When One Door Closes, Another One Opens

When one door closes, another one opens! You are the captain of your ship. You are not at the mercy of other people. Even when someone makes a decision about you, your present or your future, you are still not without choice. You get to choose how you will respond to the decisions others make and I am a firm believer that when others make decisions about you, you get to choose your next move. You can remain in a bad situation and blame the people and circumstances or you can choose out of the bad situation and create a more positive situation for yourself. Here is one employees short story. I want to share her story and my thoughts. What do you think she should do in this situation?

“I was the executive assistant to our CEO until he announced his retirement and the company announced that an internal employee would replace him. I have not been fired, but have been replaced in my position. My company assures me that they will find me something else, but honestly, positions of my level do not come along very often. I go into work every day with no assignments, reduced to offering my help to co-workers. It’s humiliating. I’ve been told I should be happy that I have a paycheck, but I want to work. I feel that they are letting me stew until I leave. — Barb”

Barb has a decision to make in my opinion. She is not at the mercy of the situation she faces. Her desire is to work and yet the organization has not been able to find an opportunity to do the work she prefers to do. The fact that she is still employed by the organization means at some level, they value her as an employee. In this market, if she was not valued she would have been laid off. So what options does she have? In my opinion I believe that Barb can assess her skill set and what she enjoys doing and see if there is a different job in the organization and pursue that opportunity. Another option I see is that Barb can sit down and talk to her new boss. She is reporting to someone. Have a conversation. Find out the options available within the organization. If there are no options and you want to work, negotiate with the organization. Find a way to continue to support the organization for the next 60 days and ask for flexibility to look for a job. Leverage the goodwill the organization feels for you and look for the next opportunity. If you want a job, if you want to work, go find a job that will allow you to work and let go of the lost opportunity. There is an old adage that says, “when one door closes, look up, there is another door open.” Find the door and walk in. I would love to hear from you, any of you. What do you think Barb should do?