If you could change One Thing ....

[freezorburn]

I know most of the action is still at TCF, but thought I might try to get a thread or two started here. I may end up just talking to myself.

Last night I went to my first union meeting. I had a chance to chat with a couple of the coordinators at the end, for a new member orientation. The asked me a little bit about my story, and as I was telling them about my background and how I felt about my job and my plans for the future, I began to think about the work of constantly moving pieces around to achieve balance in life. Of course at some point we talked about wages and financial realities. And how there are many solid reasons for me to work this job, at this time in my life, other than just the pay. And I'm very fortunate to be in this position, but that won't always be the case. I get a couple more years of spousal support and then I would need to dip into savings, which I will hopefully avoid. And my gut is telling me that I should retrain in another field, because I would be financially limited by the career I had before I had my son. 

But, as I told the union rep, while living wage is a hot issue in our state, I'm *ahem* of a certain age and can't afford to wait around and hope that situation gets better real fast. In the meantime, I need to think outside the box about my future.

Which leads me to what I think would be a great warm-up question for this board. If there were one thing you could change about your work situation, other than your compensation, what would it be?

[freezorburn]

I work in the floral department of a local supermarket. Two days a week, 9am to 6pm. No one takes over for me after my shift, so if a customer needs anything usually someone from the checkout counters helps them. But I would love it if another dedicated floral person would overlap with me a little bit, or even just start a new shift at the end of mine. Because 6pm is in the middle of a busy period, and lots of people are asking for help just as I'm trying to put things away for the evening. And I don't always feel like I'm providing the best service that I can, when I'm closing things up at the same time.

[msn06]

I faced this debate a year and a half ago as I realized I no longer love what I was doing and needed a better worklife balance. I left teaching and took a job as an administrative assistant well I figured out my life's plan.

I'm now the HR/Payroll administrator for our district. My company is great and I'm loving the change despite now working year round (the higher pay helps tremendously too). I'm now looking into my companies continuing education program so I could get a degree of some sort in business should I want more or to move companies. I learned how many people don't want to consider looking at or interview teachers.

I now have a job that I can leave at work, a flexible work schedule, and less stress then I used to. These three things were the biggest changes I needed to make for myself and family.

[freezorburn]

msn06, it's always so inspiring to hear about someone going through a period of transition as you have, and landing somewhere that provides you with a quality of life that was missing before.

This is my next big challenge, figuring out if I want to engineer a major career change. My previous career doesn't pay very well, which was fine when I was married, but now that I'm on my own I'd like to do better than just scrape by. So I'm starting to research new careers and figure out if the retraining is doable.

[msn06]

freezorburn I wish you so much luck in your transition. I can't believe how much happier I have been since doing the transition. I had a parent who worked on a degree after her divorce to switch degrees. She's now in her new field and so happy she did it. Good luck!

I loved my previous admin position and actually turned down my current position twice before taking it.

[HeartofCheese]

What I want most from my job is for it to be something different. I'm always torn when it comes to special projects, because I'm not really interested in *any* of the things here that could take me above and beyond my current work. For the few things I would be interested in (maybe), I don't have the technical skill set to be valuable or do the things I brainstorm. I'm good at just the nuts and bolts of my job. I'm a good liaison. I wish there was more I could do with that set of skills.

[xctsclrx]

The biggest issue in my job is communication. The head boss on my project only wants to talk to certain people which is fine since they are supposed to disseminate down; however then he also wants control over who knows what. He likes secrets and only give parts of the pie to people. In my role I need to see the entire picture, because I am in logistics. If I don't know what needs to be know then I can't give good accurate date, or data filtered down to what that one person needs. Head boss doesn't seem to get that.

[twinmomma]

I'd love a more clear chain of command for approving my work. Sometimes higher ups are all "Do what you want! You're awesome and we trust you! You can totally sign that contract yourself!" and then other times the executives have to approve things like which cheap sunglasses I should order for promo. I still haven't figured out what I can do myself vs. what needs approval and I feel like I'm always asking permission for stuff that doesn't need it, which slows down production.

[welly01]

I would love the chance to have a part-time schedule. I think even reducing to 30 hours a week would help tremendously.

[mae0111]

New leadership. The current leadership is... not good. Imagine coming in to take over a team that has been in transition for 18 months - no solid leadership during that time, but tons of work. Tons. So everyone is tired, uncertain, overworked, and nervous. New Bossmam comes in and says that your work is subpar, everything from the past 2 years has to be redone, oh and you also have to do all this other work, and no additional headcount to do it. Talk about not being able to read the crowd...

Also better balance. WFH privileges doesn't go far toward balance if I'm expected to be available 24/7 for phone calls and immediate email responses.

I am the start of the mass exodus.

[2chatter]

I'd like to travel more - I used to travel far more frequently. I'd also like to be eligible for awards and recognition. Because I am remote I am not included. Before leadership changed I was included in a different site and was often recognized (awards, $, extra day off). While it isn't a big deal, it sucks.

[pengy86]

I would like more direction from my management and for the people I work with to actually do what needs to be done instead of flaking on me week after week.

[erinshelley21]

All of it?

I think the thing that I hate the most is that it has gotten to be such a competitive industry with so many of the big agencies swallowing up the small ones. I'm just sitting here waiting on one to come knocking on my door.

[sdlaura]

Opposite of 2chatter - I'd prefer to travel less . I don't mind most of the travel itself - more just being away from the kids and coordinating everything. It's a major 'mental load' thing to plan everything ahead for being in different cities on different days and flights and everything.

[kam3100]

My answer may not count because it's not changeable. I wish the commute wasn't so horrible.

In response to this, I have been given the opportunity to work from home more often, however, I do prefer to be in the office.

I love my job other than that.

[mommyatty]

I'm in an Operations role in a Fortune 200-size company. I am tied for the highest ranking woman ever in Ops at my job. I wish that in the last 180 years, they had deemed a single woman capable of being an AVP or higher in Ops. I hate the fact that in order to get my next promotion, I will break a glass ceiling so thick I will make the industry trade publications. If I ever get the next promotion which feels more and more doubtful over time.

[ilovelucyvv]

I just started my new position last week so its still kinda too soon to tell. If anything I wish I had the same confidence and technical knowledge as I had for my old job but I know that takes time.