Monday, December 10, 2012

What's There To Like About a Job?

Do you like your job? Did you like your last job?
For me, it's not a simple answer. It's a "No, but...." or a "Yes, but..." or a "Sort of" or a "It depends"......
Not easy to answer.
I was at my last job for over 11 years. I wasn't entirely happy with every aspect of it when I began. What made it enjoyable and kept me plugging away day after long day was my boss. She was super. The best. Whatever she asked of me, I'd gladly do it. She was always respectful and told me how much she valued me quite frequently. I couldn't have asked for a better boss and I doubt if a better one exists.
However, a sad day came 9 years into the job when she was part of a big lay off at the company. One minute we were chatting in the ladies room and about to sit down for our weekly meeting, the next I'm told she's gone. Poof! Just like that my job changed. For a while, I didn't have a boss. I was lost. I was a department of one. Eventually, I was assigned to another woman and that's when my job took a nose dive. The new supervisor seemed nice enough. But there was never the connection I had with my previous boss. The work load doubled. The hours and days grew longer. I became stressed. And worn out. Burnt out, was more like it.
Part of the reason for the burn out was the nature of the job. It started where I worked for many attorneys in the department and worked on everything from real estate to patient privacy. But eventually I only worked on the privacy issues which basically involved customer complaints. Thousands of complaints. And each one had to be investigated and addressed. Most of them ended up as baseless.
So if you asked me if I liked my last job, i would have mixed feelings about it. The beginning of my tenure was always different. Kept things interesting. I felt like I was a respected and important cog in the wheel. I was needed. I was doing vital work. The end....not so much. It was tiring, stressful, and most of the time....thankless. There was no one handing out "attaboys". No platitudes of gratitude. I didn't feel appreciated or valued. And then they showed me the door.....
It was certainly a sad way to end what had been a really good job at a really good employer.

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