My encounter with church envelopes taught me that in a career train wreck every light in the tunnel is not a way out.
At the time, my job was a train wreck pile-up of unchallenging responsibilities coupled with bickering, backstabbing, and bitter co-workers on the management team.
I was frantically sending out resumes to escape this disaster and a company contacted me, looking for a manager to create infrastructure to improve their employee and customer experience.
Since that was my fame, I took the bait and arrived at the interview revving to go.
I immediately learned that the division created church envelopes.
And the hiring manager had more passion about the envelopes than a half-naked, painted football fan in Wisconsin.
The manager effused enthusiastically about geographic areas, various religions and the intriguing intricacies of the church envelope business.
His enthusiasm, fascination for the product and his accomplishments were clearly a thrill a minute to himself.
I, on the other hand, was underwhelmed.
Being curious by nature and harboring a love of problem solving, I have never once wondered about the origins of church envelopes.
And yet, there I sat, listening to the story behind the churches and the envelopes with a plastered smile...
wondering about the injury potential of leaping from a 4th floor window in a suit and 3-inch heels.
Church envelopes plus a manager who focused on his accomplishments while dismissing employee development to off-the-shelf tape viewings equaled what? Another train wreck? Or was I being paranoid? So I started asking questions to clarify expectations and they basically went unanswered; instead, he stayed on the course of describing his accomplishments over the years.
Without a doubt, there was an "I" in his team, which meant his definition of progress was myopic at best, and more underwhelming than church envelopes.
It was also clear that he wasn't the one pushing for this new position and wasn't on board.
At some point, I realized that jumping out the window in the middle of the interview was, at a minimum, unprofessional.
But still, I had to lecture my desperate self who was urging me on, "take it!, at least you will escape your current wreck.
" My logical self was saying, Girl you better RECOGNIZE that every light in the tunnel isn't an escape, sometimes it's just another train.
I finally threw my desperate self out the window and kept sending resumes until I received a better match.
Personally or professionally, change can be a challenge.
However, when your desperate self is in complete control, the results can be unfavorable regardless of the challenge.
A little desperation mixed with logic is not a bad thing.
Desperation can motivate you to change, and logic can help you evaluate past decisions that resulted in your current situation.
Later, I realized that the interview was a meeting of despair, where the manager was desperate to maintain the status quo and I was desperate to escape my wreck.
By luck, my logical self slapped my desperate self off the train tracks which lead to better decision making by me.
For the manager, I assumed he eventually got on board because for change to happen favorably, buy-in is needed-especially at the leadership level.
If not, you will have a situation where someone is always waiting for his or her turn to speak, without the benefit of listening.
At the time, my job was a train wreck pile-up of unchallenging responsibilities coupled with bickering, backstabbing, and bitter co-workers on the management team.
I was frantically sending out resumes to escape this disaster and a company contacted me, looking for a manager to create infrastructure to improve their employee and customer experience.
Since that was my fame, I took the bait and arrived at the interview revving to go.
I immediately learned that the division created church envelopes.
And the hiring manager had more passion about the envelopes than a half-naked, painted football fan in Wisconsin.
The manager effused enthusiastically about geographic areas, various religions and the intriguing intricacies of the church envelope business.
His enthusiasm, fascination for the product and his accomplishments were clearly a thrill a minute to himself.
I, on the other hand, was underwhelmed.
Being curious by nature and harboring a love of problem solving, I have never once wondered about the origins of church envelopes.
And yet, there I sat, listening to the story behind the churches and the envelopes with a plastered smile...
wondering about the injury potential of leaping from a 4th floor window in a suit and 3-inch heels.
Church envelopes plus a manager who focused on his accomplishments while dismissing employee development to off-the-shelf tape viewings equaled what? Another train wreck? Or was I being paranoid? So I started asking questions to clarify expectations and they basically went unanswered; instead, he stayed on the course of describing his accomplishments over the years.
Without a doubt, there was an "I" in his team, which meant his definition of progress was myopic at best, and more underwhelming than church envelopes.
It was also clear that he wasn't the one pushing for this new position and wasn't on board.
At some point, I realized that jumping out the window in the middle of the interview was, at a minimum, unprofessional.
But still, I had to lecture my desperate self who was urging me on, "take it!, at least you will escape your current wreck.
" My logical self was saying, Girl you better RECOGNIZE that every light in the tunnel isn't an escape, sometimes it's just another train.
I finally threw my desperate self out the window and kept sending resumes until I received a better match.
Personally or professionally, change can be a challenge.
However, when your desperate self is in complete control, the results can be unfavorable regardless of the challenge.
A little desperation mixed with logic is not a bad thing.
Desperation can motivate you to change, and logic can help you evaluate past decisions that resulted in your current situation.
Later, I realized that the interview was a meeting of despair, where the manager was desperate to maintain the status quo and I was desperate to escape my wreck.
By luck, my logical self slapped my desperate self off the train tracks which lead to better decision making by me.
For the manager, I assumed he eventually got on board because for change to happen favorably, buy-in is needed-especially at the leadership level.
If not, you will have a situation where someone is always waiting for his or her turn to speak, without the benefit of listening.
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