that sucks the life out of you. Sometimes just leaving a job is the best thing you can do. Years of misery or even just 'blah' are not worth a paycheck. We all have bills and have to make that jack, but you can find another way to make your money. Maybe it's time to find another job. Maybe it's time to be your own boss. Maybe it's time to start your own graphic design company with a weird name! Who knows? I certainly don't. I just know that life is too short to let yourself stay stuck in a job that drains you and gives nothing back.
My motivation to write this was to let those of you who may be in a bad situation know that it is not worth being in a job that sucks the life out of you. Sometimes just leaving a job is the best thing you can do. Years of misery or even just 'blah' are not worth a paycheck. We all have bills and have to make that jack, but you can find another way to make your money. Maybe it's time to find another job. Maybe it's time to be your own boss. Maybe it's time to start your own graphic design company with a weird name! Who knows? I certainly don't. I just know that life is too short to let yourself stay stuck in a job that drains you and gives nothing back.