Maybe this is all old fashioned, since the world has moved on to visual media, like TikTok videos, Twitter videos, Instagram and Facebook reels, etc. I'm not quite wanting to do that. Plus, let's face it, I'm not anywhere near attractive looking. But I feel old fashioned, honestly. I remember a time, and I was raised believing, that if someone worked hard enough, learned as much as they could at a job, they could write their own ticket to success. I've worked for almost twenty-five years now. Shocking, I know. I've only had four jobs, meaning employers. I've spent around eighteen years at half of those, again splitting at around nine years at each job making up that half. Looking back at those two jobs, I'd have gotten a lot farther ahead if I'd kissed enough ass. I'm not an ass kisser. I believed - foolishly - that working hard, showing I could do the work, showing I could learn any job thrown at me, would get me far. Oh how foolish I was. How foolish my parents were raising me the way they did. No wonder my own children seem to be aiming low. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. My kids want to be singers and dancers, or cheerleaders. I've tried to say to have a backup plan, but so far I've not heard anything encouraging.
But I digress. At the two nine-year jobs, I knew I was good enough to move forward with both those companies. I recently read a comment on LinkedIn about toxic employees, and the first point the person made was to watch out for employees who've plateaued. And this got me thinking about my own career trajectory at both companies stalling. With the first one, it was a lack of opportunities unless I wanted to move. I wanted to move to Tallahassee at one point, since I knew that was where I could thrive. The best opportunity came along in 2006, when one location I was at was closing. I tried. I got sent back to BFE, GA, instead. They did a management reorganization, and I was looking forward to moving up into a newly created salaried position. I was kept hourly, and honestly, with the reorganization, I had less of a position. Nevermind that I knew my job, the newly created job, and the job location inside out, backwards, forwards, sideways, it was decided to keep me where I was at. I responded by leaving, and moving over 900 miles away. I very quickly duplicated my previous success, but wasn't going anywhere since it was a family owned operation. So, I moved on. Now, here is the story of my second nine-year job.
This was in a different field entirely. But, it paid better, and I was a first-time dad, so of course I jumped into it. I took it slow. I wanted to learn how to do the job first. Only then would I try to move up. It took a few years, but I went for a quality control position, when I knew I was ready. I thrived in that position. I knew one of the supervisors there was a QC inspector, so I thought, "Well, this is my path towards supervision." But then, something I was familiar with in my previous job - inventory control - opened up. I thought, "Eh, may as well try and go for it." And I got it! I thrived in that job, despite what one person higher up wanted me to do. I knew what worked, I knew how to investigate issues, I took everything thrown at me and crushed it. And then I saw a supervisor position was going to open up. I knew the procedure: they'd post it, there was a bidding process, then an interview process. I once again knew everything inside out, backwards, forwards, sideways. And... I learned on Facebook somebody got promoted to it. The usual process had not been followed. And it was announced not by the company, but on Facebook! Ass kissing at its finest.
A few months after that debacle, another supervisor position opened up. This time, it was announced the proper way. I put in for it. And I was told, "Well, so and so is already in the pipeline, so they're going to get it, but please, go for the soon-to-open third shift supervisor position." Fuck that! Besides, somebody was already de facto third shift supervisor designate, so I wasn't going to get it anyhow. In the interim, they'd also decided to add additional supervisors for both ends of the facility. I waited for those to be posted. Nope. They hired outside of the company. Finally, I think it was August 2019 that another position opened up. I bid on it. Nobody else did, both internally and externally. I was a lock! And then, upper management did everything in its power to bring back somebody. I didn't even get an interview. A few months later, I was downsized. My job was a pretty key position, but apparently they figured they needed to save $28,500 a year somehow, and let at least five people do the job. All those extra supervisors got let go as well.
Fast forward a year and a half. My current job was giving me an unwanted, unpaid two-month vacation. So I was looking for a job. Hey look, my previous job is looking for a supervisor! And I came to this job and proved I could be a team lead, and supervise if needed. Updated the resumé, and sent it in. I talked to those I worked with. I made it known I wanted it, I was qualified, and I still knew how to do the job I'd spent nine years working towards. I even took the bold step of messaging my old boss and letting him know I was ready to interview. He said, "Oh, we'll discuss on Monday." Monday came and went. But I knew they were busy. Finally, that Friday came, and I got a call from the last person they'd brought in instead of interviewing me, and he offered me... an operator position. It was, honestly, an insult, and I let him know what I'd put in for. More time goes by. I find out my old position was reinstated... and my old boss's daughter went into it! I saw the writing on the wall. I got the email saying, "We went in another direction." But, I found out they simply moved one of their supervisors around. So, I replied back, "I know your other shift needs a supervisor." I got an email back stating, in effect, "You must not have understood us. No." They hired back one of the supervisors they'd let go.
Let me tell you about how crushing that was to my self-esteem. The downsizing didn't necessarily hurt. Finding out the boss's underqualified daughter took my spot when it was reinstated was an insult. Being told no for a sixth time also hurt. This was no longer professional. This was personal. I reached out to my old QC boss, who was trying to get me in as a sinter tech, despite zero forklift training. (Long story short, the safety manager quickly qualified two others in my class once we'd passed the written exam, but never got to me.) They were offering forklift training. Again, no. An Outside Secondary Coordinator position opened up. In my previous Inventory Control job, I had picked up on a lot of those aspects. I went for it. I had the support of everyone in the office. Again, no. I didn't even get an email this time telling me no. However, a few weeks after everything died down and I'd resumed my job, I got an automated email from my old boss, wanting me to take some management psychology survey. I never found out the results, and I never found out why he'd sent that to me.
Getting back to the person saying watch out for those who have hit a career plateau, I never even got a chance to prove that I could do it. I knew how to do it. I still know how to do it. My career got plateaued for me. Even in my current job, there's no upward mobility at all. But it's just a temp job, and all indications are it's done in January. So, I am starting to look again. I am hoping that a supervisory role opens up. I'm entering my mid-40s. I'm due. I'm not saying this out of arrogance, but out of knowing. Somebody let me prove I can do this.
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