That new job feeling

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The nature of what I do means that I change jobs quite frequently. In fact, in 23 years now with the same employer*, this will be my fourteenth different post (and that's just the ones I can remember), and as ever, it's into a subject area I knew very little about until, ooh, Wednesday, when they sent me through the project start-up documents and effectively said "have a read of them, Rogin, you start on Monday".

I always love this point of any new endeavour; by about eighteen months in (perhaps because I'm conditioned to it) I'm normally bored, and looking for something new myself, even if the project hasn't run its course anyway.

Do you, like me, love that feeling of regularly jumping into something new, or do you prefer the stability and familiarity of being where you've been for ages?

(*I still think of my employer as a single employer; many would disagree, and I have worked for three or four distinct "bits" of it, one of which no longer even exists)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

That new job feeling

One of the odd things about flitting from job to job in an organization as large as mine is that you do tend to keep bumping into people you worked with in previous roles. Just found out that my new team's HR lead is going to be a guy I worked with about five years ago, who I was very good friends with - we shared more than a few, er, working lunches together down the social club, and I went to the party he threw when he and wife adopted a child. It'll be nice working with him again.

[ursus arctos]

That new job feeling

This is an interesting question, and one that I believe is very much one of personal preference.

My father had the exact same job (same employer, same title, same function) for over 30 years. He found that comforting, in part (I think) because he had grown up during the Depression and had seen just how much damage economic insecurity can do (for instance, it certainly hastened his father's drinking himself to death).

I will have been here for just about a quarter century when I hang up my boots, but I never would have lasted anywhere near that long if I hadn't gotten to experience the variety inherent in my position. Not just living and working in different places, languages, and systems, but also working with clients whose issue and approaches couldn't be more different.

[Patrick Thistle]

That new job feeling

I started a new job last year and the shine hasn't worn off yet. I'd reached a point in my last job where I had to move on or I was never going to do anything different.

[hobbes]

That new job feeling

I suspect the choice will be taken away from me in the not too distant future.
New broom CEO looking like he might abandon the UK altogether.
Shame. I like where I work as much as I'm ever going to (I hate working) and the pension is really good as we don't pay fees.

[Sits]

That new job feeling

Since today marks my 24th anniversary with the same company, I don't really feel qualified to comment here. I can still remember my first day though if it helps.

[andrew7610]

That new job feeling

I'm a self-employed IT contractor and flit from job to job at the drop of a hat - sometimes by choice, sometimes because I've completed the task(s) I was employed to perform.

In 2014, I spent a total of 10 weeks unemployed but still managed to work for 9 different employers. In 2015 , I stayed in one place for the whole year.

I couldn't imagine working for the same employer longer than 18 months, never mind some of the durations mentioned here.

[hobbes]

That new job feeling

Yeah, I did that for 10 years. And I couldn't have imagined being anywhere longer than a couple of years.
Then in late 2007 when the rates were rocketing (always a sign of impending calamity) I got offered to go permie.

I've been here ever since. Within 6 months all the contractors were out as the world fell apart.

[HORN]

That new job feeling

I've been IT contracting since 1998 - too long to ever seriously contemplate going permy again.

The other day a permy I was working with (top lad, I liked him very much) left after five years to join another company. He cried on his last day. Different strokes, I guess.

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

ursus arctos wrote: My father had the exact same job (same employer, same title, same function) for over 30 years.

Same story with me and my current job, only for half as long.

I should have got out ten years ago (i.e. before I hit forty), but it was too much of a doss, at least until two or three years ago.

A ten-minute bike journey to work; a four-day week; employee rep (i.e. difficult to get the boot); and, for seven years, a two-man office with a very entertaining deskmate.

All right, the money isn't very good and there are a lot of bullshitters here (as there are at many workplaces), but that wasn't all that important.

I've got 43 working days left and they can't come and go quickly enough. And if things run smoothly, my new full-time job will hopefully be the last one I'll ever have.

[caja-dglh]

That new job feeling

Going full time at the crazy golf hut?

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

caja-dglh wrote: Going full time at the crazy golf hut?

Yes, otherwise I'd have gone crazy at the full-time office.

And/or I'd have done myself a damage. I couldn't have managed another year of seven-day weeks.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

That new job feeling

I left my former employer of 8 years last month. It was a big company and I worked on several projects, but I couldn't wait to get out, so when the chance arose for an incentivised redundancy I grabbed it with both hands. My future is still uncertain, but I feel 10 inches taller.

[Crusoe]

That new job feeling

9 months
3.5 years
5 years
3 years
2.5 years
1 year (so far)

plus some contracting after university and a couple of spells temping to fill in the blanks

In my current line of work there's a very common attitude that if after 3-5 years you haven't changed roles within the company or been promoted then you have to move on to avoid being considered "stale" and "unambitious". It's a pernicious attitude that means people who are good at their jobs and happy with their position are forced out.

[WOM]

That new job feeling

One of my people retired last year after 45 years here. I also have a woman who's in year 36. One guy is in year 21, and a couple in year 13 or 14. The 'new girl' is half my age, but has been here longer than me.

I tend to stay 7 years in jobs before moving on; voluntarily or not.

[Giggler]

That new job feeling

I'd quite like that new job feeling at the moment, having been made redundant in December. If anyone can tell me what it is I should be doing with my life, please get in touch because I haven't got the foggiest.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

That new job feeling

WOM wrote: One of my people retired last year after 45 years here. I also have a woman who's in year 36. One guy is in year 21, and a couple in year 13 or 14. The 'new girl' is half my age, but has been here longer than me.

Ooooo, you have people...

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

That new job feeling

Giggler wrote: I'd quite like that new job feeling at the moment, having been made redundant in December. If anyone can tell me what it is I should be doing with my life, please get in touch because I haven't got the foggiest.

Me too, please.

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

Vulgarian Visigoth wrote:

One of my people retired last year after 45 years here. I also have a woman who's in year 36. One guy is in year 21, and a couple in year 13 or 14. The 'new girl' is half my age, but has been here longer than me.

Ooooo, you have people...

One of the equivalents to WOM here once referred to his 'people' as "cost centres and functionaries".

He won't be doing it again, at least not in front of the "cost centres and functionaries". He literally nearly got a punch on the nose for his troubles.

[WOM]

That new job feeling

You lot of kuntz.

I am a 'people manager' with 'direct reports' and 'indirect reports'. I won't say 'my employees' and I hate being referred to as 'my boss'.

'My people' is the best thing I've come up with.

[WOM]

That new job feeling

Anyway, come spring I'm going to work for treibeis at the hut.

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

WOM wrote: and I hate being referred to as 'my boss'.

I'm not shit-stirring or anything, but I know at least two of your subordinates who call you "Goebbels" behind your back.

[hobbes]

That new job feeling

I am a 'people manager' with 'direct reports' and 'indirect reports'. I won't say 'my employees' and I hate being referred to as 'my boss'.

I always call my boss "boss" or "chief." I suspect it annoys him, which is obviously why I do it.
I'm ostensibly in charge of 5 people but as they're all contractors so I don't have to perform any pastoral tasks and they don't pay the slightest attention to what I say anyway (unless it's "shall we go for a pint") I don't really consider myself a boss.

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

WOM wrote: Anyway, come spring I'm going to work for treibeis at the hut.

Funny you should say that, as we may be losing Monday Man, which will be a huge blow (seriously). And he'll be a hard act to follow. The regulars love him to bits, not least because the other two people who work there either yell at them for no good reason or simply creep them out.

And there's the Daniel Dan job in the summer. You get to sit in a deckchair, you can eat and drink as much as you like for free, you get paid well.

And all you have to do is clean up other people's piss, shit and puke and get shouted at by drunkards for hours at a time (and that's before we actually open for business).

[treibeis]

That new job feeling

hobbes wrote: I always call my boss "boss" or "chief." I suspect it annoys him, which is obviously why I do it.

My nominal superior would just love it if people called him "boss". As it is, they refer to him, also to his face, as "nominal superior".

The fucker's wearing a Joy Division T-shirt today, although I'd bet everything I've ever owned that he's never heard anything by them except Love Will Tear Us Apart and even then he didn't know it was Joy Division.

Even the schoolgirl who's doing work experience has recognised what a tosser he is. The other day, she said, "Despite what everybody says, the German economy must be pretty buoyant, otherwise useless bastards like him wouldn't be able to swing the lead like they do and get away with it."