By Janet Stoica

Our columnist mulls over the good, the bad and the ugly of changing jobs.

Do you know anyone who’s stayed at their job for more than five years?  If you do, these people are the exception. Most young graduates tend to be job jumpers seeking job satisfaction quickly or they’re out. However, if you have a job that you love, it’s not really a job after all, is it?  You’re just lovin’ it.  For myself, writing articles, stories, texts, and letters is, for the most part, fun and enjoyable. I came to write for newspapers like this one and the Worcester Telegram 13 years ago when the editor of a local publication was looking for writers. Even though I had never written professionally before, she asked me to write a few samples for her. Apparently, she liked what I wrote as here I am 13 years later.  I’ve had a few or more jobs in my life with one in particular that was a winner for sure.  

I was working at a manufacturing company (let’s call them company A) as a sales administrator for several years and when my manager was terminated, I was called upon to make a presentation to a small out-of-town corporation (company B) for one of the products we manufactured.  I took this very seriously and prepared many slides and sales materials with the help of my production manager, purchasing manager, etc. 

After my presentation and after company B’s visiting president and vice president had departed our office with promises for follow-up and a possible sale (after all, no sale is ever final until that sales agreement is signed), I received a phone call from company B’s vice president offering me a job and asking if I would like to work for them. 

I was totally blown away and had never experienced a job offer in this way before. I was on cloud nine for several days while I mulled over my final decision. I wanted to make the sale to the prospective customer and also considered the pros and cons of accepting that new position. I told the VP that I’d have a decision in a week and did they have any questions about my product presentation?  The VP advised me that they’d like to go forward with the sale and that I should prepare the sales agreement documentation.

The sale was signed, sealed, and delivered in two days with my visit to company B’s offices leaving with a deposit check in my hand.  Three days later, I had also negotiated a company B employment offer with a substantial salary increase and had given my two-weeks’ notice to company A.

After several months with company B, I realized that I had made the biggest mistake of my employment life. The first few weeks of my employment were filled with factory tours, product immersion, and customer backgrounds.  I soon realized that my job was purely a quota fill for having more women on their staff as my responsibilities were almost non-existent. I also saw that there were no other women managers in the organization. In meetings, whenever I was asked for product suggestions or other comments which I willingly offered, there was lots of head nodding and thank you’s given for my ideas, but not one of my suggestions, no matter how minor, was ever implemented. I felt useless. It was as if my job entailed sitting at my desk, smiling, and answering the few phone calls that came my way. I was bored beyond belief.  I couldn’t wait for my days to end, it was pure agony to even drive to work. 

One day, in my 30-something year old life, I saw and heard an exchange between the owner and his production manager. The office I sat in was surrounded by a half-wall of glass to the ceiling. The outside cavernous hallway leading to the production area was clearly visible from my desk. As I hung up from one of the rare phone calls I received, I saw and heard the owner and his production manager in the hallway having a heated disagreement. Heavy profanity-laced words and phrases were flying and echoing off the hallway walls like bullets. Wicked phrases, the likes of which I had never heard, were enough to make me wonder if both men had gone mad.  After this five-minute spectacle that seemed like forever, they walked into the manufacturing area continuing their ranting as their spit flew and eyeballs bulged.  I was incredulous.  In all the previous jobs I’d held, I’d never seen a more unprofessional and degrading form of disagreement. This company was certainly not for me. 

I had met a consultant at company B whom I had known from a previous employer. He had been hired by them to offer suggestions to improve sales into new areas. He and I had many talks about this company’s future, its management, and how I did not feel that I fit into their management style. Between the well-respected consultant and myself, we came to a tentative solution of my employment dilemma. I would have a sit-down meeting with the vice president who had hired me with the consultant at my side. It was done. I expressed how I felt I had made an error in accepting the position.  A cloud immediately came over the face of the vice president and he expressed his dismay that they had not fulfilled my job expectations and indicated that he would speak with the owner/president and would get back to me the next day.

The following day I was presented with an offer I could not refuse. I was given a two-month full-pay severance package, longer if needed, along with the use of the retired executive vice president’s private corner office complete with computer, printer/fax, phone, etc. and anything else I needed for my new job search. I could come and go as I pleased. What? Who does that? Where was I, on another planet?  Well, I did find a new position within the two-month timeframe and learned a huge lesson in life ... a big paycheck does not mean that a job will be fulfilling. I felt like the luckiest person in the world to have had such a generous departing gift from the company that wanted to fill its quota of women-on-board. They could have just terminated me and even though they were a wild and crazy group, they finally had treated me with respect and dignity. 

Contact Janet: [email protected]