My Working Life

I have been with my current company for over 15 years and held a number of different positions and worked on a number of departments. It being a retail supermarket I have had to change my life to revolve around the company, working weekends, until 10pm at times, working nights to finally settle on my current role (which starts at 5am 😫). 

Through this time I feel I’ve always made the safe bet ... I went for team leader as I thought I would nail it (and I did), I moved to different departments as they were a challenge (all of which I rose to and overcame) and whilst in my current role, I have learnt everything I possibly could. To a stage where managers and many other staff come to me for advise. 

Due to the changing nature of retail my department was called into a meeting as it is changing again (twice in 3 years). 

This time however there would have to be weekend work again, and I have found myself questioning what to do. 

Do I sacrifice and change my life again to suit this business that sees me just as a body and a number or do I take the risky route?

Do I try to go for redundancy and then try to progress into another career and field with that money from it?

I think at 32 and 15 years working for the same company it’s time I took that risk. 

I mean chances are there could be A role for me in the hours I do, but I hope not. While I can be flexible for the right role I don’t think I have much of a future left in this industry and with this company. I wouldn’t want to sacrifice my hard earned weekends for a role that could be extinct within the next 5 years. It for sure will have many more changes and I may find myself asking the same questions later. 

Now the redundancy isn’t voluntary so I have to hope it will pan out for me. 

I’ve made and met some amazing friends throughout my time here and I wish everyone in retail the very best. 

The face of retail is changing ... it’s no longer the safe long term job as it once was when I first started. 

Writing this I am still waiting for my meetings so my saying goodbye to retail may be premature but if I am kept on, it will be a kick for me to try and switch careers within the year. 

To anyone who is also going through something similar, I know its daunting, I know it feels shit but I hope you can have some people who you can talk to about it because it really helps.

Before writing this I was feeling terrible about it, thinking id have to change my life again and have to be contracted to Sunday's .. (but I'm not sure what they're going to say in the meetings so I might have to or walk away with nothing. I hope not but who knows) but I spoke to my family about it. One member who was against taking redundancy from the start changed her mind as another opportunity has come along that I could apply for (I might not get it but its an opportunity) and another member keeps emphasising that its alot of work if this other job doesn't pan out. 
I know it will be a lot of work, I'm ready for it and either way, if they accommodate me or not I'm going to pursuing and looking for other work and this puts into focus a new drive to leave because I know, in the near future, that this will happen to me again.


Please wish me luck