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Becoming old used office furniture- aka Dead Wood


Cammer625

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I don’t mean to be too big a downer, but I have had to face up to the fact that I’ve achieved dead wood status at work. 20+ years and now people who have been in for a few months get the temporary promotions as the team leaders. I have no input into anything - probably haven’t for quite some time. The job pays well and I have no other internal opportunities available, so I’m not going anywhere. It’s partly because I work regionally so there are no other company jobs nearby, but we all work from home, so it really shouldn’t matter. But it does lol.
But I’ve still got 10 years to go. Does it get any easier once you’ve accepted your new status? I’m not complaining, more out of curiosity if you’ve had to go through it. 
Cheers

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Hi, Cammer625. 

 

I'm not wanting to detract from how you feel about your job, but with the prevailing global situation, in a year from now, you might feel very grateful to have a job, to be frank.  

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris. 

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55 minutes ago, Cammer625 said:

I don’t mean to be too big a downer, but I have had to face up to the fact that I’ve achieved dead wood status at work. 20+ years and now people who have been in for a few months get the temporary promotions as the team leaders. I have no input into anything - probably haven’t for quite some time. The job pays well and I have no other internal opportunities available, so I’m not going anywhere. It’s partly because I work regionally so there are no other company jobs nearby, but we all work from home, so it really shouldn’t matter. But it does lol.
But I’ve still got 10 years to go. Does it get any easier once you’ve accepted your new status? I’m not complaining, more out of curiosity if you’ve had to go through it. 
Cheers

Similar to you I have ten or twelve years left in the workplace.  I've kind of got to the situation where I now know there are other 'bright young things' coming and overtaking me on the escalator to greatness.   Having seen how the 'adults' work and get worked I am not sure that is a bad thing in all honesty, I would not trust the folks at the top of the tree to be open and honest about anything.  The Annual Appraisal in April was the first time I have ever gone in saying that I have no great wish to go further since I left school at 15 1/2.  I would step up if required but not on permanent basis.  And it really led to a far better, more open review and an excellent change of relationship with my immediate Line Manager. the difference sounds like my bosses do still take my input on board similar, if not more than, the bright young things.

 

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It's difficult to comment without knowing what kind of role you have, but with 20 years experience it should be possible to explore ways to develop your role. It might be that a management role isn't the right direction. Could you get involved in training new hires? In driving improvement programmes? In recruitment? If you have a good relationship with your boss, and the company has an open culture, why not ask if there are ways you could develop and contribute more? I realize there are companies and roles where that doesn't work so well... Also consider the possibility that you might just be so valuable in your current role that the company doesn't want to move you.

 

 

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Like you, I have a decent job that pays a good salary with the convenience of working from home.

 

There is only one role that I could be promoted to but the present incumbent, my boss, is 10 years younger than me and not going anywhere.

 

My role is well defined with little opportunity for change and is generally mind numbingly boring but I have accepted the situation.

 

My advice would be to accept the situation, do your job to the best of your ability and look for spiritual fulfilment outside of work, i.e. go and glue something together!

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The guys above have made some very good comments. These are indeed strange times and a stable job is something to treasure.

Promotion usually means more responsibility and with that comes pressure and tension. Would you really want that?

I did forty years on military Aircraft. The last eight of them in a high pressure supervisory role in a noisy windowless control room.

It was good to achieve the daily target, but the next day you had to do it again and again.

I've spent the last seven years in a very different job, delivering beer and drinks. Very little pressure except traffic.

Hard physical work at times, but very enjoyable with different locations and people everyday. 

Is it time for you to make an abrupt career change? 

 

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Personally, I think that problems start occuring when you reach an age where the managers are much younger than you, and do not understand why you are willing to work well and do your job but have little enthusiasm for the latest whims of the higher ups.

If you enjoy your job as a whole, then just keep your head down and let them do the worrying. 

It is important to remember that unless you are particularly fortunate in your choice of career, a job is just a means to facilitate your life (ie finance it). The job is not life, life is your wife/kids/ dog/ parrot/ whatever. And you.

One of my former managers was horrified when I told him that the only reason I showed up every day was that at midnight every Thursday x amount of £s magically appeared in my bank account. Not because I had some overwhelming urge to help my' team 'meet some meaningless target he had dreamt up.

If your job is highly pressured, then as Pete says above getting out could be a wise move. If you are just in a rut but dont want a complete change, try consolidating your hours so you can drop a day without losing money.

But remember, its just a job.

 

Matt

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Hi all thanks for the replies. First up - I am very grateful I have a job (and where I live it pays bloody good), so yeah, I’m not gunna chuck it in (downside to where I live is there’s not a huge number of alternatives at my salary anyway). We live an easy life, so I’m not changing that. It’s just so frustrating and I’m sorta last man standing from the ‘old school’. Sadly, it’s a niche Government job with little skills I can use within the organisation (11,000 staff) and it’s a very city centric organisation (they truly believe regional means 20km from the head office in Sydney). Whilst there is opportunities, they are all in Sydney unless you have a degree in just about anything.
But thanks for the discussion-it’s helped a lot - I don’t socialise (family, a work colleague (whose retiring has brought this on) and a friend) so it’s good to get others perspectives. It can be hard when you are just discussing things with me, myself and I 🤣

and yeah, I’m an introverted modeller. Go figure. 

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I'm in a similar situation, albeit not with the same time in post as you, OP.  I used to get cross when the people I'd trained got more senior jobs but now I just think "Well, my job's okay, the pay's not too bad, the conditions are okay...  Who cares about the rest of it?"  I definitely wouldn't have been able to take this view a few years ago but given that I have zero prospects outside of this job, quitting wasn't an option so I had a word with myself about what the problem actually was.

 

I'm not saying this is the same as your situation or that you should think the same way as me; I just wanted to offer my support and say that there are other ways to get job satisfaction than by climbing the greasy pole.

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I faced a similar position with 10 years to retirement, so I worked out a plan for what I wanted to do in retirement. This involved taking various courses, using days of to go to meetings etc where I could network, plus volunteering at local history sites. Funding this was helped by a quirk in the rules of the pension fund that meant I could take the pension early as the final years did not require any contribution from me.

 

Did the plan work? To an extent I took up a role in a voluntary group where those new skills were essential but the door to one of my choices was closed throug external factors.

 

This has suited me but may not be for everyone.

 

Good luck @Cammer625iin whatever you choose.

 

 

 

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Oh it gets worse.....  having "settled for less" ,  you then get to see your eagerly anticipated retirement date receding into the distance faster than your hairline.....

 

According to 20 year old me, I was supposed to retire 3 years ago to a Californian mansion with Kylie.

Absolutely none of that worked out :)

 

Now faced with the prospect of another 14 years of thankless grind before finding out I STILL can't afford to retire....

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Thanks again - just went out and had a few red wines (well Shiraz with my fore mentioned friend) and can face work again. I think I need to buy some more kits!! Only 10 years or 3650 days or 87,600 hours to go! But who’s counting lol. Lots more Shiraz to share over that time.

Cheers Tommy

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2 hours ago, Cammer625 said:

Thanks again - just went out and had a few red wines (well Shiraz with my fore mentioned friend) and can face work again. I think I need to buy some more kits!! Only 10 years or 3650 days or 87,600 hours to go! But who’s counting lol. Lots more Shiraz to share over that time.

Cheers Tommy

You forgot 3 leap years, so it's 3653 days to go.😈

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Feel the deadwood pain but in a different sense.   Super small company, like 15+/- people between the two sister companies.   Been at the max level for a long time, only step above me is owner.   Every day is a lot of thumb twiddling.  Small business, so my IT knowledge is way behind and lacking.  Pay is decent (still waiting for that last promised raise), I can basically do what I want, no set schedule, etc.  I probably got 20 yrs (be 70) then before I can think about retiring.   What's a 50 yr old behind the times IT guy gonna do if he left here...........and I have no desire to go back to the big corporate world.  

 

Hoping you have something work to do to make your days go by faster.  I'm guessing a lot of the older crowd faces this in some sense as time goes on.

 

 

Sigh!

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48 minutes ago, BlueNosers352nd said:

Feel the deadwood pain but in a different sense.   Super small company, like 15+/- people between the two sister companies.   Been at the max level for a long time, only step above me is owner.   Every day is a lot of thumb twiddling.  Small business, so my IT knowledge is way behind and lacking.  Pay is decent (still waiting for that last promised raise), I can basically do what I want, no set schedule, etc.  I probably got 20 yrs (be 70) then before I can think about retiring.   What's a 50 yr old behind the times IT guy gonna do if he left here...........and I have no desire to go back to the big corporate world.  

 

Hoping you have something work to do to make your days go by faster.  I'm guessing a lot of the older crowd faces this in some sense as time goes on.

 

 

Sigh!

 

Small company ?  I guess you're used to the "we want our new IT system to work like Amazon but be built by 1 person in 3 days for no more than £500"  demands,  and the hissy fits from the business when you point out that it took Amazon 20 years, hundreds of people and $several millions  to build what they have today .....

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21 minutes ago, IanHx said:

 

Small company ?  I guess you're used to the "we want our new IT system to work like Amazon but be built by 1 person in 3 days for no more than £500"  demands,  and the hissy fits from the business when you point out that it took Amazon 20 years, hundreds of people and $several millions  to build what they have today .....

 

No that hasn't been too bad.   Some of the changes that I have to make to the databases I wrote seem silly (to me), but other than that......

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22 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Promotion usually means more responsibility and with that comes pressure and tension. Would you really want that?

What, the yearly reviews with ever increasing demands and self-sacrifice & unclear prospects about a few years down the line? 
 

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I took the decision to take a voluntary downgrade. 

Looking back, should have done that way earlier. My job is not my entire life, despite efforts from higher-ups to make it so.

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10 hours ago, IanHx said:

Oh it gets worse.....  having "settled for less" ,  you then get to see your eagerly anticipated retirement date receding into the distance faster than your hairline.....

 

According to 20 year old me, I was supposed to retire 3 years ago to a Californian mansion with Kylie.

Absolutely none of that worked out :)

 

Now faced with the prospect of another 14 years of thankless grind before finding out I STILL can't afford to retire....

Mate, I don't want to state the obvious, but did you actually mention it to the lovely Kylie ?

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11 minutes ago, PLC1966 said:

Mate, I don't want to state the obvious, but did you actually mention it to the lovely Kylie ?

 

I should be so lucky.... lucky, lucky, lucky  🤣

 

There was never any point -  the model aircraft collection spoke for itself !

Edited by IanHx
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