The Road Less Traveled: The Great Escape

And then one day, my cheese moved…again!

Feb 2, 2009 was the first day of our fiscal year and we had a company meeting. Our boss told us to report to the 5th floor conference room. I had been with this large company for about 3 years, almost two and a half as a Marketing Analyst working the numbers for the retail businesses worth over $800 million a year. My colour coded weekly sales sheets were bleeding red. I was trained to read the numbers so I knew what was coming.

It was standing room only as our CEO somberly delivered the news that our division would be dissolved and reorganized. Of the 600+ positions that existed, only 100 would remain and almost everyone had to reapply for the jobs now available. Gasps, tears, denial, confusion, shaking, it was all there especially for those who had been with the company for 20, 30, even 40+ years.  I was supposed to be in one of those categories but I wasn’t. Despite my calm exterior, inside I was smiling.

It always happened. I got into a job and at first it’s exciting because I’m new and I’m learning. I hold onto that for a while. Then it creeps in. I get my routine and the lingo down enough to not only make sense but to make valid points and insights. I know what to do and how to do it faster, more efficiently. I look for projects to do. Do them and look for another one because again, it’s something new and different. But when that doesn’t happen, that old friend of mine finally sits and stares me in the face: boredom. I had tried to move to a different position but everyone was locked into their place so there was nowhere for me to go. If I wanted to move to another position with more responsibility, I had to move to another section of the company in a lower position and then work my way up again until a position opened up where I was and I could apply for it (after spending a minimum of six months to a year in my “new position” during which another position would probably open up and I would miss it completely).

Basically I was stuck…but not trapped.  A few months before, I had found a legitimate work from home position that I did in addition to working 40 hours.  It was a challenge but doing that had planted a seed in me. I didn’t fully realize it at the time but I was weaning myself off the idea of depending on one job to keep me. I was taking more responsibility for what I wanted and getting back that part of myself that I had put away when I embraced the idea of “having a job.”

Knowing that I wanted to move on to another challenge, I smiled internally and was patient because I was getting what I asked for but now, it was going to be with a severance package.

To be continued...

Dianne Dixon, CAPM is a PMI, Microsoft, CompTIA certified professional GONE ROGUE! After immigrating to the US at the age of 8 with her parents in 1984, she declared her independence on July 3, 2011 to head back to where it all started, the island of Jamaica. With her business partner / Father, she started her own Farming business providing fresh food to the local market. Follow her on Twitter at @Transitionyte  & @1SSOnline