When life gives you lemons...

I used to love my job.  I'm a confirmed workaholic, and a workaholic who loves her job means many hours spent at the office; evenings, weekends, even entire nights! Living alone allowed me to devote more and more spare time to my career, my job, and to the company I was working for.  No one ever complained about me putting in all this effort at work - I was remunerated on a fixed salary with no overtime paid.  And I took pride in my work, my reports were meticulously done, my files both in the filing cabinet and in my computer extremely well organized. I always put emphasis on innovation to do things better, quicker and more effectively. As Director of Finance, I made important decisions and followed them through. I was respected, and appreciated, and despite the fact that I knew my work life balance was totally askew, I  loved my job.

But in real life, loving your job, and doing a great job doesn't always cut it.  Last summer, just around the time when I started to realize that I wanted more out of life than a great job (like a life), my company was taken over by a another company from France. It was not a friendly takeover - it felt like pirates had boarded our ship and chained the captain while making the sailors slaves.  Nothing we did was right, or good enough. Unreasonable deadlines were set, unreasonable demands were made. Work started to feel like, well, like work. Stress levels climbed, people started being sick, dropping like flies. Even I, Miss  "I'm never sick superwoman"  was downed by mononucleosis. It wasn't a coincidence, stress really does a number on your health.   The writing started to appear on the wall, these pirates who now ruled the company had a plan, a schedule, and it was beginning to be apparent.  Last week, our captain (read our General Director), who had been running the company for over 10 years, was axed, for the simple reason that the new guys ( I lovingly call them the FFGs - Friendly French Guys -  just substitute the word friendly for any other f word that comes to mind) decided they needed a fresh direction.  Next, my turn. My workload  has been partitioned out and outsourced to an accounting firm, an IT firm, and reports handled directly by the FFG's home office in France. My position has, in fact, been abolished, and I am being given the boot. No amount of hard work or overtime could have protected me from that,  and I now know why it's so important maintain a proper work life balance. 

I used to love my job, but now I am so glad that it's almost over! 

So what's next?  Stay tuned, I'll tell you real soon....