Well, its official. I think today marks the end of my "Me" year. I was banded in December & the plan was to step back from work in order to dedicate more time to me. Lose weight, get healthy, leave work early to hit the gym, clear my head & figure out what I want in my 40s. Kind of a mini mid-life crisis without the corvette or 20-year-old boy toy. At the very beginning, it was a little hard to dial down at work, leave all those emails unread, phone calls unreturned & not always angling for some new project. But I got into the groove & got better at leaving work at work. It was nice....and now its over.
A little work background....I am a director of product management at a major IT company. This basically means I run a global business and am responsible for P&L for a portfolio of products. The company I was working for was acquired about a year & half ago and I have stayed on with the new company. At the old company, I owned a very large portfolio & the business generated well over $1B a year in revenue. At the time of the acquisition, my boss knew my portfolio would not find a home in the new company & so he moved me into a new assignment. I LOVED my new assignment - it was working on emerging technology & building a whole new business from scratch rather managing an existing one. I had a pretty small staff, cool technology & carte blanche to get out of my silo & work with anybody across the entire organization. Overall, the business is small but its the fastest growing product line in my division. A few weeks ago my boss held a huge all-hands meeting & he singled out my portfolio for best marketing. Nice kudos.
Soon after these very public accolades, he followed up with a HUGE bonus. Big money & big stock. I'm lucky to have a good boss (& he's lucky to have me because I make him look sooooo good) For a few days there, I was feeling pretty good. Success & recognition at work. Big $$$ in the bank. Cool, fun portfolio. And balance. I could have all this without sinking every waking hour into the office.
But I think that ended today. A few weeks ago, my company acquired another company. Today my boss announced the new org structure & I picked up a lot of responsibility. I am going to keep what I have, pick up the newly acquired company and pull back in the remnants of my old portfolio. This acquisition was personally driven by my CEO & he will be keeping tabs on how the integration goes. The new company is extremely small but the execs have high expectations. The hot mess of stuff I have now needs to be multi-billion dollars in just a few years.
I know what needs to be done to get there but I also know how much time, effort & work it'll take to do it. I know that this new assignment is a reward for past successes. I know that high profile is good for my career & this role could propel me into the executive ranks (if I'm successful). I know I am grateful for yet another amazing opportunity.
But it feels like the ability to leave the office at 5pm for Kickboxing just flew out the window. How do I do this & still be good to me? That's a skill I haven't mastered yet...
cheers,
chloe
2 comments:
First, congratulations! It sounds like your hard work and talent is paying off. That's definitely a good thing.
I think it's so important to have balance in your life. Perhaps, move more to the weekends? Or get a workout in before work (I'm not a fan of early morning workouts but it works for a lot of people). Maybe read emails while on an elliptical or treadmill? I'm sure you can find a way to make it work. Good luck!
You'll find the time, don't worry! Maybe kickboxing can be done during lunch hour? :)
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