The shortest time I’ve ever held a job was six weeks.
I realize that is not a record (I’ve had new hires fail to show up for work after lunch on their first day). But for me, it was traumatic, especially since it was a great job in a great place (Newport Beach, CA), with a great company (Bankers Mutual, since acquired by Deutschebank), working with people I admired and liked. What went wrong? I was under the impression I was working on commission with a draw, and my employer believed I was being paid straight commission. I was selling commercial mortgages and the closing cycle is a minimum of four months, so I was looking at an extended period of no income, with bills to pay and no reserves (and with a bad case of post-divorce blues, too). Under the circumstances, there was only one thing to do; exit.
In a previous post (Part I of this series) I have discussed changing your attitude about your situation rather than changing the situation. But, sometimes changing your frame of reference doesn’t get you anywhere. Over my career, I think I have left jobs for all the reasons it makes sense to exit:
The job is dangerous/unhealthy. In 1977-78 I worked on a mobile flax mill. It gradually dawned on me that the chronic respiratory and arthritis problems the older members of the crew suffered from were probably related to the dust we were breathing and the work we were doing.
You hate, hate, hate the work. Busboy, 1979 for six months. Enough said.
Fundamental misunderstanding about the job (duties, compensation, etc.). The Bankers Mutual situation (1987) in the opening paragraph.
Your employer is too stupid to be associated with. In 1988 I was a workout officer for the FSLIC. During the 14 months I was there, I did not resolve a single, solitary deal. Our days were spent doing endless data scrubs and preparing elaborate committee presentations which were invariably kicked back for more analysis. It became just too embarrassing to be a participant.
Your job has run it’s course. From 1989 to 1995 I was Assistant Director of Special Assets (income property workouts, foreclosures, bankruptcies) at Home Savings in Los Angeles (then the country’s largest S&L). I had a great team doing interesting challenging work at a great institution. But, the real estate recession was coming to an end, we were laying people off, and I could see the handwriting on the wall.
You are accomplishing no useful work. In 1996, I was Regional Chief Underwriter for Mellon Mortgage in Los Angeles. During that year, I had only one deal to underwrite (and that was one I went out and found myself). Some people might be happy catching up on their reading and web surfing, but I had a perpetual sense of impending doom –surely someone at some point would notice the lack of output.
You stop learning. 1997 – 2005 I was Chief Credit Officer at ARCS Commercial Mortgage (now PNC/ARCS). Like Home Savings, this was a great company, and I had a great team doing interesting work. But, I basically had the same job for 9 years, and in my opinion that’s about four years too long. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers talks about how it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. My guess is I spent around 27,000 hours at ARCS. The combination of a great work environment and partnership vesting kept me around, but looking back, that extra four years are the only years I wish I had spent differently.
Your organization changes direction. During 2006-7 I was Senior Vice President of Asset and Credit Management for Capmark’s Affordable/Low Income Housing Tax Credit unit. Very interesting work, but six months into it Capmark decided to wind down that line of business.
Obviously there are steps you can take in some of these situations so that it makes sense to stay. A change of direction could actually be a new opportunity. If you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything useful or aren’t learning anything new, it might make sense to try to redefine your job doing other work in the same organization. But, if you’ve truly exhausted the possibilities, exiting is the right thing to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment