I Never Knew…


All of my working life I’ve always been the one that the bosses (most, ok some) liked on a personal level (and the others generally didn’t like me because I had influence and could distract other staff… which is, you know, understandable) and who let things slide because overall they could see that I knew what I was talking about and had an idea of how things work. Technically, I was their best employee but on a performance level I might have been their worse.

In most cases I’ve never been promoted (except at TeleTech where they had a section of people – who had the skills to assist other people but didn’t have the discipline to do much else – that they called Seniors. We were the ones that knew everything but didn’t suck up to the bosses and in most cases we never progressed beyond this point) at work. I’ve never been the one to look up to but always been the one to go to when training was required. I rarely got bonuses and was lucky to see a pay rise.

When I started at my current job I loved it. I was so relieved to be working – I had been unemployed for 3 months prior – and the work was very much my style. Very little to do with customers and very much to do with computers and systems and researching books (YEAH!). At some point along the way my immediate boss started to dislike me, was it in the first month when I was so frustrated with her that I yelled back at her and told just how wrong she was? Was it when I was teaching her things about how our systems worked? Who know but she took quite a dislike to me. I like to think it was because people preferred to come to me than to her, even though I was the more junior employee.

So, because of this boss I plodded along at work and never got anywhere. I was promised the chance to move into her role 3 or 4 times and each time she decided I wasn’t ready even though I was more or less doing the job. Then she quit. I was so excited and then I found out how behind she was and what I had to work with. I was determined to move past this though and show that in the busiest period of the year I could do a better job and I could do it by myself… and I did.

This person actually works with the company again now but in a very different role where I am in some respects more senior than her (considering she is now a lowly casual heh).

Anyway, away from my bitterness, we had a new general manager start the Tuesday after Easter and wow! She took me in for an hour and saw me for what I was. It was the first time I had gotten to a new GM before my boss did and the first time someone with any authority realised that I was worth something to them.

Now I go to work and wonder what I’ll learn and how I can make myself more useful and more required to my company. For the first time I know what it is like to be satisfied in a job and feel like I belong in that role.

For the first time I feel like I’m someone worth something. Let me tell you, it feels good.


2 responses to “I Never Knew…”

  1. That is great that you've found that perfect job niche that so many people spend their lives searching for.

  2. That's awesome that you are doing so well at your job! I know it feel great to be appreciated. I was appreciated at my last job. I could have progressed through the ranks but I didn't want to. I was comfortable with my position. I miss that job sometimes, but I don't think I want to do that job again.

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