Sunday, August 14, 2011

It's a Matter of Time





Finally back to some normalcy. Here are my long overdue thoughts of the past several years of struggle and success.

Much has occurred over my tenure in corporate business that makes me look back with a perspective of illumination. I am at my 4th company and . realize, whether through fate or prayers, I have found myself. A lot has happened, as you can tell from my previous writings, that makes me realize there is good management and peers and there is complacent management and peers.

It seems that in my 1st decade of business I had found individuals willing to provide guidance and support in my personal and group/team success. The following years left gaps of lack of confidence, no personal commitment of peers for the success of the whole, willingness to sacrifice and most importantly poor management/team mentoring. There is no blame here and if anything, my error for ignoring the signs.

I have come to a point in my life that success and salary (award) don't always coincide. In fact, the interesting part to this story occurs on the day I was interviewed for my current position.
Following the interview, the interviewer made a salary offer. I said I would think about it and left. On my way home, I telephoned my wife, as I wasn't exactly sure but was confident the new job was more of a lateral opportunity and salary was not the important goal to accepting the job. I wanted to make sure I wasn't stepping backwards from where I was leaving, which wasn't saying much. I asked my wife could she look at my last pay stub and let me know my annual salary. She told me and I told her the offer. It was, as we both thought, a lateral move in salary but a role I felt brought value-add to not only company but myself. By that evening, after discussing further with my wife, I accepted the job offer.

Well, weeks went by and my first check arrived. It was an auto-deposit. Marie had been reviewing the bank account when she telephoned me. She said, " Do you remember when I looked up your salary for the interview offer?". I replied, "Yes." She said, "I am so sorry but, I inadvertently selected an earlier check stub before you got a good raise and you are making several thousand less now. Will that bother you?". I'll tell you my answer in a moment as herein is the reason I write.

I had been at the new company less than a month and knew within a week this was like no other organization or management I had ever experienced. Teamwork; I mean honest to goodness teamwork. Not one mention of "It's not my job". Some absolutes but with offerings of what can I do to help, acknowledgments of work well done and discussions of activities bringing value-add to the department. Where there was doubt or proof of no value-add, the activity was dropped like a hot potato. I was coming home from work with a smile and a disposition I had not felt in years. Although, I would like to have a 9-5 job, the earlier hours didn't cause any further distress. I was happy, as the people I worked with were happy.

So I replied to my wife, "If it doesn't significantly impact our financial stability immediately and there is, I am sure, a chance to recover lost salary within 18 month, than no, less pay doesn't bother me".

People and attitudes are everything.