Nine Years?! – Baldwinning

I’ve been with the same company for nine years. These are my thoughts.

I have had three bosses over the course of those nine years.
I have sustained four CEOs.
I have been promoted four times.
The first two-and-a-half years were spent in marketing.
For the first year-and-a-half of that marketing job, I was the lowest paid person in the office.
When I first started, I wanted to be the fastest new hire to ever win Employee of the Quarter.
Sadly, I have never won a corporate award during my nine years of service.
Yes, that pisses me off.
Awards are like assholes; eventually everyone gets one. Except me, apparently.
Microsoft’s office suite-thing sucks. Google’s is somewhat better.
Of the 50 or so people who were working in the local office at that time, I’m one of only a handful that still remain with the company.
At various times during those nine years, I applied to probably 200 other jobs.
Of those 200 other job applications, I scored a few dozen interviews.
Of those few dozen interviews, I actually did accept one offer and left for six months.
That job sucked, so I was able to return to my previous position on a new deal and we all pretended those six months never happened.
One of the greatest perks I have ever experienced was the half-day Friday — four hours every Friday, 52 weeks per year. We all worked 40 hours per week, but obviously put in more time Monday-Thursday so we could take off early on Friday. It was incredible.
I say “was” because most employees who were grandfathered into this perk have since left the company, and apparently some major party pooper of a director told everyone in the office that half-day Fridays are no more.
However…no one explicitly ever told me this and it’s quietly agreed upon that I still get to enjoy this perk.
No one cares about Freestyle Coke machines. Yeah, they’re cool, but c’mon. Stop drinking soda. It’s bad for you.
I worked in the office for four years. I have worked remotely for four. And I worked as a hybrid for one.
At no point has my presence ever actually been needed in an office.
In-person collaboration is overrated. We work on the Internet, people. Just Slack me.
One of my office nicknames was “Elf” for my propensity toward sweets. I was also known as “Machine” for my ability to make large quantities of food disappear.
Early in my tenure, I launched a number of themes for different days of the week. There was Jerky Monday, Take-out Tuesday, Wedges & Wings (& Wienies) Wednesday, and Fruit Salad Friday. Nobody cares about Thursday, so it was left out of the fun.
I was the first person to regularly wear sandals in the office five days week. Don’t believe what anyone else says.
Working directly for a vice president makes a lot of things easier. For instance, requests are approved more often than not, and are frequently OK’d within a handful of business days, if that.
If someone is ignoring all of my messages, I can simply tell my VP boss and they force a response real quick. Yeah, I proudly snitch on people who who sit in front of their computers all day but can’t take four seconds to respond to a Slack. I’m that guy.

I’m happy to have a job that doesn’t stress me out too much and, in general, offers me a fair amount of creative freedom. However, I also feel like it’s time to level up, which is why I’m pursuing other opportunities. The job market is harsh right now, and my heart goes out to people who have to resort to begging on LinkedIn for occupational leads. But that’s also why I’m not rushing to quit my job unless I find something I truly care about.

Although nine years with the same company does kinda freak me out, it also says a lot that I’ve managed to ascend to that level of seniority. Don’t get me wrong: some of those nine years have been rough while others have been wonderful. There will always be hits and misses during your career, and I’ve experienced most of them during mine.

The most valuable lesson I have learned during those nine years? Take care of yourself and know your value. Work to live, not the other way around.