Sunday, August 2, 2015

The New Job

At some point in our careers each of us takes on a new job, either by choice or compulsion.  In my own case it had been 18 years since I had experienced the rapid-fire revelations that result from being thrust into a new situation with new rules, new expectations and new people. It is really the new people part of that equation which causes most established professionals the most retrospection.

By the time you are 25+ years into your career, assuming you transition into another position in the same industry, you really do know what you are doing. Oh, there are indeed small nuances that change, and sometimes with big ramifications, but by and large you’ve been around the block enough times to weed through the processes and differentiate the crucial from the impertinent.

Not so much with people.

People are dynamic, with fluid needs and a litany of concerns to either address or outright avoid. The problem is that it isn’t always apparent what you are dealing with until the crank gets turned to the “POP - goes the weasel” part of the tune, and by then it’s out of the box; good, bad or ugly, you are dealing with it now.

Inadvertent damage-control aside, a new job is also refreshing. Probably because as the players change, the tensions change too. In fact, based on some decompression I went through (Don’t come up to fast, you’ll get the bends!) I can honestly say that I didn’t really know what type of preoccupations wrestled for my attention until they weren’t there anymore. Like bass on crankbait, the thoughts came.

Once I cut-bait it was kind of refreshing. It took some time sure. I guess that is reasonable since about 2 decades had passed. But maybe, just maybe, if I remain determined about my own direction, controlling what I can and disregarding the rest…..

Ask me in another 20 years.  

© 2015 D.W. Williams 

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