Moving On

While waiting in the car the other morning, my little ones were wondering why I wanted to change jobs. They think my company is the greatest place on earth. For one I’ve worked there for their entire lives. Two, on “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” the place is full of games, donuts, candy, and we get play with microscopes and lasers and such. Three, that’s the only time they go inside. The new place just doesn’t sound as fun to them and I neglected to ask if they let us bring our kids on that day each year.

They could not fathom why I didn’t want to be a manager at McDonalds instead. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just not for me.

So, I put in my resignation yesterday after 12 years of employment (more than 1/3 of my life) at this place. That was not an easy thing to do. Even though the offer from my new employer was plenty generous and I’ve been wanting to leave for years now, actually making that walk down the hall was rather nerve racking.

While they were certainly surprised it was more because it was really happening, not that they had not considered the possibility. I somehow kept it quiet for the rest of the day and I was warned to expect a strong counter offer.

Crap.

Did I want them to stroke my ego, make me feel like all these years hadn’t gone unnoticed, miss me? Yes.

Did I want them to make a serious offer and genuinely make this life changing decision more difficult than it already has been? No.

Most of my morning was spent talking with varying levels of management. Saying "yes" would have been so much easier. I didn’t spill on the details of my offer and held firm that I wouldn’t have resigned if I hadn’t already made up my mind.

And I feel so much better now.


Jeff