Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone!
I want to take a minute and remind myself — and all of you — that the problems I talk about on Open-Source Career, and that the other HR, career management and personal finance blogs talk about, are often really excellent problems to have. I’m reflecting this Thanksgiving week on my situation and I’m finding myself lucky.
Here’s how I’m answering my Inner Critic, and reminding myself of just how much I am blessed:
1. I haven’t been promoted yet, and people I used to know are promoting past me. That may be true, but the economy is melting down and I have an excellent job. And I still have the job. And there is no talk of layoffs at this time in my company. Not only that, but I know how the pay grade structure works — they overlap by quite a bit — and I may easily be making more than some people with more advanced titles. Finally, I know some folks who fast-tracked it up there. I also know from conversations with others “up there” that there are not a lot of places to go once you’re there, that it is still an up-or-out track once you’re there, and that it’s incredibly competitive, disingenuous and bordering on back-stabby “up there.” Bottom line: I’m on a marathon, not a sprint, what I do is basically very easy for me, and I don’t have to worry about back-stabby politics.
2. I haven’t found or engineered my perfect role yet. Wow, talk about a navel-gazing, first-world, privileged problem to have. This is a GREAT problem. I’m actually on easy street: I’m well paid for what I do, and my industry is still relatively healthy. I do not have to do manual labor. I don’t work around dangerous equipment or chemicals, and the worst health impact my job could cause is carpal tunnel syndrome. I can spend my time and angst focusing on finding the perfect role because I’m not spending my energy walking eight miles to get water (and plenty of folks in the world have to do that), surviving in a war-torn city, or dealing with abuse. Bottom line: I’m really lucky, and I’m grateful for that.
3. I am deeply torn between being a working mom and a stay-at-home mom. Another great problem to have. Because the problem implies that I’ve got a choice. Theoretically, I could choose to stay home, even though I’m more of the breadwinner. Our standard of living might change drastically, or it might not, since by staying at home I’d have more time to do the artisan and homemaking things that I pay for now: cooking, housekeeping, gardening to raise our own food, acting as my own car mechanic, doing my own major home improvement projects. Hell, I could even homeschool – he’d be able to figure compound interest by age seven! On the other hand, I’ve undertook a series of really big projects all throughout my maternity leave — I needed something challenging and interesting to do all day. Plus, while it’s a lot harder to work while my kiddo is very young, if I step off the career track now and find myself wanting to work on something difficult, competitive, lucrative and interesting once he’s in school, I might never get back on track. A recent study shows that women who keep their careers end up happier in middle age. I’ll continue to re-assess full time vs. part time and work vs. stay at home. As my mom always reminds me, being a stay-at-home mom is hard work. And no big changes for at minimum 30 days. Bottom line: at this point in time I want and need to work, and that’s not a bad thing.
