new job assessment

[mangosteen]

Observation: My hair is changing back to brown from grey, of its own accord.

I feel much younger than I did a few months back. This is directly related to the job change. Not because of the people around me, but rather because things don't feel as perpetually grim. Work still gets done at the University, and the problems are just as complex, but there's none of the "If this doesn't happen, the company is going to explode!" posturing (merited or otherwise) that I had in my previous job. If this labels me as burned out, so be it. I don't care. I'm happy.

Observation: Working a four-block walk from the only major town square in Camberville that hasn't been turned into a mini-mall does wonders for the psyche.

List: Lessons learned from my previous job.

• You don't have to play the political games within your organization, but you ignore organizational politics at your own peril.
  
• If you're given a complex task where you will get all the blame, but someone else will get all the credit, run. I mean it. Scream, yell, do whatever you have to do to extract yourself from it, if at all possible. It will only end in pain, and no one has incentive to ameliorate it for you.
  
• Being confident and assertive when you're right is just as important as admitting when you're wrong.
  
• If you constantly seek approval from your peers, they will eventually figure this out. This is not the way to be treated as an equal.
  
• Any situation in which a whole bunch of people are being lumped together to do a common task is going to have its social aspects. Ignore these at your own peril as well.
  

In short, the new job is good, and is working out well.
Go me.

Comments

[sunspiral.livejournal.com]

[1] Once your hair turns grey, it makes a good canvas for all sorts of color fun. But you knew that already.

[2] Good political observations, all very true, and all worth repeating every now & then.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

hugs,

Mer

[tcb.livejournal.com]

a) congrats, and glad the new job is going well..

b) good list of lessons.. many of which I learned at my last job, too. and yes, though learned, are still good to remember from time to time