I used to believe, as an employee, I had no say in what I made.
“It’s all in the hands of my manager and their budget,” I’d think.
Earlier in my career, I was on a small team of three people, including my manager.
One year into my role on that team, my peer left the company.
Three became two.
One month later, my manager got a new job internally.
And, two became one.
So, there I was this “lonely team of one,” reporting into an open position for two…and…a…half…years-uh.
(It still amazes me that I didn’t have a direct manager for that long.)
Instead of back-filling my manager’s role, I began reporting to my skip-level manager, who was an executive with more than 900 employees in their organization at the time.
I met with this manager every other week for 30 minutes.
But, really, it was like 13 minutes because they were frequently late.
13 minutes. Every two weeks. 20, if I was lucky.
That’s not a lot of time to connect, so I believed this manager had little time for me.
That thought led to disillusionment.
If you’ve ever been there, it’s not a pretty place to be.
And, disillusionment led to disengagement.
That’s when I took matters into my own hands.
I determined if I wasn’t going to find engagement in the workplace, I would look for it elsewhere.
(…to be continued in part 2…)