Weird week

I have spent a good portion of this week thinking I'm going to quit my job.

It's been two months, I'm still in my probation period and I'm questioning whether this is a good fit. I could use the probation to say, thanks but no thanks, I don't feel like herding goldfish anymore - similar to herding cats but with added forgetfulness - or feeling like a cog in a machine rather than a human being. That's why I left my last job after all.

And yet, instead I made a choice, and I told my line manager how I was feeling. I was honest, I was candid and even more oddly, I wasn't remotely stressed, worried or emotional about it. I spoke objectively and calmly and I'm pleased to say, things have shifted in response!

The management team have listened, there is more structure, more collaboration and more pushback against unreasonable demands from the aforementioned goldfish! Which then makes me wonder why it took someone else leaving (who started a month or so before me), and me saying I was considering leaving before the end of probation for anyone to actually act.

This is surprisingly common. Everyone knows there is a problem but it doesn't get fixed because everyone is so BUSY. "I'll do that later I'm busy",  "can't do that right now I'm busy", "I'll get to it but I'm busy".

Resentment builds, frustration builds, the problem continues to grow and then it becomes "Wait, why are you leaving????"

People get stuck in the depths of busyness, and they are so rushed and focused on what they are doing, that they don't focus on what's missing. In other words, they lose the perspective of the bigger picture. Rest, breaks, space to think, space to breathe, space to create new ideas and problem solve. Usually, change only comes at a point which is too late to do anything because people have become disengaged and are looking or moving elsewhere.

And yet, by stopping, pulling your head out of the weeds of all the niggling details and irritating time consuming requests which are pointless and add zero value (here's looking at you weekly status update which gets "cleaned" before being shown to the client who hates bad news and refuses to do anything about it), it becomes much easier to see where you are headed and why its the wrong direction for the ultimate aim of what you're working towards.

It takes courage to stand up for what you believe in, more so if you think your livelihood could be impacted as a result. But it's exactly that fear of losing something which holds us back for asking for something better. I was in a fortunate position where I could walk away from this job if I wanted to, because I have something else to focus on in my coaching. I may not earn any money straight away but I would have time and space to find clients, work out advertising and set up the business.

So I asked for what I needed.

I needed support which had been promised when I joined but not given, I needed structure rather than being told conflicting information which changed every 5 minutes and I needed someone to tell our project manager that he could say no to the customer.

Happily, my suggestions were escalated to the right people and all of these things happened! I asked for what I needed and I got it. If I hadn't asked, I would have spent this weekend pouring over spreadsheets to work put how long I could last for without earning any money. Instead, I haven't quit, the customer has agreed to an internal review and expectations are being managed. I didn't cause all of these things to happen, but I did ask for what I needed, and in so doing, got the same thing for the rest of the project. Time will tell what happens.

So Dear Reader, what has been frustrating you recently? What would you change if you could? What do you need to ask for to get what you need? Who do you need to ask and when are you going to do it? Good things happen when you ask for what you need!

And if one of the things you need is help getting started, then please feel free to get in contact! As mentioned earlier in this post I am looking to set up a coaching business. If you or someone you know is feeling stuck or helpless then coaching could be the answer. Get in touch and let's have a conversation!

Until next time Dear Reader, have a great week!