So I know I have alluded to my adventure with work this year in a few posts now. Here’s my story of what happened and how I feel about it all. Let’s start at the beginning. When I was 16, I started volunteering with a charity in a bingo hall once a week. After a while, the manager ended up offering me a part time job as an employee of the hall and I started with just 1 session a week as a runner. That got my foot in the door. As time went on, I slowly was able to add shifts and eventually worked my way up to full time hours doing various positions. One of those positions was selling the hand held verifiers and break open tickets, but that job was only super busy before the session was starting and intermission – so I spent a lot of time with the manager, helping him and ended up learning as I was helping. Eventually I learned enough that I was offered to start some fill in sessions occasionally when he couldn’t make it in.
Then one day we suddenly changed ownership overnight. Because I had the knowledge in the office now, I continued on and helped to keep the sessions going. It only ran this way for about 9 months before handing over the business to another group. They also asked me to stay on in the office because they could see I had the knowledge needed. I wasn’t really interested in being in the office so much, but I agreed to help them out. The goal was to switch to a new system and they had the knowledge of running in the new system so I said yes, until the switch. It was hoped to happen in about a year but it took a few years longer.
The day finally came that the switch was going to happen. The decision was made to close completely while a complete renovation was done and I ended up being off for about 6 months until re-opening happened. It was such a change of pace to be off work for 6 months straight after having worked for 25 years without more than a week away for vacation at a time. I took time to focus on my mental health and house and immersing myself in playing heroclix and went to all the tournaments I was able to get to. It made for a fantastic time off – playing tons of the game I love with lots of carpooling and hotel sharing with friends.
A few months ago we opened back up. I was offered a different position in accounting instead of managing, which I jumped at the chance to do. I’m good with numbers and checking that stuff matches and I absolutely love working in Excel and figuring out formulas. So still office work, but without the disciplining and kicking people out and breaking up fights – perfect for me!
I’m finding my groove and enjoying it more and more each day. I love learning and furthering my knowledge and this new position is doing exactly that for me. And on the plus side, I’m also finding my anxiety is lower and I don’t come home feeling completely stressed most days. I’m putting processes in place that help me make sure I’m getting everything done (can we say lists to be able to check stuff off? It’s so satisfying!) and the more I learn, the smoother it feels for me.
What’s work like for you? Are you also a workplace lifer or do you hop around to different jobs? I’ve managed to be a lifer while also hopping around within the same company. Have you found what you love or are you still trying to figure out what you want to do when you grow up? (that was totally me until they offered me this numbers job – I love it!)
Until next time, xoxo