Back in high school, I dated a guy I’ll call Glenn. (I promise, this will relate to jobs. Don’t give up on me yet). Glenn and I really weren’t a good match, and we seemed to always be in a state of either breaking up or making up. I was always the one to break things off, and then I would sit at home by myself and cry because I missed him, and in the end would end up calling him up, apologizing, and we would start right back into the “making up” stage.
Then Glenn did something I wasn’t expecting: He broke up with me. Suddenly, I wasn’t the one who was in charge, and I couldn’t call him up and apologize to him, and take him back – he had dumped me. There were a couple of lonely nights where I cried because I missed him, and I would think for a moment, “What if I called Glenn up and…” and I would realize (yet again) that he had broken up with me, and that there wasn’t any chance of us getting back together again. I moved on, dated other guys, eventually married my husband, Doug, and life was good.
Now the reason that I talk about my ill-fated relationship with Glenn on here is because in many ways, that has been my husband’s relationship with his current job. He has been at his current job for almost five years. The boss hasn’t always treated him well (the word “slave” comes to mind), and then there is the fact that the pay is horrible considering his experience, the fact he has a degree in the field, and the amount of responsibility that he has (the owner went into a partial retirement a year or so ago, and has left the day-to-day running of the business to my husband). Every time I tell people how much my husband is making at his job, their jaws drop open and they exclaim in unison, “He’s being robbed!” I have not met a single person who thought my husband’s pay was even decent considering what he does, so I’m fairly certain that’s a pretty good sign that he is, in fact, being robbed.
But like Glenn and I in high school, sometimes it is hard to actually make that break. We live in a small town in rural Idaho, and there aren’t any other jobs in my husband’s field around here. Which means that if he leaves that job, then he not only has to find a new one, but we have to move. Which means that we have to sell our house, move, buy a new one, and get a new job, all at the same time. Suddenly, ole’ Glenn is starting to look pretty good. I am pretty adventurous (I once moved to a new state without having any place to move to – we just drove into town and spent the day looking for an apartment until I found one I could move into that day) but my husband is…not. Really, really, really not. So he ignored the fact that he was being robbed at work, ignored the fact that neither him nor me like the house we own, and life went on.
But then, the unimaginable happened: Glenn broke up with me…I mean, the company Doug is working for has announced they are shutting down. As of August 1st, the company will close its doors, which means there will be no more staying with the company because it is easier to do than the alternative. Doug can’t stay there – it isn’t a choice. We have to find something new.
So we are in the middle of packing, selling our house, looking for a job for Doug, moving, and buying a new home. Just the things we have been avoiding doing for the last five years. It has been great for us though – we are finally moving forward, and are really growing. We’re moving closer to my family (which I am thrilled to pieces about) and it looks like the job that Doug may get will be better paying and a better environment all around. We should have done this a long time ago, but apparently we need a big kick in the pants to get things done.
Can anyone else relate to this? Have any of you stayed at a job way too long, and only moved on when you were forced to? What was the driving force behind making that change, and are how did it turn out for you? I love to worry, so any success stories y’all would care to share with me would be great. I would love to hear about it in the comment section below or by e-mailing me at Hava L {at} Families dot com. Thank you for reading!