Often our career chooses us, we don’t choose our career. For many great reasons, we remain in that career and often remain with the same organization. We start as a “babe” full of fire, determination and passion to serve the greater good and our team. Then, the career continues.
Through the Years
Through the years, you grow and learn. You master skills and you help your team. Often, you take on projects and deliver results you are excited about only to have those around you either tacitly acknowledge what you accomplished or completely ignore the effort. Other times, you get praised for just staying out of the way. Then there are times where you feel you have been forgotten and left alone for what seems like days. There are those late nights where the stress wears you thin. You never know the danger that may be around the next corner. These workdays (and nights) seem tough. All the time, something drives you, a passion to serve others. Still you wonder if your team appreciates you.
Years go by and there are days where you don’t feel like yourself. These days things seem out of sorts. Your heart is racing, you stay hungry and eat but, you are losing weight. One day a kind friend looks at you and suggest you need to see a doctor. You take the advice, and, in fact, they take you to see the doctor. Your friend and you fear something bad. You have not ever really been one for regular doctor visits. The doctor, a kind caring soul with a passion for helping good folks takes extra time to evaluate your condition. He comes back with the news. Your friend and you are fearful but, the results tell us your condition is very treatable with medicine. You have Hyperthyroidism. The simple fix is to take pills twice daily for the rest of your life.
The Next Chapter
You return to your workplace and the news is shared with your team. Somewhat to your surprise, your team says, they will make certain you stay on schedule with your medicine. Every day, someone checks to make sure you take your medicine. On weekends, team members check in to make certain you stay on schedule. As the weeks go on, you start feeling better and your health improves. Now, you notice your teammates will invite you in their office for a quick chat. You start to realize, over all the years your work was noticed and your style, personality, and passion for your duties was recognized. In your darkest days, those around you did help you and care for you. You thank them with kindness in return.
After many years of service and as a result of the (now manageable) health challenges, you make the decision it is time to retire and find a place to be with new friends where you enjoy a life of leisure. You move to your new home which happens to be near one of your former employer’s leaders. He tells you, that your old team frequently asks about you. A smile comes across your face now realizing that even though it may have seemed nobody noticed your hard work for all those years, everyone did appreciate you and appreciated you more than you imagined.
Retirement
Recently, our loyal Office Kitty of 13 years retired. For all those years, she diligently protected our Fairhope Office from all types of threats. She made certain every threat knew she was “on the job” whether they were wild or domestic. She just appeared at our office and decided to stay. We fed and watered her. She does have hyperthyroidism and did come close to not making it. However, thanks to Dr. Bill Morrison and the team at Colony Animal Clinic she was diagnosed and saved. The team at Avizo medicate her back to good health. During her recovery, she spent much more time inside going from office to office visiting with her teammates and, I believe, thanking them for caring.
Now, Office Kitty (yes, that is her name), has retired to my home where she shares a very nice part of our house with another kitty about her age. She is a great lady who deserved the right to retire and live a nice leisurely life indoors with all the comforts one could ask for, if you are a cat. Amy and I feel honored to be her new housemates.
Oftentimes, we are overlooked. It is normally not intentional. Don’t let it get you down. I don’t think Kitty ever did.
At the same time, take the time to notice others and show your gratitude in some way. It sure will be appreciated by the one person who needs to notice, the recipient of your kind gesture.
Dennis Sherrin, CEO & Strategic Consultant
Dennis is passionate about continual learning and subscribes to the ideology that “life is your leadership class”. To that end, he relies on the observations of the client organizations he has worked with to influence his ideology on vision, leadership, business and life-work balance.
