Happy 5 Years to Me!

Since my last few posts have been about my job, I decided to continue, and celebrate my 5 year work anniversary with you, as well as finish up telling you about the not-so-awesomeness.

Five years ago to this day, I started my job at the Credit Union. You can read about when I heard I got the job {here} and my first week {here}. Quite a bit has changed over the last five years, in fact, I can't believe that I'm STILL there. My original plan was to work for a couple of years, then quit once Greg got a job. Well, life didn't happen that way, and I'm still there. I love it more than almost ever.

I have had five co-workers quite during the five years (Ali, Courtney, Lauren, Karen, & Danny), which also means that we've gained some new people (Kim and Cole). I have grown to really love the people I work with. They are awesome, and they have been so wonderful and kind and caring as I've experienced my health issues. I love the majority of members that come into the credit union, and love the actual work that I do. Yes, somedays I'm lazy and just don't want to do a dang thing, but at least I get to enjoy the time with the great people I work with.

I really can't believe that it has been five years. No it hasn't flown by, because more years than not were less than awesome. Even as things have changed with Danny being gone, the six of us (Donna, Kim, Caleb, Cole, Steve and me) have only grown closer and more awesome than ever.

Which is great.

Considering what happened soon after Danny's departure.

So, as I mentioned in {this post}, Caleb was going to interview for the assistant manager position down in Murray. Steve had applied to replace Danny as the manager. They went down together, and came back saying that they felt the interviews had gone well. All of us MSR's really wanted, and basically expected the job to be given to Steve. Steve has been with the CU for almost 10 years, and was the assistant for 7+, basically managing us himself. He had the knowledge and skills to be an amazing manager, plus it just made sense to promote within.

Time passed, and we didn't hear anything. The longer it took, the more doubtful we became. It was frustrating, and confusing, not only for Steve, but for the rest of us. If we knew that it was just going to be that way, we would have been fine, but not knowing was really hard.

Finally Steve received a call from the Area Manager saying he and the AVP of branches (which is another story entirely...he came in right before Steve interviewed) would be coming up that week. FINALLY!

Finally that day came, and Steve met with them. They did his annual review, then told him the decision. He came out, and told me they wanted to speak with me. My stomach just dropped. I knew what they were going to say, but yet, how could they?

I get in there and the area manager says, "We have decided to hire from outside of the credit union," then went on to explain a bit more about this person. I must have had fire in my eyes, because when he was done, he said, "You look like you have some things to say. What are you thinking."

I just started laughing and said, "I have a lot that I thought about saying, but now that I'm in this situation, I can't." What I really wanted to say was, "What the hell?" (Sorry for the language, for some reason, hell is more angry than heck! ;) But instead I tried my very best to calmly tell them that I didn't understand the decision, and that I thought that it was a slap in the face, and didn't show much loyalty to their employees. I told them how it was frustrating to see other branches promote people left and right, and even though Logan is an exception because we have more tenure, when an opportunity finally arose that could possibly promote two amazing employees, to have them not to allow that kind of made us lose hope that anything more would come for the rest of us. I explained to them how close our branch was, so to do that just didn't make any sense. Not even just from a personal level, but from a business perspective. Even if there were two similarly experienced candidates, the fact that Steve came from within, and already knew the company, and how to do things, should have put him at the top by far!

I had a quite interesting discussion with the two of them before leaving frustrated and angry. I would love to go into more detail about all of this, but I need to keep my job. I really love the company and the people I work with, so to have them do this was really hard, and really frustrating. I felt/feel awful for Steve, and things just aren't the same, and never will be.

While I understand that change is inevitable and hard, I think there could have been some changes made that would have been easier, and yet just as effective. But what do I know? I'm just an MSR 3 that had to fight to get the privileges promised her.

The area manager came up the next week to help clean out the office, and I was able to sit down with him and basically vent. He is awesome. I had a hard time grasping some things, and even though I didn't get any answers I wanted, just being able to talk to him, and hear about some of his circumstances was very helpful.

Our new manager has been with us for a few weeks now. It's different. It's hard. It's unpleasant at times. I have a lot of feelings on the matter, but again...need my job! :) I'm having a hard time with what benefits will come to me from being there for 5 years. If we don't have opportunities to change and to grow in the company, will I just be wasting my time? I don't want to leave, and I probably won't, but it's still something I have to think about. I got another opportunity to talk with our area manager and discuss some of those things with him. It was a great talk and I was able to give him my thoughts and feelings. I don't know if anything will come of it, but it was nice to have my voice heard.

I really am grateful for my job, and for the company I work for, and my five close friends. Caleb did get the assistant manager position, so he'll be leaving us this week, and we've got a new kid starting in a couple of weeks. I don't know how I'm going to handle it, but I'll do my best. I need my job. Not for money (though it is nice), but it keeps my mind off of myself and my physical limitations. Things will be fine. We'll survive. We are tough. Always have been, always will be.