The next job

[Dan99]

I think in any situation, you get work horses and show ponies. Guess which one I am?

People don't hire me when they want someone to create their masterpiece of a business idea. They hire me when the pretty people have run their business into the ditch, and someone has to shape it up.

Then, I don't get a thanks for turning the steaming pile into something that works. I get resentment because it's not as pretty as it was when they dreamed it up. Because I've had to spoil the fun. Cut the budgets. No more wasting money. No more cutting corners. So the bottom line finally shapes up, but you know what? Nobody likes a nice bottom line, they want to have fun.

I worked for one company for six years. The team running it (including me) had it humming -- so much so the owners sold it. Three weeks under the new management, they cut my pay. Oh well, so I move on to another struggling ship. And I do well.

Last week I get a call from the old company. From someone who stayed on. Company was sold again. This time for less than half it was sold for the first time. He told me that he'd put in a word if I wanted to come back (I don't). Then he tells me about all the fun they had spending the company into the ditch again.

I don't know exactly why this bothers me. I got paid. But why shouldn't I be respected for what I do, not looked down on and squeezed out as soon as the dirty work is done? Anyway, just venting. I really balk at tackling these things, and I think its an inner child thing. I just hear him telling me: Dummy. Aren't we ever going to have fun?

Probably not.

I'm in a weird mood, I guess. Too much stress. Too much shoveling. Too little sleep. Not a good recipe. Thanks for listening.

 

[greenwizard]

Yes, you should be given respect for what you do, especially if you do it that well. I guess I can't really speak to it too much because I don't work, but yeah, having fun is well, fun, and being responsible is not. My experience comes from trying to manage household finances. Since I moved out of my mom's house and had to deal with the crap myself I gained a lot more respect for my mom being a single parent and keeping everything running.

Sure, it would be much more fun to take my limited income and go to the movies, and buy video games and pizza every night, and a whole host of other things. But then when bills go unpaid stuff gets shut off, and that's really no fun. We almost had our electric shut off last spring because my girlfriend was working at a crap hole that didn't pay much and we weren't really prepared for what electric heat was gonna cost us. I had to go pandering to charities, and then my mom chipped in what I still couldn't get covered. That sucked.

Bottom line I would say is that you know what you're capable of. The people at your old company, yay for them if they had a grand old time. They are in a ditch, and if they don't shape up they won't get out of it. When they screw things to the point they don't have a job anymore that is going to seriously suck for them. Their idiocy can't take away your value.