I can remember the day like it was yesterday…
It was 2007 and the economy was starting to collapse. My boss hated his job. You could just tell he dreaded coming into work each day. He dreaded dealing with the mountain of calls and emails from concerned clients. He wasn’t the nicest person at the best of times, but this particular day, he was tipped ‘over the edge’.
I sat right outside his office in a cubicle. A tiny nook, on a huge floor full of Accountants tapping away on their keyboards. The office was usually quiet as a library, either nobody dared to speak or felt the need to. A deathly holler thundered from his office that broke the quiet.
“Hayley, come here!”
I knew I was in trouble. The whole floor knew I was in trouble.
The next 3 minutes were the longest of my life. I uncomfortably sat in this 90’s disintegrating excuse for a chair while my boss stood over and berated me for a simple mistake in an SOA. I knew his behaviour wasn’t about this error. Nor was it about me. It was all about him, but that didn’t stop me from feeling an inch tall.
That’s the one thing about Paraplanning that I was never warned about. Back then it was a very male heavily dominated industry. Paraplanners, especially female Paraplanners, ‘did as they’re told’. We didn’t get a say. There was no space for errors, let alone showing any form of emotion.
I was excited about this job because it had great pay. I went in naive and optimistic. I was driven to become a senior Paraplanner and motivated to finish my studies, but working with the wrong team, with the wrong leader, forced me to press pause and question my choices.
At this very same workplace, we had a speaker come in and present about team culture. As I avidly listened to her talk, the penny dropped. She said one thing that has stuck with me to this day.
“You spend more of your waking hours with your work colleagues than your loved ones”.
I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in…
There’s so much emphasis on finding ‘the one’ when it comes to love and relationships. No one talks about finding and matching with your work soulmate.
So take it from me, if you’re in a similar work environment like I was all those years ago, YOU DESERVE BETTER. There are great people out there; amazing employers and leaders in our industry who will appreciate and value you, support you and push you to strive for more.
Chasing the money was my mistake. Learn from it and go find your soul team!
Want to make a change to your career? Join the Contract Paraplanning Team – we are on the lookout for motivated paraplanners, looking to do work on their own terms.
