Renewing and Reviewing

Oh, the places you'll go!  Okay, I haven't felt like Dr. Seuss's philosophical book on entering the grown-up world need apply to me for a very long time. I do find myself reflecting on it as I prepare to within the next few months pack up my desk at the office I've worked at for almost 25 years and move..... down the hall to another office.  It turns out that instead of being laid off I will be transferred to another position, as a secretary.  This is a bittersweet move, as I will be displacing someone else, since I have more seniority in a similar position. I don't have a real choice in the matter, if I don't take the position offered I will be considered 'quitting' my employment and will be ineligible for unemployment benefits. So I am looking at it as the blessing it is. The position is very similar in rank and pay to my own, and I will be working with a really good group of people I am already familar with.

 Perhaps I'd been too long in my previous position, but when you work in very specialized fields, such as the Graphic Design position I'd held for my entire tenure at the agency, you tend to not move around, unless you move outside of your career path. It's not like we had other levels of art director or such, I was one of two designers who took care of all, or most, of the needs of our organization.  Times change, and more people were doing their own graphics on their desktop systems. When I first started, if you wanted a bold heading on an announcement, such as a job opening, you had to go through us.  People worked on typewriters, anything not done in pica or the occasional elite sizing (for the uninformed, typewriter lettering sizes) was specialized work. We were getting fewer and fewer jobs to do, and  I figured that when I left in the next few years they would not feel the need to replace me.  I didn't foresee being part of a massive downsizing.

So it's on to familiarize myself with new duties and routines. I have held numerous secretarial-type positions in the past, so it will be an area I feel comfortable stepping into. Not to be smug about it, I'm sure it will take some training to bring me up to speed on the exact duties of this position. I am looking forward to being part of a positive team of individuals and I am actually looking forward to renewing my skills. You never know but what I'll wonder why I didn't do a similar move sooner.

p.s., I wanted to share a picture of Irises I'd painted. Perhaps in the new frame of mind I can reapply myself to actually doing some more painting this summer as well.