Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 10/12/18> The search is on… what am I looking for is the question?
So know that I know the fate of my employment situation and after having coffee on Thursday morning with the area business manager for the manufacturer of the products I have represented for the last eleven years I now need to assess and determine just what direction from this personal Hard Fork in my life I want to go down.
I have some time though, the company that I get my check from has said that while our contract on the products I sold ends on Halloween they understand and appreciate what myself and the other guy who also is affected by this have done for the company and that they will find some stuff for us to do to keep us employed with company through the end of the year. So that gives me some time to determine what direction I want to go.
There is a gentleman in the service department that has been saying he is going to retire and the management wants me to consider taking his position over. I am plenty qualified for that position and I have always enjoyed trouble shooting problems but he spends as much time on the road each week as I have in the past and I am not sure that I really want to continue with being gone as much from home as I have been.
Plus his job is a lot more physically demanding and while I am not opposed to physical hard work and am in pretty good shape I just don’t know that I want to commit to that much hard physical work when the customers rarely appreciate it.
He gets pulled from several different directions and he always is “behind schedule” in his customers eyes, we all know that each person waiting on a service guy thinks their problem should be a priority and they should be moved to the front or top of the list.
So while I know that employment situation is changing and I have already started investigating potential opportunities I have a little time to assess the situation and try and make sure that the move I make is the right one and I won’t have to go through another change. The job I had before this one I was with them for 15 years and this one 11 years so it isn’t like I move around a lot and change jobs like pairs of socks or underwear.
I believe I have ten more good years left in me barring any health issues and I really don’t want to be a job hopper at the back end of my career. I am leaning right now at going back into sales at the distribution level and that was the 15 year stint I did. That company has been bought out and I really don’t want to go back there but there are a couple distributors I wouldn’t mind working for and so I will start today on seeing what …
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Until next time,
@sultnpapper
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The truth, like an important rainstorm has much to say in its nature and is usually profound, but not always, it can fizzle out or even fade into the next knowledge base to come along; but in so much as it’s raining then the newness of that is its reality.
Some perceived truths are a waste of time in the time and non-time of it all and quite often lead down wrong avenues, as the Greeks with their geometry patterns theory that led the minds of the time to bully up their ideas for one and all that spread far and wide and although the Greek theory of geometry has its place and can be used as a stepping stone, recent quantum theory has surpassed that in the search for the basic building blocks of the stuff of all that is perceived that is; but so far no solid platform to build from has been formulated beyond theory.
But as has been said, it may be time to go beyond theory to find a solid foundation to build theories of knowing from.
Explanations abound and could fill the milky way with their theories, but a theory is a theory is a theory and has its basis in what if and then calculate up to prove it in some way until the next theory comes along to either disprove it or show the next stepping stone.
This is what I think anyway..
I appreciate your reply but I don't have a guzbucking idea of what you are trying to tell me with. Could you just tell me in good old fashion plain English and see if I can grasp it? Thanks man.
Simply put then, you did a great post worth an accolade
Well thank you @wales, I can understand that and do appreciate it very much.
hopefully a head hunter finds you and offer something much better without the physical demands
I don't know that head hunters even pay attention to our industry, I never hear anyone saying that they ever had a head hunter work with them. Maybe at some of the higher corporate levels but not down in the sales force levels, at least not that I have been aware of.
That's great news that you have more time. It's always best to think out these life decisions in a calm and considered manner, so you definitely don't want to just rush into the first thing on offer. Hopefully that couple of extra months will help you find something that is an improvement on what you were doing before.
I sometimes find that life gives me a gentle nudge when I get too comfortable, or at other times a big kick in the butt. That's what happened when I was bullied and then made redundant from my previous job. I had been coasting along before the bullying started, and in retrospect that was what was needed to shift me into a much healthier and more creative work pattern in the long term.
Yes, the extra time is helpful but I don't want to be wasteful of it for sure. So I am wasting no time and already have started putting the word out and my network is already starting to respond with good leads for me to follow up with. I know things will work out, I have full confidence in that, just don't know the details yet.
A good positive attitude!
Well, it's good to know you have a fallback position if needed, and time to make that decision.
I did a two year gig as the Service Manager of a medium sized Equipment Sales and Rental dealer. We had enough exotic equipment in the rental line to keep me interested and our sales was OK. We didn't have Cat as our big power ticket, so couldn't ever be the big dog in the area.
But I had absolutely first rate mechanics and a good support staff, so our shop looked like a Cat shop at times. Plus I had a personal pipeline to Cat parts (a cousin) so we did well as a department.
My major malfunction was misreading the office politics and generally not giving a guzbuck about them. That and that they expected me to keep my hands clean. They infact told me to leave my tool box at home, but I convinced them to let me bring it in for insurance reasons. My homeowners agent wanted a separate rider on my box being at home. The company had a blanket policy so it took nothing from them. It sat ignored in my office for the two years. Or at least that is the official line. :)
Early on we had the single biggest parts order I've ever seen for a piece of rental equipment that the customer was on the hook for. A single part was over 30k and the order was just over 100k. I oversaw that repair with great care and dirty hands.
The Service Manager position there was a hard narrow road. Ownership wanted a steady and growing profit line. Management wanted to 'suck up' to their best customers. Employees wanted more money (actually, it was a union shop and the mechs were pretty satisfied until they had to do serious work in a freezing puddle).
I have to tell you I didn't enjoy the two years. I loved the guys and the customers but the rest ate at my soul. I was a grinning goon when I got my pink slip there.
I'm thinking something good is coming. More time at home, more challenges and more money.
I can see and at least do some surveying of the opportunities and I would like to have my situation resolved in no more than thirty days from now. Sure don't want this lingering on through the holidays.
That customer of yours must have really abused that piece of equipment to tally that invoice total.
Well, it's good to know you have options and are not just SOL.
ALso glad you have time to think it all over and decide the best course of action.
Me too. I hate change for the most part, especially change that I didn't expect.
I know how you feel! I too, do not like change. It annoys me and puts me in an angry mood...
I need warning so I can mentally prepare for it. ;)
Yes, it can be a challenge with little notice to at least get the mind in frame.
Hey @sultnpapper
It was about ten years ago that my long term job in the newspaper printing industry came to an abrupt end. At the time it was a bit of a shock and and it took me a while to get my head straight.
The good news is that I have found a great balance in my life and tried new things that I wouldn't have believed a few years back. This could be the start of something new and special in your life too.
Good luck with your choices.
Gaz
I thank you for the luck and the encouragement. I am sure things will work out but the uncertainty of the moment is what weighs on me.
You're welcome.
It is good to know that you won't be hung out to dry until the end of the year. At least that buys you a bit of time to figure out the lay of the land. This came is a shock so don't jump from the frying pan into the fire. That would be so much worse.
I have a decent track record on picking my jobs and I don't plan on screwing that up now. The extra time cushion does help for sure and I won't squander it, I may find the right job and postpone starting it in order to get the year end bonus that I am entitled to since we hit our sales goal for the year, they should still honor that, I know if i leave before the 15th of December there would be no seeing that money. Since bonuses are paid the last payday before Christmas.
Decisions like this really is not easy mr Papper!
Will share a little about my youngest son - the company he had been working at for a short while, were taken over by a larger group. They were given the option of taking a retrenchment package which was a better prospect than being retrenched. As it's always last in, first out, he opted for the package, but in the end so many went for that option that the company did not have to retrench! He could have just sat tight and his job would have been safe. He went on to a job where he was very unhappy but fortunately kept ties with someone from his very first job and he's now back with them; people who really care so his job dilemma ended well.
I do hope you make the right decision but I also believe you will, if you listen to that inner voice guiding you, but it's going to be trying times for sure until the dust settles.
All will work out in the end for you and your family, that is what I believe! Someone who is so sincere in everything they do will be rewarded one way or another.
I think you have enough time to make a decision. I understand that you don’t want to hop from a job to another at this age, but don’t stress yourself too much on getting the right job. It’s just a job, nothing is forever and you can always get another one if you want to. 😊
Actually I am really not stressing that much over it and surprisingly the wife isn't either. The two youngest girls are the ones stressing over it, especially Shortie. I keep telling her everything will be fine but she says, there is nothing fine in not knowing where you are going to be working in a month or two.
@sultnpapper I know what you are going through. The company I had been with for 25 years closed its doors. Both my husband and I were part of the company. I ended taking a job in the city..something I was terrified to do. Ended up being the best work environment I had ever witnessed. I ended my working career there, I never realized what a great job could be. I know that is out there for you! So glad they are honoring your loyalty and giving you more time and potential options! Says a lot about you! :)
I don't think it is so much honoring my loyalty, I expressed an interest in another position within the company that is currently held by a guy who says he is retiring soon but hasn't given them a firm date yet.
They figure that if he is going to leave before the end the of the year it would be in their best interest to keep me on the payroll in hopes that I would stay and take that position. They pretty much know that once I leave I wouldn't be coming back but as long as I am there they at least have a shot a getting me to take that position.
So I believe that my expressing an interest in that job and telling them I am planning on working for at least another eight to ten years is more of the reason than you might suspect.