Life In A Bubble Never Felt So Good
I've been fortunate to have had only four employers since I joined the working force almost fifteen years ago. You look at it that way and it is a little shocking. I've been paying taxes for almost half my life. If Wilson still reads my blog, that will get a snide laugh out of him.
So I started my working career at Lake Junaluska as a technician or "techie" at Stuart Auditorium. This by far was the most fun I've had on a co-workers front of any job. I speak with most of my fellow techies often, one of which later became the best man in my wedding. I worked at Stuart, as we called it for short, from the time I was sixteen to the time I was twenty-two. Technically, I held a few jobs in around Stuart but they were all under the Lake Junaluska umbrella.
After that I became "self-employed" for a full year. That was a great time. I made my own hours, worked when I wanted to work and for whom I wanted to work. I lived in Lake Junaluska and I can think back to that time and a since of total relaxation rolls over me. In a way I imagine that is what retirement feels like. To be honest, during that "self-employment" time I maybe worked ten jobs over twelve months. For a grand total of about twenty total days of labor. It wasn't the smartest move of me life but it certainly helped put some things in my life into perspective.
I remember waking up one morning, almost a year to the day that I graduated college and thought, it's time to do the adult thing and get a job that will sustain me and make me fully independent. At the time, I was still able to be on my Dad's insurance and live under the roof of my families, then, summer home at Lake Junaluska. I remember thinking the summer was coming and I need to get out of this house before my Mom and Dad show up for the summer months and squash out my independence. I also have a vague memory of my father informing me that by law I would no longer be insured under his policy and he would not pay for my insurance anymore. I guess I could have flown without a net but those two things inspired me to get a job.
Shortly after coming to grips with reality, I just decided I would work in Charlotte. I never had much desire to live or work in Charlotte. I imagined myself working in Winston Salem or Asheville during most of my time in college. I woke up though and just thought, Charlotte is where I need to be. When I have that feeling, I try not to fight it because I feel like that is God saying, your future is in my hands now. I had the same feeling about going to Appalachian State, despite my reservations about attending school in Boone.
It wasn't a week later that I found a job at NBC News Channel in Charlotte. I moved back to Shelby for about six months and began working for NBC. This started a roller coaster ride for me. I loved working for NBC in a way and hated it at the same time. I loved being around the news and seeing it happen in real-time. I enjoyed the people for the most part and I enjoyed the work. I just didn't like the hours and the way they were treating me. I was a contract employee there and thus was not guaranteed anything. However, I was about to learn that they weren't treating me nearly as bad as I thought.
While at NBC, I got a feel for corporate America. At the end of the fiscal year, everyone held their breath around the office while CEOs, share holders and directors in New York, who had no emotional tie to the city of Charlotte or the people they employed there voted on the fate of the Charlotte operation. Despite a somewhat strong economy, layoffs always seemed to loom and nerves were always high among the full-time staff. Lucky for me, as a contract employee, I was not endanger of being laid off. If anything, a lay off most likely meant more hours for me. There was so much uncertainly there it drove me to seek other employment. My new employer would give me a whole new outlook on things.
I discovered quickly that full-time employment in the news business was hard to come by. If a job was hiring full-time, the pay was so minuscule that I could not live on it alone and competing stations frowned upon me staying on as contract employee at NBC. That really only left me with one option if I wanted to stay in news and that was WCNC, NBC's local affiliate. I applied and got a job as a studio technician and audio engineer. I learned even more about corporate America there as well and gained new respect for NBC News Channel.
WCNC is owned by a Texas based company and the management was a mess. The directors where guys, like myself that had degrees in communications and had been working in news all over the country at dozens of stations over their careers. However, having worked in news all over the country had not taught them how to manage people. WCNC and most stations in Charlotte, I have learned, are in the same management mess with unqualified individuals management positions. I was routinely asked to work until midnight and expected to come back in at 4am for the morning shift, with only four hours of off time. I would tell my boss of the problems I was facing and he would move things around but instead of screwing me four times a week I would only get horrid turnarounds maybe two.
Thanks to the close eye of a friend, I stumbled onto the job at Davidson College. Now Lake Junaluska had lots of people that loved Lake Junaluska and it's mission but like WCNC, the management didn't have managing strengths and visions for growth and the future. Junaluska was run by semi-retired Methodist ministers and ultimately controlled by a council. Much like the CEO's of General Electric who ran NBC News Channel, the council at Lake Junaluska didn't have strong emotional ties to the property or the mission as it was made up of people all over the southeast, some of which had never even been to Junaluska. This created lots of problems and I was beginning to think that the whole country operated like this.
Davidson College has been the polar opposite of all my former employers. Despite the hard economic times, the college has been somewhat bullet proof to it. Now I'm clearly not involved in the budget meetings but we have had no lay offs and every budget request I have made has been filled and the money has been found. The management clearly has a vision and loves the people that they manage and they work for the people they manage and not for themselves and that trickles down. A lot of it is the fact that most of the decision makers are former grads of Davidson and will do whatever it takes to make sure things move forward. It also doesn't hurt that the people in charge are extremely smart with money.
I look back to that decision to move to Charlotte and I questioned it while I floundered around in the news business but I see now why I came. Had I gotten a full-time job in news I would have most likely gotten laid off. Instead I'm working for a institution that is well shielded from the bad decisions that brought this countries economy to it's knees. There's little I could think of that would drag me out of Davidson College and I continue to thank God for this opportunity.
So I started my working career at Lake Junaluska as a technician or "techie" at Stuart Auditorium. This by far was the most fun I've had on a co-workers front of any job. I speak with most of my fellow techies often, one of which later became the best man in my wedding. I worked at Stuart, as we called it for short, from the time I was sixteen to the time I was twenty-two. Technically, I held a few jobs in around Stuart but they were all under the Lake Junaluska umbrella.
After that I became "self-employed" for a full year. That was a great time. I made my own hours, worked when I wanted to work and for whom I wanted to work. I lived in Lake Junaluska and I can think back to that time and a since of total relaxation rolls over me. In a way I imagine that is what retirement feels like. To be honest, during that "self-employment" time I maybe worked ten jobs over twelve months. For a grand total of about twenty total days of labor. It wasn't the smartest move of me life but it certainly helped put some things in my life into perspective.
I remember waking up one morning, almost a year to the day that I graduated college and thought, it's time to do the adult thing and get a job that will sustain me and make me fully independent. At the time, I was still able to be on my Dad's insurance and live under the roof of my families, then, summer home at Lake Junaluska. I remember thinking the summer was coming and I need to get out of this house before my Mom and Dad show up for the summer months and squash out my independence. I also have a vague memory of my father informing me that by law I would no longer be insured under his policy and he would not pay for my insurance anymore. I guess I could have flown without a net but those two things inspired me to get a job.
Shortly after coming to grips with reality, I just decided I would work in Charlotte. I never had much desire to live or work in Charlotte. I imagined myself working in Winston Salem or Asheville during most of my time in college. I woke up though and just thought, Charlotte is where I need to be. When I have that feeling, I try not to fight it because I feel like that is God saying, your future is in my hands now. I had the same feeling about going to Appalachian State, despite my reservations about attending school in Boone.
It wasn't a week later that I found a job at NBC News Channel in Charlotte. I moved back to Shelby for about six months and began working for NBC. This started a roller coaster ride for me. I loved working for NBC in a way and hated it at the same time. I loved being around the news and seeing it happen in real-time. I enjoyed the people for the most part and I enjoyed the work. I just didn't like the hours and the way they were treating me. I was a contract employee there and thus was not guaranteed anything. However, I was about to learn that they weren't treating me nearly as bad as I thought.
While at NBC, I got a feel for corporate America. At the end of the fiscal year, everyone held their breath around the office while CEOs, share holders and directors in New York, who had no emotional tie to the city of Charlotte or the people they employed there voted on the fate of the Charlotte operation. Despite a somewhat strong economy, layoffs always seemed to loom and nerves were always high among the full-time staff. Lucky for me, as a contract employee, I was not endanger of being laid off. If anything, a lay off most likely meant more hours for me. There was so much uncertainly there it drove me to seek other employment. My new employer would give me a whole new outlook on things.
I discovered quickly that full-time employment in the news business was hard to come by. If a job was hiring full-time, the pay was so minuscule that I could not live on it alone and competing stations frowned upon me staying on as contract employee at NBC. That really only left me with one option if I wanted to stay in news and that was WCNC, NBC's local affiliate. I applied and got a job as a studio technician and audio engineer. I learned even more about corporate America there as well and gained new respect for NBC News Channel.
WCNC is owned by a Texas based company and the management was a mess. The directors where guys, like myself that had degrees in communications and had been working in news all over the country at dozens of stations over their careers. However, having worked in news all over the country had not taught them how to manage people. WCNC and most stations in Charlotte, I have learned, are in the same management mess with unqualified individuals management positions. I was routinely asked to work until midnight and expected to come back in at 4am for the morning shift, with only four hours of off time. I would tell my boss of the problems I was facing and he would move things around but instead of screwing me four times a week I would only get horrid turnarounds maybe two.
Thanks to the close eye of a friend, I stumbled onto the job at Davidson College. Now Lake Junaluska had lots of people that loved Lake Junaluska and it's mission but like WCNC, the management didn't have managing strengths and visions for growth and the future. Junaluska was run by semi-retired Methodist ministers and ultimately controlled by a council. Much like the CEO's of General Electric who ran NBC News Channel, the council at Lake Junaluska didn't have strong emotional ties to the property or the mission as it was made up of people all over the southeast, some of which had never even been to Junaluska. This created lots of problems and I was beginning to think that the whole country operated like this.
Davidson College has been the polar opposite of all my former employers. Despite the hard economic times, the college has been somewhat bullet proof to it. Now I'm clearly not involved in the budget meetings but we have had no lay offs and every budget request I have made has been filled and the money has been found. The management clearly has a vision and loves the people that they manage and they work for the people they manage and not for themselves and that trickles down. A lot of it is the fact that most of the decision makers are former grads of Davidson and will do whatever it takes to make sure things move forward. It also doesn't hurt that the people in charge are extremely smart with money.
I look back to that decision to move to Charlotte and I questioned it while I floundered around in the news business but I see now why I came. Had I gotten a full-time job in news I would have most likely gotten laid off. Instead I'm working for a institution that is well shielded from the bad decisions that brought this countries economy to it's knees. There's little I could think of that would drag me out of Davidson College and I continue to thank God for this opportunity.