Earlier in my career, I had been excited about the aspect of working for a large company. I had a notion that a company’s size correlated with its number of growth opportunities. Instead, what I found were a large number of growth opportunities for people who were excellent at networking and brown-nosing the right people and for those who had the perseverance to elevate their career — even at the expense of others.
As a sensible, introverted person, I struggled at this company. I thought my hard work could speak for itself; it didn’t. Even during a rare moment when I grew a backbone and provided evidence of my hard work and successes, it was blatantly ignored. I arrived peppy and eager, full of ideas and excited to make a name for myself, and as time passed, I grew exponentially disappointed and jaded. There, I was just another cog in the wheel.
I watched others rise as they worked harder at brown-nosing than doing their actual work. I saw favorites get promoted time and time again for mediocre work and unprofessionalism. I witnessed undeserving people get scapegoated — myself included. And I continued drowning in the toxicity of my working environment. We often stick it out in bad situations with the naive optimism that circumstances will get better, but often they don’t improve; in fact, sometimes, things continue getting worse.
I eventually reached a point when I checked my savings accounts daily trying to determine if I outright quit, how long I could sustain. I also found myself looking up to the sky any time I walked from one [work] building to another and asking God to send a meteorite down to put me out of my misery. While this ask may seem dramatic, it happened nearly every day; let that be an indication of my misery at the time.
After staying there for too long, I eventually found another job and was able to escape. Even as time passed and during other job searches, I was so scarred by that whole experience that I was hesitant of working for another large company. I was afraid that experience was the epitome of all large companies — and I was actually wrong.
The previous company was a regional company; going to work for a global enterprise seemed intimidating. What if it was even worse? Thankfully, I found out it was the complete opposite.
My new team knew about me before my first day, and even people outside my immediate team were aware of my existence. My inbox was already full of welcome emails when I first logged into Outlook. Even during my first few weeks, everyone was so welcoming and gracious.
A couple of weeks in, one of the VPs sent me a calendar meeting invite with a vague subject line, but I still accepted. He later sent me an email asking for help with our project management tool. I quickly fixed his issue and replied with an update. I expected to see a meeting cancellation, but there was none.
Instead, we had the meeting where the VP welcomed me to the team and told me he had heard wonderful things about me and my work. Considering I hadn’t done anything extraordinary yet, I was taken aback, but also flattered. It was such a refreshing change and simply touching to know I was appreciated for simply doing your job.
At the previous company, no one at the executive level would care to know who I was, let alone set up a meeting to meet me. Unless you were a high-level manager or executive, generally no one batted an eye.
I had wanted to leave that former company on a good note and essentially planned my own going away party. I invited the whole department, but only a few people, primarily from my main team, bothered to show up. When I left the most recent global company, I was called irreplaceable and my coworkers threw me a goodbye [virtual] party on their own.
As someone who isn’t a risk-taker, I don’t advise making any rash decisions. We all have bills to pay, but it’s one thing to stay because you need to and another to stay because you’re optimistic. Life is too short to be constantly miserable. If you’ve been unhappy for too long, start exploring other options. Create the change you deserve.
People should know and care about who you are. If you work hard, it should be recognized; this is fundamental. And your presence should matter. You matter, and you should never be made to feel otherwise — especially at a place where you’ll spend half your waking hours.
