Life happenings and thoughts

Your career path often has big decisions that affect your life in big ways. Today, I was greeted via phone call by a solid group of folks I know personally outside of work about the possibility of me working for them. I get calls from recruiters and head hunters all of the time. They always want to feel me out and see where I'm at about possible opportunities, blah blah blah. You know the drill. Those recruiters are just chasing leads for their recruiting company so they can justify their position and get paid for tying you together with an employer looking to hire. They honestly don't care about your career welfare in my opinion and sometimes will just throw you in the hat for a job just because you were the first name that popped up on Linked In with similar attributes and skills for that job.

This time it's different I think. I've been waiting on this call for years. The current environment I'm in has gone from personal friendly relationships with the higher echelon brass who knew you by first name and looked out for you, to "you better toe the line and file your TPS reports Peter" corporate led vampire squid banker investor board of directors who don't care about anything except their bottom line, convincing employees that this new pay plan makes it more "fair" to the rest of the company so they can in reality cover their gambling mistakes and bad investment decisions on the cool, and putting a microscope on every move you make to generate money for them. It's incredibly frustrating and sometimes you desperately want to say "get the hell out of my way with that bullshit and let me make you some money!"... They for sure don't know me by my name. A mans name is all he takes with him when he leaves to go to work somewhere else. Your reputation is everything, that's for sure.

I understand that investors want positive return on their investments. That's how it works or you don't invest much longer because you're broke. I get it, I really do, but the amount bullshit that has been added recently to our daily operations in order for us to do our jobs is unreal and it feels like it's no longer worthy of my sanity to continue with it. The days of people feeding off other people's energy level and being motivated by that are slim to none in my industry. Sure I've got an awesome connection with the guys I work with and we crack jokes together like the day is long, but that's about the extent of the positive in our lives here daily and we suffer together whether we like it or not. The reports on reports that report on other reports to report to the reporting department for calculating unrealistic figures to the board is tiring. Everything they hand down is based on projected numbers. It's been this way for the last two years and it's never enough nor will it ever be enough. The corporatocracy has soaked very deep into what we used to call the "good ole boy" network. It used to be that old style of doing business when you had an employee who snapped necks in order to cash checks, and he would be recognized and rewarded for it. Not anymore. They don't care what you did for them today, only what are you going to do for them tomorrow. This ever increasing feeling of being dwindled down into an obedient worker drone robot with no emotion and outside thinking is killing me slowly and sucking the life force from my body. There is just so much a man can take before he's had enough. We all have our limits.

This new opportunity has the chance to upgrade my compensation, raise my general satisfaction and daily happiness of the job, lower my stress level, and breathe a little fresh air into a stagnant mind that is always craving more to learn and execute as employable skills. It has the power to help me get back to those more satisfying personal business relationships of having a beer and a handshake with your customer and add the comfort of not having a 600 page company employee handbook of rules and regulations that are decided by people you'll never meet in your life and who are too distant from what you do to even care. I've never fit in well with that type of environment and most likely never will. I don't kiss ass to get ahead. You shouldn't have to if you've got a backbone and the pride to do the job a man asks you to do. A man's work ethic and reputation should be all he needs to keep climbing up toward his ambitions and goals in life. Your performance speaks for itself to people who are paying attention.

My leadership philosophy is very simple. When you lead people, you lead from the front and motivate your people to WANT to perform at their highest abilities for YOU. Sometimes, it takes a little more effort. This means getting to know your workers, what they like and don't like, their spouses names, kids names, birthdays... You know, acting like you actually care about them. It makes a world of difference. Not once did I ever have to yell at my employees to get them to work. When you show a man the respect he deserves for doing what he's supposed to do as he does it well for you, you won't ever have to yell. They know you are counting on them and that you appreciate their efforts. Talk is cheap, and action speaks volumes. When you have that incentive instilled in a man to go his hardest for you because he respects you and your position, you've won. I used to tell my guys "Look, nothing has changed Gents. We know what we have to do this week. You guys can grab another gear and we can get our objectives accomplished a little early and go play for a couple of hours at the end of the week, or we can stay late and most likely meet back up here at 7 am on Saturday to finish. What do you think they chose? I was never the cat that made ridiculous requests for them work hard while I kicked back off to the side and took all of the credit for their hard work. I cannot tell you how many times we had it all buttoned up by 1pm on Fridays, drank beer until quitting time, and had meat on the smoker as we sat around and enjoyed each others company as a functioning and efficient team. That style of leadership got me into the position I'm in now. Unfortunately, there's no room for growth. So, at the moment I'm capped on where I can go here. I don't like being limited on my ambitions. I want to hit the ceiling and punch right through that bitch to blast into outer space. Yes, I'm that aggressive when it comes to my means of getting by and providing a certain level of comfort to the family unit.

Nothing is set in stone just yet with the new opportunity. It was only a phone call, so I cannot get too crazy with it yet. But, I seriously have a good feeling about this one. The man kept his promise to me from two years ago that I'd be his first pick once things got up and running to where they could bring another person on board. A man that keeps his word is an important connection to keep. We shall see how it goes.

You all have a great Friday and even better weekend.