Have you ever heard about this book? "Who Moved My Cheese" is basically a parable about how we accept change. There's a good way, and there's a bad way. The bad way is not to accept the change, to keep on doing whatever it was that made you successful before, not matter what the situation presently is, even if you get less than favorable (or no) results. It's a pretty good book, and after reading it I can see how I can fit it into so many aspects of my life that have seen change over the last year - the passing of my mother, moving back and forth from California to Chicago, getting married, moving into a new house, getting eye surgery, etc. All of these life changes force me to make a decision - stay the same way I was before, or move with the change and adapt to my new situation. As much as I change the layout of this page, I'm not really one that's great with change. But to succeed in this world, I must.

How did I get this little gem?

Well, companies usually recommend it to employees when big changes happen - new managers, new partners, and if y ou haven't guessed it through the little hints I've dropped in the last couple weeks - when the company gets sold.

So yeah. X-Systems is now a wholely owned subsidiary of X-Inc. I now work for a new company.

There are a lot of changes going on, and I'll probably go over a lot of those aspects in more detail later. But I gotta tell you, the whole thing went down when so many things were going on in my life - the surgery, buying the house, my crazy month of travel. I wasn't even there for most of the company meetings, so half the time I was getting updated over the phone or through email. I felt a little lost and out of place, and a little left out - like the girl who couldn't go to the party and only hears about it from her friends afterwards.

My professional life right now is a big seesaw right now. There are some good things, and there are some concerns. There really aren't too many bad things - other than the fact that a couple beloved coworkers were downsized - or whatever you would call it when a new company takes over and just can't fit all the new people. Unfortunately, my sister was one of them, but she seems to be handling it pretty well, sleeping til 11 each morning and playing videogames all day.

But with work, I guess I'm just trying to find my place in this new company. Other people had a place that they fit into right away. Me, I'm a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a little bit of that other thing. The job role that I had in the old company is handled by several people in the new company. So where do I fit in? Where are my strengths? Did my seven years of experience at X-Systems prepare me for a chance such as this? Have I been working here so long that I'm stuck in my old ways? Stuck with bad habits? Can I still learn and flourish in an environment that is new to me?

Only time will tell. But as I stated earlier, I have to adapt. The old way doesn't work anymore, so I have to try out new ways, explore new horizons, create new goals, learn new things.

Luckily, this new company that I work for has such a different feel to it. It's so positive, so upbeat - I don't know if I can get used to it. With all the uncertainty that I feel, I also feel a lot of hope - hope that things that I've wanted to change for so long will really change. Hope that I can work in an environment where I feel that all my hard work will be rewarded, that I will learn new things that will make me a better, more organized worker, and that I'll feel a little more certainty when I go out to a client site (if that's even what I'm doing). This is a whole different ballgame!

The people at the new company have been more than nice and welcoming - they're really good people, and they really care about us, which feels pretty good. The company is a much larger company (about 5 times as big as my old company) but when I went to Columbus for orientation, it had a familar feel.

So lately I've been through a spectrum of feelings - uncertainty, anger, fear, sadness, excitement, wonder, hope, content, relief...

Life will be more than a little interesting for the next couple months, believe me!

Posted by Yano at September 13, 2004 05:50 PM

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