Jumping up and Down
It's the last day at work and I am incredibly enthused to be done with it. If I've accomplished nothing else in the time since I put in my letter of resignation, I have helped to answer the phone and ship some boxes.
The end has been as weird as the begining. The first day of work they did not take me out to lunch. There were only four of us in the office, the big boss, the secretary, another guy and me. What did we do for lunch you ask (seeing as it's pretty standard to take a new collegue out for lunch)? Oh that's right, we took a trip to Subway, where I paid for my own meal. Then we (big boss & me - no mention of other collegue or the secretary) proceeded to go back to the office were we both ate our sandwiches separately - in our own offices - by ourselves. The last day was much the same. I again went to subway - this time with a collegue - the big boss only talked to me today about switching over my phone to my own plan instead of the company plan. We ate at Subway again, again I paid for my own lunch. At least this time we went to the lunch room and at least ate together. So strange.
I guess I thought that most work places have a SOP for new employees. I guess that's not true.
I have learned a lot of things working here. 1) Trust your instincts. I knew coming in something was off, I always knew when they were hiding things from me - that would come out eventually anyways. I just *knew* and I ignored it. Stop ignoring it. Trust your gut. 2) Work with people you like. There are always times where you won't always get along with people, or there are cultural clashes, or you have a disagreement. But it's your work family. I will see my work family over the next year more than I will see my friends and family combined. So you had better like the people you are working with most of the day. 3) Always hire A people for a B idea over hiring B people for an A idea. 4) Always take the higher road. No matter how petty people can get, be the adult, take the higher road, don't burn those bridges. 5) Make a profit, be innovative if you have to. If you're not making a profit the place is not going to be around for a long time. 6) Do what you can to make people happy. You can't solve everyone's problems, but you can make a reasonable effort to try to help reasonable people with reasonable problems. Don't ignore red flags or warning signs of problems, they won't go away, they'll just get worse. 7) Lead by example. You don't need the title 'manager,' 'director' or 'chief' in your title to make you a leader. Step out and lead - the titles and money will follow. 8) If you are not happy - and you see that you made a big mistake, then change quickly. It is not worth your time or the company's time wasting away in a job that you hate at a company you dispise. Better off for both of you to recognize the problem, come up with a solution, before it goes wrong for either party.
Working is a lot like dating. Hard work, a lot of effort, but every once in a while it's really worth it.
The end has been as weird as the begining. The first day of work they did not take me out to lunch. There were only four of us in the office, the big boss, the secretary, another guy and me. What did we do for lunch you ask (seeing as it's pretty standard to take a new collegue out for lunch)? Oh that's right, we took a trip to Subway, where I paid for my own meal. Then we (big boss & me - no mention of other collegue or the secretary) proceeded to go back to the office were we both ate our sandwiches separately - in our own offices - by ourselves. The last day was much the same. I again went to subway - this time with a collegue - the big boss only talked to me today about switching over my phone to my own plan instead of the company plan. We ate at Subway again, again I paid for my own lunch. At least this time we went to the lunch room and at least ate together. So strange.
I guess I thought that most work places have a SOP for new employees. I guess that's not true.
I have learned a lot of things working here. 1) Trust your instincts. I knew coming in something was off, I always knew when they were hiding things from me - that would come out eventually anyways. I just *knew* and I ignored it. Stop ignoring it. Trust your gut. 2) Work with people you like. There are always times where you won't always get along with people, or there are cultural clashes, or you have a disagreement. But it's your work family. I will see my work family over the next year more than I will see my friends and family combined. So you had better like the people you are working with most of the day. 3) Always hire A people for a B idea over hiring B people for an A idea. 4) Always take the higher road. No matter how petty people can get, be the adult, take the higher road, don't burn those bridges. 5) Make a profit, be innovative if you have to. If you're not making a profit the place is not going to be around for a long time. 6) Do what you can to make people happy. You can't solve everyone's problems, but you can make a reasonable effort to try to help reasonable people with reasonable problems. Don't ignore red flags or warning signs of problems, they won't go away, they'll just get worse. 7) Lead by example. You don't need the title 'manager,' 'director' or 'chief' in your title to make you a leader. Step out and lead - the titles and money will follow. 8) If you are not happy - and you see that you made a big mistake, then change quickly. It is not worth your time or the company's time wasting away in a job that you hate at a company you dispise. Better off for both of you to recognize the problem, come up with a solution, before it goes wrong for either party.
Working is a lot like dating. Hard work, a lot of effort, but every once in a while it's really worth it.
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