Tag Archives: workplace

The Explosive Personality Effect

Leave a Reply

explosive personality, workplace, anger, quick-tempered

An explosive personality makes things hard on everyone.

The baseball diamond is not the workplace, that’s clear. There’s plenty of room out there to be yourself, act a little goofy and let off some steam – ideally by hitting the ball hard and running quickly around the bases.

In my softball league, we understand that some guys come to the game a little grumpy from time to time, because of issues they’re having at work or problems they’re experiencing at home. Or, they’re sore and playing through injuries. No one is asking for ear-to-ear smiles all the time.

The league’s manta is “fun and fellowship,” which ideally means that winning comes second to having a good time. The onus is typically on teamwork and sportsmanship. Most players follow this ideal closely and it’s why they like playing. They’re not here to be superstars and get rich. The days where that seemed possible are long gone.

The “fun and fellowship” mantra was blown out of the water yesterday by our opposing team’s pitcher. Our team had jumped out to a big lead by hitting everything that he was throwing. I was on second base when he snapped at one of his players. Continue reading →

My Prolonged Career Transition

1 Reply
job search, maze, employment, unemployment, work, job, career, search, recruitment

The job search is a maze. It can take crazy directions and detours, it might be endlessly frustrating and perplexing, and the advice of others may not get you to your answer.

My name is Erich and I’m in career transition

I have been in career transition for 29 months. Don’t call me unemployed because I’ve worked far too hard in these 126 weeks-and-counting to be called anything other than ‘in transition.’ From intensive job searching and networking to freelance writing, researching, interviewing, social media navigation, and ceaseless searching for a better future for myself and my family, I’ve been hard at it from day one.

I have had to come to terms with the fact that the industry in which I made my living – media and broadcasting – is in increasingly dire circumstances and there are less and less jobs to be had. People are holding tightly to their positions while management is constantly cutting spending and searching for ways to cut more. In response to this, I have had to search deeply within myself for what I want to do for the rest of my working days, with the understanding that it likely doesn’t involve working in media. Essentially, I have had to re-invent myself.

I’ve wanted to write frankly and compassionately about my difficult situation for some time, but I’ve kept putting it off. I’ve wondered what might happen if I shared my story and many people read it. What will they think of me? Will they think that I’m not employable and that I must be doing something wrong in my job search? After all, it’s been over two years since I left the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in January 2013 as the result of a job redundancy. I left voluntarily. (I’ll share more about this shortly.) Continue reading →