Your manager is probably the last person you should tell about wanting to quit. But strategy has never been my strong suite. So, when the latest movement of our manager-managee tango ended up with him asking me if I planned to stay with the company, I said that, well, I really think it’s time for me to move on, and in a year or six months I…
Well, looks like I have four months.
I remember complaining about my job before, and the particular relationship with this manager was behind it. Things came to a head 5-6 months ago when he called me in for a stern talking-to, warned me that I’d be fired if I don’t shape up, and I responded with “look, you’re right, I’m really not giving you and the company my best, how about I wrap things up properly and leave?”
Well, I haven’t left yet. First because I think that talk somehow switched the balance in our tango so that I became focused and a lot less stressed; second, because I got all excited about a cool new project I started shortly after that talk which is now fairly complete and producing neat results (as in, compelling powerpoint slides and potential commercial value). A month after the talk, my manager said it would be silly for me to leave now that I’m doing good work. And I’ve been pretty happy recently, both because work is both fairly interesting and satisfying, and our working relationship seems to be doing OK.
So obviously I’m tossing this all aside. Perhaps I’m just being an idiot, and over-reacting to what I percieve as his attempt to re-assert his dominance over me. Or perhaps I’m thinking about H, who said my skills were atrophying.
SO, if you know someone who has interesting work (CV here) starting in March, let me know.