If you are unemployed like me, I don’t have to tell you that being unemployed sucks. Each day unemployed is a day dealing with a wide variety of emotions. Feelings of good will are usually dashed after a few phone sessions with recruiters. Depressed feelings usually turn into fear, anxiety and hopelessness. Being unemployed is a sure sign, that smacks you in the face, that life isn’t fair. Not having a job to wake up to in the morning is a deep dark hole that is suffocating, if you allow it.
I will be the first to admit that I probably need therapy. I could use several bitching and whining sessions on a comfy couch to a stranger who claims that he/she can unlock the mysteries of my mind. However, since I am unemployed, with no health insurance, paying for therapy isn’t an option at the moment. I am not sure how our new digital leader health care reform bill helps the unemployed. It appears that although his intentions are noble, the government will find a way to screw us or screw it up if the bill is signed into law.
As you can imagine, bad management is a pet peeve of mind because it has unfortunately impacted my life negatively. I have seen enough bad management in my professional lifetime, that I could write a book on how to manage. All I would need to do is take what I have seen and put into words the opposite. I have encountered managers who were either bi-polar, insecure, untrustworthy, or just down right bad. I was fortunate to avoid most of the land mines in the toxic environment created by these individuals by being sociable, working hard and covering my assets. However, despite all of my dedication to being a good employee in the face of ineptitude, I found myself on the wrong side of management decisions. If it sounds like I have an axe to grind about some of my work experiences, you are correct. I was the type of employee that showed up for work everyday, rarely complained, kept my head down and tried to do my best under the most adverse situations. I was a company man, drone, worker bee who was to scared to rock the boat.
The key word is “was” because I am no longer afraid to rock the boat. All political correctness went out the door the day I was laid off from my last job. In retrospect, I now realize that having worked for several bad managers probably has done irreversible damage to my career. I am a by-product of career suicide, even though I had little or no control over the events that led to me being in this jobless situation. The decision of a faceless individual has caused my life to come to a stand-still, it sucks and I truly hope that person doesn’t sleep well at night. Despite my somewhat cynical and negative connotations, I do have a positive outlook on moving forward.
For the first time in my life I have a sense of freedom of not being one of the worker bees anymore. I am jobless, however I am no longer stressed out worrying that my boss has a bad perception about me because they can’t relate to my quirky ways. I no longer have to bite my tongue out of fear of losing my job because I disagree or have several questions about a project that is doomed to fail no matter how many hours I put in. Also, I am not the biggest loser in the office anymore and I am no longer a pawn in the popularity contest to sit on the right hand of my boss. Since it appears that God has chosen to look after bad managers, it’s only fair that I take control of my jobless situation and do what is necessary moving forward to create my own path.
