Fear the Reaper, no wait..

Don't Fear the reaper, or in this case, in regards to change, don't fear changing the Status quo.

For those of you who have had more then one job, which is the majority of you. You have managed to acquire better jobs as you move on in life, and with jobs threaten and piss-poor economic outlook, over all, Life is still pretty damn good as you still make it what it is.

It seems out there, people only feel better about themselves by denying culpability of their actions by blaming others for their short comings instead of accepting their faults and doing something about it. I would say if the same habit continues after 50 the person is pretty much a lost cause.

My supervisor for instance, he has a sorted history, that I found out running into his past "co-workers" and he has not changed at all, which will eventually cost him his current job as well. He will move on and do it all over again as the company realizes his problems, he will bail out and jump to anther company and proceed to chew up their work flow.

Those of us who can change and can accept ones own faults, we have nothing but blue sky's and a future ahead of us.

Mainly because the issues that cause us grief and hardship from our own doing can be changed to become an asset in our personal life, by facing it, correcting it and accepting it and moving forward. Which leads to the Owl, The Blue whale, and the Cow.

THE OWL:
This pretty self explanatory, the Owl sez "Who" and we say "ourselves" Anything in your life is mostly due to ourselves. Bad job? people we deal with being total shit heads or grossly negligent and incompetent then turn to point fingers at you to save their own ass? Well just because you have a job, doesn't mean you have to stop looking for one. You can focus on them and how they are destroying your life, or you can look at the fact that your their because you choose to be there, and you can also not be there.

As history points out, it's actually much better to look for a job while your employed then when your not. If the upper management can't see a managers incompetence, even when its grossly negligent, then do you really belong in such a company, because the issues go all the way to the top. People tend to hire like minded individuals.

Besides, the business model theories taught in the 70's and 80's are now being implemented with new management, and they are efficient in weeding out the competent. Why? Because in short term cost cutting, competent people are expensive. This is simply the applied business model implemented by individuals who are educated beyond their intelligence. Plain and simple.
If you have the visibility to see the issues with in a place your working, and you still choose to sit there and take it by not moving on to a better employment opportunity, then YOU are holding yourself back, not the managers who do their best to use their business skills which is the art of shifting culpability to others. (Yes, an actual business tool for management, not a joke) They are good at it or they would be gone a long time ago. So why is your job crap and why do you suffer, ultimately it is because of you. It's hard to admit your in charge of your own employment but it is true.

which leads to the..
BLUE WHALE:
The blue whale is the largest mammal on the face of the earth, it is over the length of three buses, You can park a car in its mouth, its veins are large enough for salmon to swim in, yet it's throat is only the size of your fist.
Do you know why? The correct answer is: Because that is just the way it is, accept the fact and move on. The sooner you do the the sooner you can do other things.

In business there are a lot of blue whales, like a bad work condition which sometimes can be completely due to a single managers need to create hostile work environments. This is how the business works, it's a blue whale, accept it and move on, don't focus on the fact a manager keeps screwing up the work flow or actively causes work failures, and then blames the last person in line, it is what it is.

You can't work in those kind of conditions? well refer to the part about, just because you have a job, it doesn't mean you can't keep looking for one.

THE COW:
The cow is also very simply but important, sometimes you just need a big thick steak. Don't forget why your working. which is for them big thick steaks (figuratively speaking, so no offense to the herbal minded people, being of course the vegetarians and the vegans.) If the place your working in keeps you from your objective, then your most certainly in the wrong line of work.

If others keep you from living your life by "beating you down" in work then what is the lesson and skills you learned from where your currently at? I would bet you, you are better because of it, you learned how to deal with issues and people, and you have more working skills which work well when applying luck for another job. competition makes you more alert and more capable of looking for problems, if anything to avoid them.

which leads to the last subject.. How do I get lucky in work.

The definition of Luck is also very simply: Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
If your prepared for an opportunity, then you are lucky, if your not, then your unlucky.
"Damn he was lucky, that job landed in his lap!" because he had what it took to do the job, otherwise he would be like the 60+ people before him who didn't get the job landing in their lap, because they where not prepared for the job as it was an open opportunity.

An average person runs across 3-8 opportunities per week, however they either do not recognize the opportunity so are oblivious to it, or are not prepared to exercise the opportunity. Hence they are unlucky. this is also commonly known as the "Daily grind"
They look at these people who have "charmed lives" and focus on the fact that these guys/gals have everything and you do not.

Know what the "Charmed people concentrate on? "Whats my next job?" because they are always looking for the next opportunity and are preparing their skills to utilize the next opportunity, which is why they always seem to have good luck. Because their are still looking for jobs, even though they already have one.

So why the rant? because after 11 years of exemplary service, after saving the company from many issues and keeping things running smooth, and making them a very tidy profit in the process a new manager moved and decided (still wondering if it's because he feels I am a threat to him), so eliminated me within 1 month stating I am unemployable, even though I cover more aspects in the company then any one other person. and do so with no issues.

I saw this coming when he was first hired from his first statements and actions.
Am I unlucky? Well the manager who he replaced was a problem, as was the 4 managers before him.
I prepared by eliminating all my debits, pay off everything, and then banking all my money. My opportunity to get another job before the event, I skated on because I was comfortable, that aside, I have almost a years worth of mortgage in the bank and job skills which exceeds managements, which makes me very employable, if anything I am capable of making my own job and being self employed.

As such I sat calmly while he ranted, and almost laughed as he felt he destroyed my life. He has in fact liberated me into finding something other then a dead end job, which I know for a fact the company will not exist within 8 to 10 years anyways. Management will close the doors do to "inability" to run the company and not capable of maintaining a profit margin acceptable to the parent company..

Though the courts are currently involved "to prove a point to the manager in question" After I walk in the door, the statement "I am here, because the courts have found you done something illegal" is all I need to say before resigning my position and getting a job with a 25% pay increase, which is right around the corner and already lined up, I may have it prior to walking back in the door to resign due to having a better job.

Regardless, I don't feel any stress, I simply realized how much of my life I have wasted by not making the move earlier, I knew i should have moved over four years ago, but status quo was holding me back.

Comfort is the most dangerous thing in one's life. It prevents you from growing as a person, as Status quo tends to draw you into stagnation, and that is a corporate disease that runs ramped here in America. a 2% pay raise per year is a dead end job, why the hell would I be there?
the answer is its my fault, I had hundreds of "Known" opportunities and did nothing about them.

I actually am getting fit and loosing this spare tire, and now at the end of the day I don't feel so frigge'n tired, and I don't have that gray cloud over my head due to wondering how management will screw up the next day. My life is mine again, not theirs. Having good health is just a side note.

And I still get a fat juicy stake, Things are not as bad, in fact the only thing worse was if this scared, hostile manager left me alone to do my job.

My favorite movie line is still "Without change, something sleeps inside of us, The sleeper must awaken!"