This should be a grateful Thursday post. And while I do have things for which to be thankful, at the moment I've just recovered from a slight panic attack, so I'm mostly just grateful to have stopped crying.
Apparently the Bobs, (aka Norma in my case) liked me. She informed me and the rest of my company today that she will be coaching me and grooming me to be the general manager of the company for the future. My boss, the owner, will always be the head of the company, but he will maintain a creative position, the idea man if you will, the face, while I will run the actual business.
I saw it coming, like a deer bounding toward my car from a field beside the road, unable to stop it, too caught off guard in the suddenness of it all to even swerve or blow my horn. As the meeting went on and we laid out our new corporate structure, everyone taking their place in their appropriate boxes, I was taken aback again when Emily announced she would be taking a sales position. I never saw her as a salesperson. Sure, she has the personality for it, but not necessarily the stamina, and she'd be so much happier in marketing or PR. Up to now she had been doing training.
I calmed the panic I felt rising in my throat in the meeting. Sure, in five years we'll be a corporation with a couple hundred employees, if all goes to plan, but there's no reason I can't handle that. Do I want to handle that? Well, if I don't, all I have to say is no. So I'm ok with that. Amazed that they trust me and expect so much greatness from me, flattered, and emboldened.
I could tell Emily wasn't ok, though. She put on a good face, but something was off. I started to worry she was resenting the position they gave me and feeling left out or passed over, but we both know she doesn't have the detail-minded brain needed for a job like the one they gave me. I thought maybe she had just had a fight with her boyfriend (she recently revealed to me that she had been hooking up with one of our tech guys and it had gotten serious), but he seemed fine.
We left the office happy, joking about her puppies, wondering where she should move when her lease is up next month. No hints.
While simmering some blackeyed peas and mixing up the cornbread for dinner, I heard the distinctive cricket-like noise my computer makes when a new email comes through, and I glanced at it to see an email from Emily to me.
She quit.
She said she was telling me first because I was her friend, but also because I'm now head of HR as well. She wants to go back to school, and she's not happy in sales. I've been arguing my points all night-- why leave a good, well paying job where you like the people? You won't find better, especially not now. The semester's already started, so what will you do til January? Why move home and not stay here? What about the boyfriend? Why leave us in a lurch, knowing we need all the help we can get right now, and only give us two weeks-- not hardly enough time to replace you?
She hasn't told our boss yet. She knows he'll try to guilt her into staying.
She's the other half of my brain, my best friend, and my confidant in the office. I don't know what to do without her there. Halfway through my first email back to her, I started hyperventaliting and crying. It's silly, but with all the huge changes happening at work otherwise, that was the very last straw. I had to lay down on the couch and let my husband rub my back for a minute.
I'm ok now. We've sent back and forth several emails now, and I think I've talked her back from the ledge. She's going home for the weekend to chill out and think about everything. I've at least got her admitting that she needs to work for the next few months to allow us time to replace her and to make some money for school. And I remembered that this is just work. If it doesn't work out, for one reason or another, it doesn't, and I'll move on. She'll still be my friend.
What happens, happens, and it happens for a reason. It always works out in the end.
That is tough situation! But, look at you go, gilr :)! Good for you!
ReplyDeleteIt almost sounds as if you want to keep her for your own selfish gain opposed to the her own health and values...although, I admit, I would do the same thing. Perhaps its time to sit down and see if there is another area of which she would be more challenged and fulfilled in her work environment (and no more office romances)! big no-no I guess, you also deserve a well earned Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad not to be in the cut and thrust of earning a living. Working, working and never really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI cannot recall the number of times I decided to resign from my job(s)- and eventually grasping the nettle and doing so.
Perhaps I've been lucky. Never found it hard to get another (totally different) job. Never regretted chucking it all in when the stress got to be overpowering.
No job's worth it unless you've found the perfect niche for you.
We're all exhorted to work hard. It's good for you, so we're told. But one day a wise old sage said to me: "If work was such a wonderful thing the gentry would have snapped it all up years ago!"
I do hope you don't have more of these panic attacks; I sincerely hope you don't. Take care, and try to take it easy.
That was a lot of change and potential to deal with all at once; my reaction would have been much the same. Glad things look, at the very least, a little more manageable.
ReplyDeleteI'd love a big bowl of beans and cornbread right now. Mmm.
It's hard when someone you value leaves; even more so when they seem to complement you as much as Emily does you.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping it works out well for you and her.
Just go with the flow. You said it all when you realized that no matter what else happens she will still be your friend. People come and go and everyone will survive. Good to have your meltdowns at home with your biggest cheerleader and supporter. You go girl!
ReplyDeleteI think that change can be difficult, but unless her heart is in the job, then she'll be useless over the next few months and that might cause you more stress. It's a tough one.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new job. You obviously deserve the opportunity. Your friend will either be happy or she won't. You can only be there for her as she explores alternatives. Life goes on, and no one is irreplaceable. Who knows, maybe going back to school is what she needs to do, and you will be happier with someone who really wants to work that particular job. Everyone wins.
ReplyDelete