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Barefootgirl
Posts: 2519
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:05 pm

Re: "I've had it" at work - how often

Post by Barefootgirl »

Thankfully, over the years, my moments of throwing my hands up and wanting to call it quits, have gotten less frequent.

In the first two thirds of my career, I worked for a large IT company. Whenever the US economy turned south, they'd find ways to leverage that against the workforce and at those times, the situation became ridiculous and nearly untenable. Then came the internet bubble which coincided with my achieving a tenure of sorts and suddenly, their reindeer games no longer bothered me. I pulled back, gave less and figured they could let me go with a severance package, if so inclined. That never happened. What did happen was that both sides found a way to co-exist without either side annoying the other one too much, lol... eventually i got bored and the sector I worked in went soft...so I left.

Now in the public sector for the past 5+ years, it has happened twice - but amazingly, I hung in and things changed fairly quickly. There is a lot of hurry up and wait on the public side - quite a difference from my years in a for profit environment.

Primarily, I telework. The upside is less stress, the downside is the expectation that eyeballs are glued to the screen. Almost Orwellian to me, it seems. Our working level meetings are short and to the point. At the higher organization level, I sometimes get the feeling that some of those meetings are held so someone can just check a box on their annual performance review, sadly.

I am glad to be exiting the employee workforce in a few years - I am ready for retirement or some combination of self employment.

It's time. I've seen huge changes over time in how employers treat the professional workforce. I compare notes with my peers in other settings and they all report the same.

BFG
How many retired people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Only one, but he takes all day.
amplifier
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:12 pm

Re: "I've had it" at work - how often

Post by amplifier »

Enjoying the question and the wealth of responses so I will contribute.

Late 30s project manager in a Fortune 500. For each year, there is a stretch of 4 to 5 months a year this never happens, and there is a solid 1 to 2 months a year it happens weekly. Maybe every two years I come across a situation where it may happen daily for 5 to 10 days.

Sometimes I think I need to move laterally to another department in my company where I can be less stressed; but one of the reasons for my success to this point has been working in two interrelated departments for the entire time and knowing the processes very well. I also think I work better when I am in the thick of things and not doing rote tasks and possibly being unchallenged. I also tell myself that if I jumped to another department and into a less demanding, less stressful position, there is always the chance it will fall out of favor, not be profitable and/or be cut; I have seen this happen in my company.

My tendency to be frustrated seems to be connected to projects where I interface with people who do not care as much as I about a successful outcome. In some cases it is plain some of these folks are passing their day with doing a minimum amount of work. When I was younger I had thought such individuals would be held accountable by management, but what often happens is someone else steps up to fill in the gap (and indeed I have done this when needed.) I marvel at what people get away with not doing or doing poorly every year. I am unsure if a certain amount of this is "normal" in the business world or if the department I work with is just poorly run.

Change is inevitable, and programs, methods, people and strategies come and go; outside of the empirical metrics of sales, earnings, etc. I do not often "feel" the progress taking shape, but the company is large and I imagine there are more people who care such as I do than those who do not care to do a good job. I have noted that each year the projects I find myself leading are more valuable, complex and occasionally daunting. Sometimes there is clear cut success but more often there is hard-won achievement through compromise and grasping at an elusive efficiency. I have as of late found myself leading a small handful of projects that have no precedent and are attempting solutions never sketched out before - some days I believe that my bosses gave it to me because of who I am, and others where I think hmm, maybe this will get taken away at some point from me? (I have never been taken off a project, but the worry keeps me focused I suppose.)

There are days I feel I am definitely sought after, valued and appreciated internally at the job and that I will continue to survive in a corporate environment. And then there are sometimes days that I feel that I may be as expendable as anyone else in a company so large. I have had some bosses who leave me alone and let me do my thing because they do not know what I do and may not want to show their weakness; I have had at least two bosses who I am sure had personality disorders and were playing favorites and jockeying for the success of their supporters and seeking the failure of others (I once talked a fellow team member in this situation with me into not quitting; when the tyrant was eventually found out and fired and we got a new manager, she thanked me for being there for her and convincing her to not give up.) I have been lucky to have two insightful and fanatically productive geniuses who molded and guided me at two key points of my career; most often though I report to a well-meaning "people-person" who prizes fluidity and camaraderie even if they are not aware of the technical details of what I am handling day to day. I suppose, depending on the day or mood, I will continue to keep guessing whether it is my own willpower or luck, and/or is it that my company is industry-leading and going higher or possibly about to sink any day now. I say this only because I question my own ability to really be able to divine what the future holds, since I believe anything is possible.
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