Cheers 🥂 to being retirement-eligible 🎂
I started in the 1900s, before Google, before laptops and cellphones were passed out at work, before A.I. …
It’s been my longest relationship. I have been an Abbott employee longer than I have been Cheryl Baillie and longer than I have been Cheryl Keegan.
There were no cell phones, you had to physically call your boss and let them know you’d be late or sick. And when there was a snow day at school there was a phone tree for teachers and it was announced on the radio or tv news. Just as you got your grad school homework done on your home desktop, the printer loudly printing what is due the next day, and finally got baby to sleep, the phone would ring, all the lights would go on, and we’d have to find the packet of paper and the next 3 teachers on the list to call.
There were no laptops. Which meant you could never work from home, you had to check out an overhead projector and laptop to run a one-hour meeting. And print slides on transparency paper ahead of time and pray you didn’t have a typo when presenting a PowerPoint.
I’d only check my email on breaks. I’d spend my day in the lab working. And for lunch or my 10-minute break I’d catch up on my email on a desktop computer. which meant no schedule changes, urgent emails, last minute meetings.
I was hourly, so if I was late to work it was a big deal. There were so many (52 for the first kid and 47 for the second) times they’d wake up with an ear infection, I’d take them to sick call, fill the antibiotics Rx, dose them with Tylenol because they weren’t contagious (but they had a fever) and take them to daycare praying I’d get through at least a little work before daycare called, so I wouldn’t lose my job.
And benefits…I got 5 2/3 pay sick weeks for maternity leave, $25 check for my first profit sharing (and 25% increase for 4 years), one week of vacation for the first 5 years, no work from home days for the first 15 years ….
There have been so many efficiencies since I started, and now that I’m promoted to manager I feel the pressure to keep being infinitely more & more efficient. We are humans and it’s not something that is logarithmic. Change takes time to adapt to. But the pace at which humans need to adapt is in the workforce is quickening.
When I started at $9/hr I needed a second job to pay my bills. I finally made a six figure salary in 2022 (25 years after I started).
I went to grad school (twice), but I think that really only taught me that learning is a lifelong adventure. And those study habits carry me through today when I’m in my 5th division and I have to keep learning and relearning.
I ran the women’s leadership group for 5 years, was on a board or directors for little league non profit for 10 years. Sold my blood, sold my urine, worked overtime, weekends, nights, holidays, different timezones …
Today, I can’t get my work done during work. I’m constantly spending 11-12 hour days in the office (after a 45+ minute commute) and weekends to do the strategic thinking. When I wanted to be a manager I’d thought it’d be development, mentoring and strategic thinking for part of my workday. Instead it’s supporting my team through the daily fire drills launching a software that doesn’t meet our needs, and taking my work home each night and every weekend, just to keep my head above water.
Not only leading people through these changes but adapting to it myself. no wonder why there is an increase in anxiety and mental illness. The pace at which work, politics and life moves is ever-increasing.
So walk in the woods. Meditate. Nap. Write on your paper calendar. Slow down!
It’s been my longest relationship, and the world is so big and there is so much opportunity. Gotta go see what else is out there!
Teachers work 176 days a year. I work 260 (plus most weekends). Teachers work 67% of the days I do. Plus 4-6 hrs a day less than me ….
Feel like a ghost in my own life. No one can reach out to me for advice or help…. I’m always working.
I want to be the one who makes dinner for my neighbor who broke their foot.
Who isn’t always 20 min late to 7pm dinner with friends because of “work”.
Who says “what a relaxing vacation day, I only have to call into these 4 meetings…. “
I want a gentle life filled with rest, ease, peace and joy. ❤️🩹 ☮️
The Lefty Writer 