Yes, this website is called “AtHomeMom.” And no, I’m not really at home anymore. At least, not as much as I used to be. And when I am home, I’m asleep about 70% of that time.
So it turns out that I’m pretty good at this working mom stuff. Well, the “working” part anyway. The “mom” stuff, I’m not so sure about. But I am pretty sure that when a department loses its manager, team lead and lead accountant and the one person that’s left picks up almost everything that all those other people were doing and carries on, that one person is good at their job. And the jobs of a manager, team lead and lead accountant.
But how do you think that one person will feel if their new manager, who does not perform any of the functions of the old manager, brings in two people who are senior to you, have little to no experience in doing what you do, and expects you to train them? And while you are doing that, you are also pulling that one person off of high impact, creative projects that they were previously taking a lead role on because now there are senior people in the department (who don’t know enough about the processes to participate in a meaningful way on the project, but let’s not worry about that)… How do you think that one person would feel?
I can tell you because I am that one person. First, that person feels royally pissed off. Then they feel like, “No, they’ll remember my how much I know and what my value is to the team.” Then, they feel depressed (which when coupled with problems with teenagers, can be devastating). But unlike the stages of grief, which are kind of similiar, the final stage is back to being angry again. But this anger is more like, “This is it. I’m not going to take it anymore.”
So what did I do? I started beefing up my LinkedIn contacts. I applied for a more senior job within the company. I signed up to go back to school. And I started reaching out to former co-workers and professional contacts to lay the groundwork for reccomendations and possible consideration for positions at their companies. And now, I’m starting to feel a lot better about stuff, not just work stuff, but life in general.
But it took me going through a whole process that ranged from disbelief to depression to anger to get me off my butt to do something about it. I’ve needed to go back to school for years, but one thing or another always held me back. But once you get my dander up, watch out because I’ll move mountains if I have to.
This time, the mountain was me.
