Comfort Zone Prison
This is a concept that came upon me yesterday and I realised how fortunate I am to be getting the verbal/intellectual abuse that I experienced yesterday. But before I explain that situation, I need to provide some context and a healthy overview to give you, dear reader the impression if this is for YOU or not.
Overview
In a nutshell: People often get into a Comfort Zone where things are not right, but they also do not want to step out of line and then accept the abuse.
The reason those people accept the abuse or shit conditions may vary, but generally stem from fear and the mindset that this is “not so bad”.
This is why I feel that I was fortunate today.
Context
Our family has been struggling for something between 7-9 months of real budget crunching. Before that was the Covid Pandemic which affected business everywhere and put prices up while keeping salaries low and because in a failing economy you need to be thankful for the job that you have I needed to hold on.
Because of loss of income in the family, I needed to hold on.
And this meant that I needed to accept deteriorating conditions.
I did notify my employer and had the Covid excuse. A year later, I brought it up again and it was waved off because we had just lost a major contract and went through retrenchments of 30% of our staff. So I was made to understand that I need to be patient and that the business is recovering.
Thus my third attempt to negotiate for a better income was met with some surprise. How is it that my expenses are so high? Because it has become unmanageable! I did damage control as best as I could over and over and over and we survived but things were in a steady decline.
So I stood my ground and explained that I am a loyal employee who really fights for the profitability of the company. I work hard in order to achieve the goals of the company and I feel that I need to be rewarded for that.
I made some changes at site, based on MY recommendations that are now making the company much more money, in many multiples of my salary per month. So surely I can ask for a decent raise?
I will be getting a raise, but the exact amount has not been communicated yet. I am waiting to see what happens there… however…
The Catalyst
Abuse. Yellow-livered arse-covering and outright lying.
In order to further their own goals both the client and members of my own management are all too quick to pass blame and point fingers and make claims and statements so they can throw someone else under the bus. As long as they are not wrong.
I was then speaking to some of my friends who are less qualified than I am, but who bring in business for themselves and I was recommended to start doing consulting work.
The conversation was very stimulating and I realized that there are better things in life for me that I could look at accomplishing.
The Comfort Hook
And then… the Overtime was paid in. I earned it, but it satiated a lot of the most immediate stressful needs. I will be miserly with it and make it stretch for 2-3 months. I am getting that raise, probably in the new month. My partner had a breakthrough in finances.
So alarm bells were being switched off and my fighting/survival spirit was calmed and quelled and made to relax. I did not have such a massive drive to rush into something new. Even my posting took a dip as the alarm bells were switched off as I needed to just take a moment to breathe.
The Reality Check – A Blessing in disguise
So then, on Monday, I return to work, fairly calm and the same chaos and crap happened again as in the above Catalyst and I am eating up the abuse and I catch myself thinking that it is worth it since I had made a decent amount of money working here.
Then I realized how bad that was. I did my work correctly and worked hard. I deserved the overtime. I don’t need to take abuse to THEN deserve the overtime.
I got quite annoyed with the way that I was being treated and this sparked my apathy. Don’t get me wrong. I will maintain my professionalism. But I will not allow this place to break my soul. I won’t allow this place to swallow me up in a Comfort Zone and keep me from reaching a MUCH better potential if I was a bit more desperate and fought with all my might instead of relaxing and only putting in token energy.
That is something to think about.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers!
@zakludick
