Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops
Last week marked one year since I switched jobs, leaving a general IT support role for one more specialized. Both my former and current employer exist in the healthcare industry, with the former making the drugs and the current prescribing them as a form of treatment. I had spent nearly 13 years with the former employer, and when I look back upon my time there, I cannot accurately say there were ups and downs. Instead, I would say there was one pretty steady up, followed by a series of alternating downs and plateaus.
When I left last March, it marked the culmination of a years-long job search. I had made it as a finalist at two other companies, so even though I felt crushed at being passed over, I was heartened by making in that far in the selection process. Moral victories don't necessarily pay the bills, but they can provide a salve on the rejection wounds. I knew I was on the right track. Somehow, thanks to luck or divine intervention or just great timing, I went from applying for my current job to acceptance within the month of February 2024.
A younger me would have, when announcing my departure from my former job, been a complete ass about it. There were plenty of reasons why I could have acted like a jerk--a promotion that turned out to be nothing more than a title change, broken promises regarding my job responsibilities, corporate plans proposed and abandoned followed by periods of drift, clashes with my final manager, two(!) bankruptcies within the space of three years--but I ain't spending any time on it because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland that's time and energy wasted on something that doesn't matter. I don't think it's odd to walk away from a place I spent nearly 13 years of my life, especially if this place was one where my enjoyment of it left long before I did. Stein's Law applies here.1
Related to my lack of enjoyment is how much contact I have with folks who are still at my former job. I can count that number on one hand and have many fingers left over. No ill will is meant towards anyone there, but when I left, I felt no need to stay connected to my old job. My new job needs my attention, after all. I haven't kept up with a lot of news from the old job, hence why I was a couple weeks late into learning that they have announced a merger with...well, a company that looks a lot like them! Reports of the merger have highlighted the two company's similarities, so it's not just my cynical take. Additionally, both the coverage and press releases discuss future plans for a sale or spin-off of one of the combined company's divisions. I'm grimly amused by what was mentioned, as these plans sound nearly identical to what was proposed during a span between 2017 and 2019. There are no new ideas, it seems, just repackaged ones.
Now that I’m on the outside, I can’t really predict what will happen with the old company and its merger with "itself." I can make wild guesses, just like everyone else. My theory has it that my former employer was allowed to be the majority partner in the merger, under the condition that the other party keeps most of its locations and my former employer reduces its own. Regardless of whatever I think, mergers usually mean there will be fewer jobs in the combined firm, which is why I’ll keep an eye out for any WARN notices. I don’t really care if my guess is right, as it's just vaguely-educated speculation. Whatever happens from here on out with the old job, I can confidently say I feel justified by my departure. A year into my new job, my regrets for leaving my old one are at zero. Here's to many more anniversaries to commemorate.
From the economist Herbert Stein, whose aphorism inspired the blog title.↩