What’s On Your Mind?

[lizkat]

Reading all of this, I miss Austin. Been there many times and really enjoyed the people and atmosphere and food.

One of my nephews spent some time working there for awhile, came back east but I have a feeling this time of year is when he might run that decision tree through his memory again and be wondering wtf he was thinking. Aside from the ambience of Austin, the weather was more to his liking. Here now the forecast is for pelting rain and snow the next couple days with a few warm fronts trying to nip in but not making it for long before we get back into the 20s again.

As for myself, it's books and music time and hang the weather. At sunset I launch my online Advent calendar app and check out whatever is the day's little amusement, then head out to the kitchen to get supper organized, then a few cleanup chores and settle in with books again -- or a movie, if I remember what I was watching and on what platform.

Thinking about resigning and what else to do for a living.
Feeling my heart’s no longer in it and the need for change. At the same time, stressed and clueless what else to do.

Hope you will find something that's more appealing but still lets you cover living expenses. For sure, money is not everything, and when one tires of a job or a project, one can reach a point of just wanting to walk away... but it's usually better to find another job while still having one. I took some time off once after a disastrous job switch, and was none the worse for it in the long run career-wise, but I knew going into that gap that I'd have to pinch pennies twice. I was okay with that though, and really needed the time off to regroup, relax and just have fun.

Not always easy to manage a career switch but always worth giving it a shot. Sometimes just exploring other options makes you remember there are things you like about whatever you have been doing for a living -- and that maybe it was just the particular job, not the whole field of endeavor, that was problematic.

The best of luck to you, as you make inquiries of your inner self and then of the job markets going forward.

 

[Alli]

Thinking about resigning and what else to do for a living.
Feeling my heart’s no longer in it and the need for change. At the same time, stressed and clueless what else to do.

You’re never too old to start something new.

 

[ericwn]

Thank you both for your kind words.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Thinking about resigning and what else to do for a living.
Feeling my heart’s no longer in it and the need for change. At the same time, stressed and clueless what else to do.

I echo what both @lizkat and @Alli have written, - it never is too old to try something new, and it is never too late to interrogate yourself on what you would really like to try to do, or explore - but, I will also add to that, to try to be "open" to something - and seize such an opportunity - that may arise at very short notice.

The very best of luck with it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@ericwn: When my father retired, he made the decision to explore aspects of his character that he had never allowed himself to explore (or some of those limiting constructs of masculinity - which he outgrew as he aged - might have served, earlier in his life, to curb, or constrain or curtail such attemts at exploration).

Anyway, he took up creative writing, and went to creative writing classes for the following three years, and loved every minute of both the classes and the writing, which allowed him to think through, and put on paper, stuff that had troubled him since his own childhood, decades earlier.

 

[DT]

Thinking about resigning and what else to do for a living.
Feeling my heart’s no longer in it and the need for change. At the same time, stressed and clueless what else to do.

I somewhat agree with some of the other responses, but many people aren't in the position (i.e., retired, large cash reserves) to be able to, for example, go back to school, and/or take a [potentially] large pay cut, especially if you've got family that relies on you financially.

And to be clear, I have zigged when most of my peers have zagged, so I'm am __not__ part of the status quo / slave to work, I have engineered myself into a position where I've got a perfect mix of effort/revenue/flexibility/time, the latter being incredibly important for my family. My previous company acquisition put me into position to take a pretty stout compensation package and I walked away, but I had buffer and have always had incredible fortune with professional opportunities, which have had a bit of risk most of the time.

Let me ask you this: is it the what you do that's a bummer? Or is really where and how you're doing your what?

 

[ericwn]

I somewhat agree with some of the other responses, but many people aren't in the position (i.e., retired, large cash reserves) to be able to, for example, go back to school, and/or take a [potentially] large pay cut, especially if you've got family that relies on you financially.

And to be clear, I have zigged when most of my peers have zagged, so I'm am __not__ part of the status quo / slave to work, I have engineered myself into a position where I've got a perfect mix of effort/revenue/flexibility/time, the latter being incredibly important for my family. My previous company acquisition put me into position to take a pretty stout compensation package and I walked away, but I had buffer and have always had incredible fortune with professional opportunities, which have had a bit of risk most of the time.

Let me ask you this: is it the what you do that's a bummer? Or is really where and how you're doing your what?

Thanks for chiming in. I used to be an IT product trainer / instructor at heart and that skill set is just not required at my current employer anymore due to business changes. I have been given support responsibilities, but honestly speaking, it’s boring me a lot. I’m used to a different pace and when I’m not challenged it just seems like a waste of my time.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Oven is on my mind. Called techs to fix it, they didn’t and they wanted more money than the oven is worth, or “subscribe to a $35/mo appliance insurance”. They didn’t show up even with the most basic part (igniter), they disassembled a few pieces and barely made tests. Bottom line: kicked them out, I’ll try to fix it by myself.

Good service died.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Good service died.

I remember when my mother studied for a degree at night - three nights a week, -attending classes for a number of years.

My brothers and I were still kids at the time, and my father - to his undying credit - was completely supportive of my mother, and proud of her abilities and achievements.

Anyway, one of her subjects was economics - which fascinated her (others included politics, philosophy, and sociology; politics and philosophy fascinated her, as well, whereas, sociology, well, she thought that sociology was poorly taught) and she used to want to discuss and explain some of the concepts to me when she returned home at night - still excited by some of what had been covered in class.

She was one of two women in a class of men, and her Economics Professor (now, a full professor and a highly regarded scholar, then an idealistic lecturer passionately committed to the concept of second chance education, a man whom my mother held in high esteem) - to my astonished delight - turned up at her funeral to sympathise with me and still recalled her enthusiasm and questioning intelligence with pleasure decades later.

Anyway, I do remember how - through her excited recall of her lectures when discussing and explaining them to me - I was about to embark on second level, secondary school, "high school" - she introduced me to concepts such as "inbuilt obsolescence", "consumer resistance", the "gold standard", "inflation", and stuff such as how reducing the size of something such as tins of a product, or a bar of chocolate, (while keeping the price the same) still constituted a price increase in real terms.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Thanks for chiming in. I used to be an IT product trainer / instructor at heart and that skill set is just not required at my current employer anymore due to business changes. I have been given support responsibilities, but honestly speaking, it’s boring me a lot. I’m used to a different pace and when I’m not challenged it just seems like a waste of my time.

Do you like - as in, get along with, like, respect - your colleagues and superiors?

 

[ericwn]

Do you like - as in, get along with, like, respect - your colleagues and superiors?

Yup, I have nothing but respect for the team. We’re a small company and I think I get along well with almost everyone.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yup, I have nothing but respect for the team. We’re a small company and I think I get along well with almost everyone.

That is a very good reason to stay put.

Are you respected - and supported - professionally?

With hindsight, some of the warmest memories I have re the positions I have held over my professional life, have come from posts where I liked - rated, respected - my colleagues and thus, hugely enjoyed simply physically turning up for work. (Okay, I also enjoyed - and was challenged and stretched by - the work).

In my experience, people leave more jobs because of awful, or simply bad, rotten, bosses than because they do not feel professionally fulfilled.

 

[DT]

Thanks for chiming in. I used to be an IT product trainer / instructor at heart and that skill set is just not required at my current employer anymore due to business changes. I have been given support responsibilities, but honestly speaking, it’s boring me a lot. I’m used to a different pace and when I’m not challenged it just seems like a waste of my time.

OK, this what I was talking about, you have a skill, sounds like you enjoy using it - i.e., your what isn't the issue, it's the how/where, and more to the point that lack of even utilizing your what due to the current company organization.

Look into some training services, do a little investigation into where you might be able to build and sell training content, a buddy of mine got involved in this space years ago and it's been very lucrative. Especially now that the model for communication is mostly through video/remote, you might be able to train and instruct, with minimal travel - you might also find working solo, delivering your own services and products, very desirable. I'm a work alone type person, I built a professional model after I sold my last company that requires no one outside of my wife who provides admin, accounting, QA and an amazing sounding board when I need to think-out-loud. Otherwise, it's me and a couple of client contacts - I'm coding and supporting massive backend enterprise solutions, on my own (exactly like my aforementioned buddy), my own hours, my own code specs and because we're so lean, we're incredibly efficient and effective, clients __love__ us and we have an amazing amount of freedom to spend cycles where it really counts, with family.

 

[Herdfan]

Thinking about resigning and what else to do for a living.
Feeling my heart’s no longer in it and the need for change. At the same time, stressed and clueless what else to do.

Sorry if I missed it, but what do you do now?

Edit: Saw your response on the next page.

 

[Herdfan]

Thanks for chiming in. I used to be an IT product trainer / instructor at heart and that skill set is just not required at my current employer anymore due to business changes. I have been given support responsibilities, but honestly speaking, it’s boring me a lot. I’m used to a different pace and when I’m not challenged it just seems like a waste of my time.

One of my employees used to fix copiers. He loved it. Got out when he went from repairing them to just replacing parts. He found no challenge to that.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Oven is on my mind. Called techs to fix it, they didn’t and they wanted more money than the oven is worth, or “subscribe to a $35/mo appliance insurance”. They didn’t show up even with the most basic part (igniter), they disassembled a few pieces and barely made tests. Bottom line: kicked them out, I’ll try to fix it by myself.

Good service died.

The oven has been fixed. $30, less than 20 minutes of work, assisted by one of my cats.

 

[Alli]

The oven has been fixed. $30, less than 20 minutes of work, assisted by one of my cats.

How can you do anything without the assistance of your cat.

 

[yaxomoxay]

How can you do anything without the assistance of your cat.

I must say, impossible. They make things so much more difficult, and decide to look for a pet at the worst possible moment (let alone playing with the various screws), that one has to be fully focused on the job at hand. This focus, this attention to detail is what makes some work, such as repairs, possible and efficient.

 

[DT]

This.

And this.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And now, a cousin of mine is on my mind.

A cousin is on my mind.

Around a fortnight ago, I received word from Decent Brother, (who is - was - his godson) who had phoned me to let me know the news, as he, himself, had just been informed of the diagnosis by my cousin's estranged sister.

In turn, last Tuesday, (and prompting the above post), I received an email from the actual family of the cousin in question to let me know that he had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer and that "time was short".

I hadn't wished to contact them prior to that, as "technically" I hadn't been (formally) informed of the deadly diagnosis, and one always prefers to be discreet and dignified and tactful and respectful around death - anyway, once notified, I was immediately in touch with them.

Well, time was very short, and the poor chap - who had only received word of the extent of the return (he had first been diagnosed in 2019, and had recovered after treatment) and spread of the cancer - a fortnight ago - passed away (at home, fortunately) this morning.