I quit

As I typed heading for this post, I travelled back to September 2018 when I quit my job. It\’s been four months since I left a good, secure job. There were many reasons behind that spur of the moment decision but largely it was fuelled by the fact that I was not in a happy space. I had a great team of young talented writers, we were doing good, many of our ideas were picked up by our rivals – but overall it was not a very happy place for me.

Your workplace is where you spend a major part of your day and some more while working from home – as was the case with me. So if the place or people are not adding any value to your life it\’s better to walk away and do something you really like. But will it be sufficient to pay the monthly bills and take care of emergencies?

This is the question that always stopped most of us from taking the plunge. The fear of what future has in store for us. Frankly, I too was in that space and today, four months after I quit and still jobless, I am writing this is because I know I don\’t have to worry about the bills. But for how long – now that is the question that gives me some anxious moments and then I move on.

Ever since I started working sometime in 1998, I have always looked for a place which challenged me and where I enjoyed tackling those challenges. The enjoy part came from seniors who guided us – the juniors, challenged us to think differently and gave us environment which was stress free. Now, we all know everywhere you will find characters who get pleasure from torturing others. But after a period of time you realise such characters can be found anywhere and everywhere and the trick is to get your work done despite all the trouble they create. Some times they win, some times you.

I lost the game in September when I put in my papers. All my boss wanted was – call him daily, consult him for every little thing and keep him informed (read: share gossip on the floor). Nothing much, you would say. Working with bosses with different approach to work makes you understand ultimately what is your style of working and you start developing that. So like I said in a previous post on how to identify real vs fake leaders, the approach to work develops over a time. If you are surrounded by people who panic or someone who is cool, you tend to pick up these traits and also see how you as a person respond to a similar situation.

In the last job I was not the business head who would take a call on everything. Eventually everything had to be cleared by the higher ups. But it was their approach to even small, mundane requests that got me thinking. Working in the digital domain made me realise one important thing – you have to be really fast with your decision, else you miss the bus.

Did I miss the bus or the bus missed me? Well, it does not matter.