Lame Duck

[Mike_H]

I'm sitting here at my desk, in the last hour, on my last day of employment at my current company. My responsibilities have all been handed off, while the organization searches to replace me. My files are all transferred, computer is ready to be wiped. My badge, keys and CC have been turned in. I'm done...Yet...I can't just leave. 25% of my life, I've spent here (ten years). 50% of my working life.

I don't feel like I'm going to miss this, but I think I will. I drove a LOT of changes thru the years. This is the closest thing I have to a legacy yet.

For instance...pretty close to the time I hired in, our plant looked like this...

Today, I took a picture from approximately the same spot

We've basically doubled our business in 10 years, yet shrunk our mfg footprint by about 1/2. We've shrunk the warehouse by 40%. We've created enough room to allow Toys for Toys, West Michigan to run their operations out of our unused space. Its pretty amazing.

On to bigger and better. Starting at a place that needs the same injection of fresh thoughts from a change agent. This time, however, I won't be working for someone else. I'm doing it for ME. I will have equity and ownership. Super excited.

 

[qslim]

That kicks ass, good for you. I'm of the thought that getting outside one's comfort zone is one of the best things that can happen. Good luck to you on your new adventure, though it sounds like you've already made your own!

 

[Tomcat]

One door closes, another one opens.
How exciting, a blank slate again.
What a great country we live in.
Good luck.

 

[Darsmith]

Spent 25 years with one employer (major corporation). They moved local operations back to CA. Found myself back in school for an ME degree and a change of career (at 50). I now work for a great small company doing service work that I love. I believe I'm better off than if I had moved to CA and stayed with my previous employer. Things worked out nicely in the grand scheme. Good luck with your new job. Sounds exciting.

 

[rjinaz86323]

Congrats. I worked for 48 years and only had 3 jobs. My last one was for 34 years. I started with a software company of 6 employees and we peaked at 165. I held many jobs working up to VP level. The last few years I spent planning my retirement and served more in an advisory role, but still a full time employee. Leaving was easy, but not without a lot of soul searching. Good luck on your new adventure.

 

[Chris]

It's a blessing in disguise, no doubt.

 

[taylormade73]

Look forward, not back. Good luck, Mike.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

Nice. It's a fun and scary place to be to leave something behind for something that ought to be better but still carries the unknown.

My first job out of college lasted me just short of 10 years. Medium sized family owned company with about 300 employees and ~$50M annual revenue. It was all I knew. I had grown from a new engineer and moved my way into management in 2 different engineering groups, making a pretty wide experience base when it comes to the technical stuff, but not so much the cultural.

When I left I went to a global corporation with something like 40,000 employees and $13B annual revenue. Some of the corporate decision making was frustrating, but within our location the day-to-day wasn't vastly different. I was no longer a big fish in a small pond...I did good work and got recognized for it but there were guys ahead of me that I would never catch up to, until they retired. I learned a LOT from those guys about how you have to do things when you're making so many products that hundreds or thousands could get shipped before you know there's a problem.

About 4 years in, that first company called me up out of the blue with a job that I could do from home (and not have to move back to Oklahoma), essentially a 1 man engineering team on their biggest $$$ single project. I get the specs, I make the design drawings, I write the control software, the factory builds it, and I go to the site to start and commission it with other contractors outside my company but hired by our common customer. The worst part of the job is my fear that one day I'm gonna get tired of it but not be able to find anything else that's as challenging, flexible, or lucrative.

 

[1J4FY]

Thank you for today's happy read! Good luck in your new endeavor!!!

ps, that period of time between giving notice and actually leaving seems to be the most grueling time. Yuck!