
I’ve had a lot of life related posts on here lately, so I’m sorry to my fashionista’s waiting on a post about my latest shopping taboo, but I’m so excited to share that I got a new/old role at work!
Now, you might be wondering what new/old means and I’ll grant you that – since I started this blog I’ve always been a manager and I don’t think I’ve discussed anything about my full time job in general, let alone what I did in my days before then.
Before I was a team manager I used to work as a Business Support Officer in retirement solutions (it’s basically a financial services company that specialises in pensions, annuities and equity release – far from the world of fashion I discuss on here) where I worked in supporting the business with projects within customer experience, ensuring customer documentation was up to date, training, creating and maintaining process notes and handling complex work to support the processing teams amongst various other random stuff that I’m sure you’re not very interested in lol (oh – and a short secondment as a PA in between).
I decided back then that I wanted to venture into the world of management as I was a little bit lonely and wanted to try something new. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVED being a manager, but a lot of stuff happened last year and everything with my health had me reconsidering whether I truly wanted to go back to that highly stressful and demanding job. I had some time out between October and December, was signed off and had gone through a phased return to work when I thought I was ready to go back to manage. That was until a couple of days later (luckily before I was due to manage again) that I had a panic attack at work. My head felt that I was good to go, but I don’t think my heart was in it anymore and my body was trying to tell me that.
I was signed off for a couple of weeks and made a really hard decision to step down from the role for the sake of my health. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was the right thing for me.
When I came back into work again, I noticed there was a year long secondment available for a Business Improvement Officer (which is pretty much the same as the job I did before, but they made the old role redundant, replaced with this newer one and had created a team of them instead of having them spread across the business) and I knew I had to go for it. I was feeling quite deflated at the fact I’d stepped down, like I had a lot more to offer and remembered how much I’d loved it before and how I’d been doing a lot of work similar since coming back after my time out at the tail end of last year.
So I spoke to my manager, told him what I wanted to do, he was all for it and I went straight ahead and submitted my application.
A week or so went by before I had my interview (you might remember me looking like a boss ass bitch in one of my recent snaps on Insta – I was off for the interview 😉) and although I was a quivering mess before, I felt like the interview went really well!
And on Monday I got a quick message asking me to pop into a meeting room for a chat. I was so nervous as I didn’t want to get my hopes up after a pretty crappy year, but I was beaming from ear to ear when I heard the words “we’d like to offer you the secondment!” I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, that I was being given another opportunity to be happy again and really show what I’ve got.
On the day of my birthday, I had a feeling that my shitty year was over, twenty-five was the end of a bad ride for me and this happening truly made that clear – I wasn’t even a week into being twenty-six and a great thing had already happened!
Although this is more of a personal life post, there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from it – take a step back once in a while to reconsider what you’re doing or where you’re going in your job. If you’re unhappy in what you’re doing, take action and speak up about it before you get to the end of your tether. We spend most of our lives at work and if you’re not happy or becoming unwell because of a job, IT’S NOT WORTH IT! Your health, happiness and wellbeing is more important than anything – I’ve learnt that and hope you have from this post too.
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I admire you for putting your health first and stepping down. Most people would not do that. I think you are so brave for doing it. I hope your bad year is over because you deserve an awesome year
Thank you lovely, it was a really hard decision to make but glad I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up back in a job I know I loved! ❤️
I’ve really been loving your lifestyle posts lately, I feel like I know you a little better.
Big congrats on the new job role, amazing news! x
Ahh thank you lovely! I’ve only noticed recently I haven’t shared masses about my “real life” so thought it fitting 😊❤️
You’re a star, Gaby. This is such a bloody brave thing to do and I admire you so much for it! I completely agree that no job is worth any sort of unhappiness or detriment to your health in any way. I hope with all my heart that your crappy year is over as god I know how it feels to be hoping that it is – I’m still waiting for my crappy period to end! Thank you for posting this, I love your honesty and how unafraid you are to be yourself!
Alice Xx
http://www.blacktulipbeauty.co.uk
Thank you lovely- your comment means a lot more than you’ll know! I’m sure your shitty time will be over soon, I’ve still got some remnants, but getting there! Xx
So pleased for you Gaby! I’m currently in a job that I’ve completely grown out of, but aside from photography and blogging I literally have NO idea what I want to do and I don’t want to go from one rubbish job to another.. I can’t wait until the day that I’m happy again within my job xo
Char | http://www.charslittleblog.co.uk
Ahh I know what you mean, I’m lucky to have found something else I enjoy (besides blogging and fashion lol) and would be happy to stick with for the forseeable future! ❤️
I’m really happy it all worked out, and you were thinking about yourself which is so important. I’m definitely going to remember this post when I start my job in June x
It’s definitely the most important thing and glad you’ll remember ❤️
I needed this so much right now! I’ve been unhappy in my job for a while honestly, it’s all just become way too stressful and I’m being given responsibilities that someone who gets paid three times what I do should be doing. It’s making me so run down all the time so I’ve applied to a new role in the hopes that I’ll be a bit less taken for granted in a different team. I’m glad you stepped down, it’s nothing to be ashamed of! I hope you’ll carry on being a lot happier now. I also love your interview outfit, the belt is gorgeous! x
Alice | http://www.accordingtoalicex.com
Ahh thank you lovely! It’s definitely worth looking for another area you can work in, although I initially stepped down, I ended up back in the same band I was in before so I’m a lot happier being able to give more than I would have done before! Xx