New Job, New Me

I started a new job this week at a local nonprofit organization.  I’ve done nonprofit work for a long time – fundraising, event planning, database management, donor relations, etc.  This job is as assistant to the executive director, and I hope it will grow to be something more, but…it’s not quite what I expected it to be.

I accepted the position at a low salary because that’s what today’s economy requires of me right now in my part of the world.  Fine.  I and my boss know that I am overqualified, which is okay too, as we discussed that I could grow from here into a more demanding position. 

What I didn’t expect was the level at which this man would attempt to micro-manage everything I do.  He watches over my shoulder as I open a file folder on my computer, open a document, alter the document, etc.  He reminds me to change the date on a letter, and just told me how to save a file in MSWord.  Um … I’ve been doing this for decades.

It’s a new job, and a new me.  In the past, I might have grinned and bared it until I couldn’t take it anymore, and then quit.  Not now.  I’ve learned some things as the mother of addicts.  I’ve learned about boundaries, thank goodness!  And about who I am and how much I’m capable of and how to speak up for myself. 

So tomorrow morning, my boss and I will have a chat.  He doesn’t know it yet, but we will.  I will be happy, polite, and even insert a bit of humor.  But I will also be firm and clear. 

I learned today that the person before me quit this job because she could not handle what she saw as condescension and insult from this man.  But I also heard she never confronted him about it.  And confrontation is too strong a word for me at this point.  We’ll just have that chat.  And we’ll see how it goes.

So today, I am grateful for this new job, and for the person I’ve become, in part because of what I’ve been through with my children over the past couple of years.  We learn to take the good and leave the rest.  God bless.