‘Changing Jobs? It’s emotional‘, says Jennifer Ryan, Segment Editor at LinkedIn. I settled down to read her posting, which collates what a number of people have said about the challenge of leaving a job you’ve held for a very long time. A lot of their comments made sense.
Retirees, This is Not About You
But then, just when I was thinking, ‘this is helpful’, Ryan threw a curveball:-
It’s one thing to retire after a decades-long career, relishing a chapter successfully concluded, say authors Dorie Clark and Natalie Nixon, PhD. However, leaving a job you’ve held for years in order to start your own venture or go to another company is “a different emotional and practical experience altogether”.
However, I AM retiring. And rather than starting my own venture, I am just continuing part-time with the interesting research element of my job, that has hitherto been a partial secondment
Don’t Look Back
What I must do, I’ve decided, is STOP LOOKING BACK. Remember the Biblical story of Lot’s wife? She turned to look over her shoulder and turned to a pillar of salt.
Relishing a Chapter Successfully Concluded?
So, I need to make a concerted effort to stop kicking myself for opportunities I didn’t get, things I didn’t achieve, and disappointments I could do nothing about.
After all, I got a PhD whilst working full-time. I raised a family, ditto. I was a Fellow of CILIP, my professional association, until I decided to let the fellowship go, now that I’m ceasing to be a librarian. I’ve been an honorary Fellow at the University of St Andrews, and I’ve been elected an honorary Fellow of IAML (UK & Ireland) – my other professional association. And my second monograph is at the publisher’s.
Who cares if I’ve catalogued so many jazz CDs that my brain-cells have practically ossified? (They haven’t, or I wouldn’t be capable of writing books etc.) In five and a half weeks, it won’t matter how many of the things are still waiting to be catalogued, because I won’t be cataloguing them.
Maybe I should start repeating this mantra:-
(I was 20 when this song was written. And I only stumbled across it tonight!)
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 