Menopausal Monday #22

#jobbrowsing; #bored; #q&a; #121; #objectives; #professionalperformance

Back to Work

As usual, not feeling it, but I shan’t complain. It’s a clean, decent job, that offers good perks (work-life balance at this stage of my life is a deal breaker) and a higher pay for a customer service advising than for most Line Management roles in this sector out there.

The reasons people get stuck in Customer Service jobs for so many years can vary, but the combo between job security, manageable workload, and helping people is the big one, in my view. But we will always come across moments in our lives where we question whether we are happy where we are, or if we’d like to move laterally (to brush up skills) or upwards, if we’re looking for a new challenge.

Q&As, 121s, objectives and performance

Nobody likes to be assessed. It’s uncomfortable and it can be disheartening, especially if we have been doing what we’ve been asked and that might not be as visible as we’d like. In this sector, figures and the CSAT high percentage may not always feel enough. Meeting expectations is the standard. Exceeding expectations is very hard to achieve, as we basically need to be perfect to achieve it.

But in a role where you just want to feel secure and comfortable, I’m usually happy with meeting expectations. If there is nothing major to note (which for me is usually a misinterpretation or an oversight) remaining standard is a good place to be (God knows I hate listening to my own calls!) Mind you there isn’t much of a career path in customer service. The highest you might go could be Senior Operation Manager. Although I know I’d be perfectly capable, I choose not to even bother. For one, it’s boring, second I don’t want the responsibility. There’s only so much money can pay for, in my opinion. I’m only partially corruptable… So for many of us, Q&As, 121s, etc, are a pointless exercise. Or a box ticking exercise. Objectives much? Maybe learning a new skill or other, to ensure we keep our roles relevant.

Job browsing whilst on a permanent role

The good thing about a permanent job role is that it puts us in a good position to browse (and even apply) for jobs without the fear of losing anything. It allows us, from time to time, reassess our skills and personal objectives, and ponder on the possibility to find another job. Whether it is for more money or because it aligns with our ethics or simply because we’re looking for a more fun role. It’s a good exercise, even if it ends nowhere. Having gone through two mass redundancies in my lifetime (and been at risk of a third one), I’d like to think the last one was the charm, not to be repeated. But shit happens. And Gen X as I am, I like to be prepared for it all.

Looking for other jobs forces us to keep in touch with the job market and its current demands. It prompts us to update or brush up our CV and plan where we’d like to head on. It is disappointing to see that there are roles that have jobs descriptions that cover a multitude of tasks where we think “I could that” but then you look at the package offer and pays less than your current, or the life-work balance is not quite what we’re after. And more often than not, customer service job posts are ambiguous, not really being clear if they are looking for someone with barely any experience but a good drive or a senior professional, like me.

A senior bubbly geek

I see myself as a senior professional but with still a lot to give. I’m hoping my menopause journey actually brings refreshing new perspectives. I’m not afraid of AI, I understand its concept. I’ve always been a bit of a geek myself, but I don’t like boring geeky stuff, I’m a bubbly geek, so I’m happy to continue with my geekiness but after 5 years in my current job, I’m starting to feel a bit bored. I’m still looking for a supportive role (nothing beats the rewarding helpful feeling) but I’m starting to need aa little bit of a challenge. A manageable challenge. A fun challenge.

To prove to you that I can work with AI, I actually asked ChatGPT: “Give me a list of supportive job roles that are fun, rewarding and pay more than 35k a year” and it gave me as follows:

As much as I like supportive roles, coaching and occupational therapist or HR, because that involves too much engagement. I like the ability to finish my working day and not feel like something was missed or deadline and targets stress. So Customer Success Manager or Tech Support Specialist (SaaS) or even Account Manager are up for consideration (and another couple I’ve seen…) but they needs to tick certain boxes. Working from the office at this stage, would be levelling down. So unless I’m forced to, I’ll keep my current hybrid format, thank you very much.