You may be working a job that makes you plenty happy to go to everyday. You may really enjoy what you do. You enjoy the company of the people you work with. You like where you are and what you’ve done. Overall, you’re happy and content with where you are in life.

Then one day something changes. You realize what else is out there. Maybe you start idly looking. Maybe someone tracks you down. But either way, you learn what else is out there for you. You learn what you could be doing and where you could be doing it. You realize there’s more money out there for you. ((Possibly a LOT more money!)) You realize it’s possible to work with a skilled group of people to learn from and share expertise and ideas.

You realize a lot of things when your perspective changes. In this case, I am this person. My perspective has changed. With my wife’s current job hunt underway to move to somewhere better I started looking around as well. I wasn’t terribly motivated to leave where I am and move on. I wasn’t terribly motivated to go through the job hunt process again. I wasn’t very excited to put myself out there to be judged and rejected all over again. ((As every job hunt goes.))

Then out of the blue, I was contacted. I was headhunted. Someone called me out of the blue, and despite rarely answering my phone, I took this call. A sign? A higher power? A random act on a random day? Who knows. The result is I have an interview Tuesday with real live people. I get to put myself out there in front of a new group of nerds. I want to be accepted by these new nerds. I want to join their ranks. I want to get more support for my career at work and I want to advance in my career. I want to make more money and take on more responsibilities.

I am tired of racing around and putting out fires. No, I am tired of putting out imaginary fires created by a series of poor planning and poor communication. I am very tired of having to do more work or rework through no fault of my own.

I am tired of imagined fires becoming my problem. The latest example being receiving a call from an out-of-state office at 5:42 on a Friday afternoon asking to re-add a computer to the domain and set it up for a new hire for Monday. There’s no way. It took all the self-control I could muster not to scream at this person for their carelessness.

Do I have this right…?

You’ve known about this new hire for a several days. You’ve known about this new hire all day today. Instead of calling in the morning, when there was a snowball’s chance in hell of the request getting completed today, you waited until 18 minutes until I leave for the day and our office closes. ((I am also the last technician on site and while we are on-call for after-hours work, this does not qualify as an acceptable after-hours request.))

The saddest thing is this is not a unique situation. This ((Not this exact event but a similar situation)) seems to crop up every week or two. ((Especially in that office. Though it’s not a condition unique to them.))

I have office Stockholm Syndrome.

I have seen the light. I see a way out.
I am going to meet with my rescuers this week.

If I go, I am also going to cause headaches for my current manager. I am an integral part of the department there. I am the rock on which all things are built. I have the serious technical chops to answer any question that comes my way. I diligently document everything I run across, especially if I think I may ever run across it again.

Wherever I am, I bring my A game. And I may be bringing that game to a new place soon enough. I am excited.