So, a week ago already, I met two friends/former colleagues for coffee/tea. I joke that we’re all refugees, having left the same place when it had very little work. The three of us caught up on our current situations, shared a few successes, and commiserated over challenges. It was great: it helped me gain some perspective on what had been a challenging week at work, on the old place, and the transitions we had all made.
Two of the three of us are on long-term contracts ending in December. I remember my own uncertainty last December, while there’s a part of me that misses that feeling of potential and that feeling of freedom, a larger part is relieved not to be revisiting that particular set of anxieties.
Two of the three of us are maintaining some relationship with the old place. One is a current client, and I was fascinated to hear about life on the other side.
None of us expressed regret about having left that particular set of problems
- not enough work
- no path for advancement/growth if there was work (cog mentality)
- non-scalability of certain essential pieces of the process/team (we were all interchangeable and replaceable except for those that weren’t….)
for our new problem sets, variously
- insufficient process maturity
- too much work/too little time
- unrealistic expectations
It’s not as if there are fewer challenges now, but I think that, at least for me, the new set is more palatable. Why is this? The only thing I can think of is that we each in our own way have a bit more agency in these new situations, and that we’re growing and learning different things, so it feels better.
Anyway, it was great to catch up and feel the support and understanding of old friends.
