So, I took a new job back in July, moved across three states to do it. I wasn't sure that I'd like it a lot, but it was a good career move. The guy who interviewed me warned me that the hours would be long, which gave me some pause, but assured me that dedication and hard work were well rewarded. So, I took the chance.
Things were okay at first. I hadn't quite been trained on enough of my new responsibilities to fill the 60-72 hour work week by the end of my second month, but that didn't matter because they thrust me into a supervisory position. My boss wasn't thrilled with losing me, and he was sympathetic because in every way except the most abstract I had no qualifications for the job or for the department I was now on loan to ("they figure," my boss said, "you're smart enough, you can figure it out"), but neither of us really had a say in the matter.
I don't want to go into details now about the corporate climate; suffice it to say our management was accurately described in an online review of the company as having "comic-book villain personalities."
So here's my concern. I left my last job for a lot of the reasons I don't like my current job. I know it's not like this everywhere, but this seems to be endemic to the industry, if not to American business in general. It's making me think that engineering isn't what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life, if I can't go somewhere that isn't going to make me sick.
I ask, then, for your prayers: that for now I continue to get by, and that I may discern what the rest of my career should be, and succeed in whatever that is.
Things were okay at first. I hadn't quite been trained on enough of my new responsibilities to fill the 60-72 hour work week by the end of my second month, but that didn't matter because they thrust me into a supervisory position. My boss wasn't thrilled with losing me, and he was sympathetic because in every way except the most abstract I had no qualifications for the job or for the department I was now on loan to ("they figure," my boss said, "you're smart enough, you can figure it out"), but neither of us really had a say in the matter.
I don't want to go into details now about the corporate climate; suffice it to say our management was accurately described in an online review of the company as having "comic-book villain personalities."
So here's my concern. I left my last job for a lot of the reasons I don't like my current job. I know it's not like this everywhere, but this seems to be endemic to the industry, if not to American business in general. It's making me think that engineering isn't what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life, if I can't go somewhere that isn't going to make me sick.
I ask, then, for your prayers: that for now I continue to get by, and that I may discern what the rest of my career should be, and succeed in whatever that is.
2 comments:
Ed, although a couple of months have gone by, we will still dutifully pray that you can discern the direction of your career.
Sorry for the late response. I don't often remember to check the archives for comments.
Things have been better lately. A few days after I posted my prayer request, I got transferred back to my original department. Praise God for coincidences that are too coincidental to be coincidences! And thank you for your prayers.
It's still painful to watch half-cocked management practices perpetuate a toxic work culture, to see many of my coworkers abused, but I'm no longer trying to operate in a fog of desperation.
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