Kelly's World

Holy shit, it’s 8.30am and there’s no one here. Why isn’t there anyone here? Did I get the time wrong?

Dammit. Just caught the elevator down and ran into the new boss. Explaining I was going downstairs made me feel a bit dumb, but at least we bonded over his camping story from the weekend.

It’s 10.30am and my stomach is rumbling. How embarrassing.

Ok just requested a break for 10mins, I’ve crammed in morning tea and a loo break. Hope that takes care of it.

Goddammit. 11.30am and struggling to keep my eyes open. I’m sure it’s noticeable and thankfully we have just broken for lunch. Energy drink required STAT.

Where the hell did that lunch break go?? Just sculled a can of red bull so I should be right for the afternoon. Can’t believe I have brought myself to the point where I need energy drinks. Early night tonight.

Waiting for the boss to return, he asked for 15 more mins. Just realized I don’t freeze with the aircon in this office and it doesn’t blow directly on me. Win.

End of the day. It’s been excellent so far. For my plans for the rest of the week including my surgery so I’m set. Everyone seems to be pretty cool, but I have already picked out who the pedantic nerdy developer is. He reminded me we had met a year ago. Oops.

Let’s see what the rest of the week has in store.

I’m on the final count down until I leave my current place of employment, as I just recently quit my job (YIPPEE). I have a new job to go to, so while it’s super exciting it’s still not one of those “I’ve won the lotto and am off to travel the world” type of moments. I wish!

It’s so strange to know that I’m leaving.

It’s also exhilarating.

For so many years I have stressed about particular aspects of my job. I have pioneered various projects that have hit stumbling blocks, and to this day still haven’t been completed to the level I would have liked them to be at, and not through any fault of my own. My forehead is theoretically bruised from bashing it against the wall so often. There are so many frustrations I have about my current job, and while there were also a lot of perks about the position, I am seriously beginning to love the fact that I can just drop all of this stuff and run away.

It’s not my problem anymore.

I love that.

When I first wrote my list of 52 things in 52 weeks back on the first day of January, writing “Quit my Job” was pretty ambitious. I didn’t know if I would be leaving in order to join the police service (as I’ve been wishing to do for many years), or if I was going to find something else altogether.

There were several reasons I wanted to quit my job:

• To join the police force (life time dream)
• I needed a new challenge
• More money

Back in 2001 when I finished high school, I decided I was going to take a gap year before going to uni to complete a Bachelor of Science. However, it didn’t quite pan out that way. Within 3 months I was bored. I was working at a cafe for 6 hours a day earning a small wage generally used to socialise and fuel my car. I wanted a change. I saw an offer for a traineeship in Business Administration, applied, and got it. 9 years later I’m with the same company. We’ve gone through some name changes, a lot of personnel changes, and my role has changed substantially from when I first began. I changed from being a gangly teenager into a geek, picking up a lot of skills along the way.

But now it’s time to stretch my wings.

Last year I had interviewed for a company and didn’t get the job, but they had assured me they were greatly impressed by me. At the time I figured it was just a nice let down and didn’t think too much about it. Until last week.

I was head hunted. They rang me, told me about the new position and asked me to come in ASAP. All up, it took two phone calls and an interview, and now I have a new job, a nice new title, a new challenge, and a great big pay rise coming my way. The new job offer justified quitting my job; it met 2/3 reasons. I was never going to say no.

It was incredibly difficult resigning. Not so much in telling my bosses, that part was awesome. I dreaded telling my colleagues. The last time I quit I was 19 working at a cafe, and that pretty much entailed saying “see you around guys”.  At my current job, there’s a close knit group of 4 of us that have been together since when I first began. We have been through so much together, which I can’t go into out of privacy for my workplace and my desire to keep that part of my life separate from my blog. It truly wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that it felt like I was telling my family I was leaving them. That’s exactly what they’ve been to me – a family.

My last day is on the 28th, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I shed a tear. I’m leaving the nest, and going beyond my comfort zone.

New relationship, new house, new job. 2011 has been a bloody big year.

It’s not the situation. It’s your reaction to the situation.

- Robert Conklin

Sorry Robert, but sometimes the situation freaking stinks.

I don’t often whinge about work on my blog, purely because I don’t like to discuss work matters on my own personal site. But sometimes you’ve just gotta write for yourself and let your emotions out.

There is one particular person in my company who I just don’t gel with. Never have, never will. It has gotten to the point where I purposely restrict my interactions with that person purely for my own mental health. I think I would have shot myself (or them) if I had to work with them closely on a day-to-day basis. I know the ex-workmates I have that read my blog will know immediately who I’m referring to, no surprises there.

The most basic of queries quickly turn into a gigantic debate, that is, if I get a response at all. On occasion I will even get an insult in response, without ever answering my question. Nice.

Just recently I asked for a particular reference number for something they had pointed out to me, and after 2 days and countless follow ups they are refusing to reply. Yet I know that same person snoops on me and keeps a close eye on my work, despite not even working in the same department that I do.

Rude much?

So yes, it might not be the situation, and it might be my reaction of getting completely frustrated and wanting to stab something, but after having bazillion millions of these same situations happen, you really can’t blame me for getting annoyed.

Thanks, needed to get that out.

Continuing on from my blog post last week (Do you work for love or for money) I take my work extremely personally. I have pride in what I do and the quality of my work. This can be great for the company, but this can be extremely bad for me, especially when it comes to a difference of opinion.

My biggest challenge is not accepting when other people have different opinions, that’s fine. I’m a team player so I welcome discussion, and will come to a mutual decision that provides the best outcome for everyone. My biggest challenge is dealing with someone when their methods and quality of work is so clearly flawed, yet they refuse to budge. Especially when that person is in a position of power above me.

Which brings me to the point of questioning whether I continue to try and change it (stressing myself out for a potentially unnecessary reason), or do I just lie down, shut up and accept that the company just isn’t offering the best it can? How do others deal with it? What do you do in your workplace if you can tell that something clearly isn’t right?