My department at work shuffled the deck again this week, re-organizing around our biggest project. I’m changing managers again, for the third time in less than a year. Except this manager doesn’t currently work here. He’s a new hire who will start next week while I’m on vacation. Then I found out that my current manager, who I have thoroughly enjoyed working with, is quitting. Though that shouldn’t really affect me, it does.
I’m usually an early adopter when it comes to organizational change. I’ve never seen much point in resisting, frankly. That change is happening whether you like it or not, so you may as well go with it, embrace it, and see what happens. It’s worked well for me so far. And I intend to do the same this time around, too. But just because I can’t avoid it doesn’t mean I’m excited about it.
For some reason this change is not sitting well with me, even though it makes a certain amount of organizational sense. Even before my favorite manager quit I was uneasy about things. I know some of it has to do with some growth opportunities that were in the works and now are uncertain, but that doesn’t account for all of it. Something is sapping my enthusiasm, and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s somewhat alarming–up until this week I’ve been fairly enthusiastic about my job.
I doubt my job will be going away any time soon. We’re knee-deep in this project, and several other managers who are remaining seem to believe me a key asset. The project itself is unlikely to go away, and even if it did there’s an even bigger one waiting in the wings to filch people from this one.
In the end there’s nothing to be done, really. I can’t act on vague feelings, even though Han Solo and company were seldom wrong when they had their bad feelings about things. Only time will tell how things are going to go. I owe my new manager at least a month or two to get settled and establish his management style. But it just goes to show how quickly things can change. A year ago I had pretty much decided I was going to hang in here for another year, and then start looking for a job with a different company. By six months ago I had moved into a new department and decided the culture and opportunities were good enough that I was happy here. The last six months only reinforced that. Then within the space of two weeks I’m questioning everything.
Not to worry. I am not bold. I won’t be scuttling my career here just yet. There are still many things to be pleased with here. But I suppose this is a reminder to never get too comfortable.