Big ol' update
A lot has been going on in my life lately, and I haven’t posted about most of it! So, here’s my attempt to summarize the last several months for those interested.
Update, part 1: Work
I have spent a lot of time bitching about my job for the last couple of years. I made good money, but I gave up too much time and energy and life in exchange. I also learned that I really, really don’t want to manage people in a big corporate environment, no matter what it pays. Well, I finally made a change!
In late February, I told my new boss (corporate reorganization of middle management merry-go-round) that I still wanted to work for the company, but I did not want to do my job any more. To make a long story short, I’ll say that it was agreed that a replacement for my position (Manager of the Orange County branch/territory) would be found as soon as practical and I would retain the position until my replacement could be found. After working with him/her to transition the place to new management smoothly, I would move to…something else! One option was going back to being a salesman at the L.A. (Van Nuys) branch, which is how I started with the company. Since I was one of the best salespeople the company has ever had, that was kind of our default.
The other option was to create a new position for me, which seemed iffy since the company was laying people off and closing slow locations. However, I am a pretty good salesman, and I sold the right people on the idea (eventually). By the time my replacement was found and relocated from Texas, I had a new and vaguely defined job lined up! My last day running the Irvine facility was June 3rd, and my first day as “Marketing Coordinator” [read: Exec VP of Sales & Marketing’s dumping ground for all marketing/advertising chores] was June 8th.
This required me working out of the Van Nuys location, which is also the corporate headquarters. I moved a few weeks beforehand, so I was ready to go. My new boss flew me out to Chicago to meet with him on the 9th & 10th, and it’s been going well since then. After the first couple weeks, Kendra commented that I seemed noticeably happier and less tense, and I can believe it. I took a substantial pay cut to get this job, but it was worth it to reduce my stress so profoundly. I get to do something creative that involves a whole lot of what I’ve learned in the decade or so I’ve worked in the industry, and I’m good at it (to judge by my boss’ commentary)! Perhaps the best thing about this job is that I leave it at the office. I’m not allowed to work 12-14 hour days or come in on weekends anymore!
The one fly in the ointment is that I may need more interaction with my very busy boss to keep myself on task - my talent for procrastination could get me in a hell of a lot or trouble in this gig!
“The company”, by the way, is AVAD, LLC. We distribute home theater equipment and related goods to installers and contractors, and never to the general public, so you’ve probably never heard of us. We’re the top U.S. company in the field, though. The recession has hurt our competitors worse than it has hurt us - our customers are buying less stuff to re-sell overall, but they’re buying a larger proportion of it from us. As such, our corporate overlords (Fortune 100 IT distributor Ingram Micro, who bought us in 2005) are not happy about our low sales, but they see that we’re making the most of what’s available to us.