More Chaos in this Economy

I had lunch with a friend of mine. We worked together 10 years ago - started at the same time where I am now. We've maintained our friendship since he left because we both like good music, have wives and children, and think along the same lines on a lot of things. He has had multiple jobs since he left - the number doesn't really matter. He's been laid off from previous jobs and consistently is always looking to better himself.

Our conversation yesterday was a lot about where he is now. He works for a company that sounds like a hellhole. He absolutely hates it, but he feels powerless to do anything about it. He is doing work he hasn't been trained to do, every one else is too busy to help him, and he's being evaluated on work he can't do efficiently. The working conditions are awful. He desperately wants to return to his former job but b/c he left, came back, left, came back, his former manager won't talk to him about coming back.

So, in this economy, what do you do? This site says to put on your game face. I think the problem with the whole article, though, is summed up in this line:
"An economy in recession isn't new and won't last forever, she notes, so people shouldn't worry excessively. But they shouldn't be surprised if they are unhappy in a job, and may have to simply hunker down and take it."

Just accept that you're in a crap job and live with it? What kind of hope can be found or motivation in that kind of statement?

I often felt kind of helpless in the conversation yesterday. In my career, I really haven't hated any job I've had. Listening to my friend, I've been lucky in that regards. My career history has been marked with long stays at employers.

I liked working @ the Spring House restaurant in Cedar Rapids and was there 7 years.

I worked @ a toy store in the warehouse and as the "industrial maintenance engineer" for ~3 years. While I didn't like my boss in the summer of 1990, in hindsight, I learned a lot from him.

I worked as a telemarketer for 3 months. That was my shortest stay. I got to talk to different people. My boss was a female dog who I didn't click with at all but I also think she was going through personal stuff of her own. I don't think it was my fault.

I left there to go to a different company as a temp. I never went back to the telemarketing firm, though I had made that arrangement in case the temp situation didn't work. I was a temp from 11/92-2/95.

From there, I went to my first tech writing job. I was there 3 years.

I left there to join a different software company and stayed there 9 months. That was to work with a college buddy of mine and my first exposure to online Help. I would have gladly stayed there longer except we used to sit around the lunch table and wonder if a check from a client would come in so payroll could be met. I was shifted from tech writing to data entry and I guess that kind of made me worry.

I left that company at the right time because everyone else abandoned ship shortly after I left.

I've been where I am now for 10.5 years. I like what I do. There's challenges, of course, like the MSI issue (that is SOLVED!!!! YEAH!) and there are little bumps in the road that come up. Overall, though, I like what I do and I like the people I work with. On Thursday, I talked to a client about some issues she was having. On Friday, I sent her a long e-mail message with a summary of what I had found out about her issues and she said:

I have reviewed your other items on my issues and I understand. I look forward to seeing the proposed resolutions on those outstanding solutions when they are available. Thanks so much. It’s been a pleasure working on this with you.

Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but that's a very nice ego stroke.

I did go through some more of the projects that showed up in my inbox and, actually, brought home a lot of folders to go through. From those folders, I expect my to list to top 100. Seriously. I left with 88 items on my list. I was just reviewing the folders and I have, easily, 12 more items to add to my list. I will process those folders later this weekend so that I know exactly what I'm dealing with on Monday.

This upcoming week should be interesting. The update that was to be shipped by the end of the week may be pushed back due to some final changes to the system. A project was sent to QA on Friday that has 45 hours of testing associated with it. It's number 80 on my list. Should be interesting to see how this all goes down.

But back to my friend. He said that he had been praying a lot lately, asking for answers to his situation. I hope he gets an answer and I hope that he finds his way through this chaotic time in his life. Something perfect is waiting for him and, I think, it is only a matter of time before it presents itself to him.