Let’s get some truths out there. I’m a forty-year-old man. I’ve been doing the same thing for twenty years; I’ve been at the same job, worked with many of the same people, doing much of the same thing. I’ve worked my way up from a starter position to a supervisor and it was no easy task. It took a long time.
I’m also not an idiot. I like the people I work with, and I like to think that most of the guys that work for me appreciate me as a boss. I try my best in everything I do. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but I always try.
At forty, I’ve realized that it has become a detriment to my health and sanity to keep doing what I’m doing for the people I’m doing it for. I don’t feel like the direction in which the leadership is taking us is the right direction to go. Not that there aren’t some good things happening, there are, but there is also a feeling of doom, if you will, surrounding the whole operation. I’ve requested a position change. I think those in charge will likely try to keep that from happening.
I’m not pushing it too hard. I’ve said what I had to say, made my concerns knowledge to my immediate manager. I think they were blind-sided for the most part, then shocked when I said what I had to say. Yet, nothing is happening. I think the reason that I’m not pushing too hard is not because I don’t want out of there, but because of the guys that work for me. They are a great group of guys and we work well together. They know what I expect of them and they always, always deliver for me. Nothing but respect for them. I wouldn’t be able to say enough good things about them.
The problem comes from above, not below. And when that is the case, there is almost nothing that can be done. As I said, I’ve made my concerns known and it is clear why I’ve requested a different position, at a different place within the company. Having said the things I said, I believe that my time there is limited anyway. Time for some life changes.
It’s a scary thing to take on at forty years old. I’ve had exactly three jobs in my life since graduating high school in 1994. Twenty of those job years have been at the same place. I have a lot invested in my time with the company. And a lot to loose starting over. This causes it’s own kind of stress and stress is what I’m trying to get rid of. There is way too much of it in my life at this time and I need to shed it, for my health and my sanity.
Sometimes we have to make difficult choices, not knowing where those choices will lead. It’s a leap of faith. That belief that it can only get better because the alternative too hard to ponder. Time will tell, I suppose, and hopefully the road will become clearer as the days go by.
jimsaddler's Blog 