Recently I decided to tell my boss about how frustrated I’ve been at work. This is a touchy subject, and something that some people are not comfortable talking about. I’ve always believed that you should talk to your manager about wanting to change unless they are the reason why you’re leaving or your relationship with them is not very good. With my time being scarce due to work, family, school, and trying to find time to build this website I’ve been literally going out of my mind with the daily irritations at work…being that it’s the one thing I have the least interest in yet takes up most of my time.
Anyway, I decided to take the plunge in my latest bi-weekly meeting with my manager. It went surprisingly well I guess. You never really know what to expect, or what your manager will say when you tell them that you’re frustrated with what you’re doing and you might be needing to move on to something else. My manager listened to what I had to say and asked how frustrated I was, basically trying to gauge how close I was to just looking elsewhere. He did ask if I wanted to stay within the company, which is a good sign. I was a little surprised at myself though because instead of saying “yes, I want to leave, help me get there,” I was indecisive in letting him know I wanted out. After all the stress, why would I be?
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I don’t really know where in the company I want to work. The company that I work for is great, and I always said that if I wanted to work for any company it would be the one that I’m at. The problem is, I don’t want to work for any company, I want to work for my own businesses. That’s why it’s hard for me to say I want to go to a different department because I think I will still be frustrated, just in different ways. The real root cause of my frustration is that I’m not able to work my businesses full-time. That won’t change with an inter-company move.
I’ve thought about my options and the current state of my businesses, and I’ve come up with a plan of action of what I’m going to try to do to balance it all. Most importantly, I’ve come up with a timeline to getting out of my day job eventually and being able to be a full-time entrepreneur. Tune in tomorrow for part 2 where we’ll discuss my plan for freedom!
March 31st, 2008 at 3:26 am
It sounds like at least your boss is willing to try and work with you. I say take the opportunity and ask for whatever you think might make your happier. You just might get it!!