My boss is leaving today, after ten years at our company.
Ten years in advertising is like eighty years anywhere else. Really...there should be a parade.
Her departure has me thinking about bosses I have known through the years.
Early in my career I had the good fortune of working for a true sociopath. His field of expertise was international development -- more specifically, complex emergencies.
He was a brilliant economist, a genius at logistics, a masterful historian and someone who should absolutely not have been trusted with the care and feeding of other human beings. We used to take bets about when, not if, he would actually have a heart attack or stroke in the office.
I worked under his leadership -- except for a few stints abroad -- for nearly eight years.
But here's the thing.
While he was a red-faced firecracker, he had the good sense to surround himself with people who had softer skills. People like my mentor, Nancy G.
Nancy honed her diplomatic skills literally at the feet of the creator of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.
She ran the marketing department at the aid agency with the perfect balance of control and autonomy. She didn't demand respect, she earned it. To this day, I seek her counsel. S
he's one of my "slipper" friends -- someone who I see a couple of times a year, and it's as comfortable as slipping into an old pair of shoes.
Because of her, I came to appreciate, respect and even like the executive director.
Who would have thought?
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Here's a great, "working for the man," story;
Quitting Her Job
I feel all environments are the product of consciousness. A new individual can bring an environment to a higher level or lower level. Like in a work situation. Most job situations are governed by fear. So if you enter the situation without fear you start to bring the conscious level up. But then what everyone is afraid of will come for you and you may lose your job if you don't submit to fear. Then you must leave the situation.
Eventually, if you keep overcoming this fear you will create a work situation which is governed by love. Then when the egos and intellects of the world come to attack what you created, they must leave the situation instead of you.
I just read this blog and thought it fit so well here that I'm posting it;
There were things said after and things said before and words left hanging in between, but what I can most remember about mentally quitting my job today was his Zoloft façade; Two vacant windows upon a poker face that I was too tired or too un-inspired to read. After all, the hand I’d been dealt was meaningless. I had nothing left to loose.
The fact that I even gave a shit about this job was the bluff of a life-time, and he called it. Suddenly the weight of my unaffectedness became so burdensome, the cash payout meant less than nothing. I’d rather be struck by lightening than sleepwalk through another day of corporate slavery. Hell, my bags were packed already. Mentally I’d already cleaned house. Un-locked the shackles, spread my wings. But just to ease his jilted ego, I’ll let him believe I folded.
Had I played my cards right, I most likely would have walked from the table a richer girl. But at this point, my pride was worth more than a few thousand dollars.
And for all of you who know me, who have heard my broken record sobstory for far too long--let us all raise our glasses tonight in celebratory bliss:
The indentured servant has finally wriggled free of the shackles, or shall I say,
escaped solitary confinement to a caricature I was playing the imposter of
for the past 7 years.
When I walked out today at 1148am, I wondered where the hell I was headed, and what direction I should take. My future was more uncertain than it had ever been.
However, all the fear was a gamble I was completely willing to risk.
That subtle lightness I encountered as I emerged from the one thousand times recycled air of the Empire State Building, made it all worthwhile.
Suddenly I was free.
Finally I could breathe.
Although directionless and without a future to rely upon, I found myself swimming through the realm of possibility that I chose to be my New Life.
So many are tortured by the fear of what remains behind the door of everything that is not out everyday. The torturous routine. And we wonder, what would it be like
to feel that
and be this
and experience just for a moment, a world beyond our dome of limitation.
Well, today my friends I have crossed over.
I have walked the tightrope and tumbled to the ground.
And the report from the pavement is quite sunny because at the end of the day,
there exists a net to break your fall,
whether or not you choose to believe it.
Fear may prevent you from believing it-but the laws of nature remain intact:
A body in motion will stay in motion, and a body at rest will stay at rest.
All I can say now, is that the velocity of this transition has given me wings,
Today I have found myself at the bottom of my fate,
And there is nowhere left to soar-
But up.
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