Think about today then worry about Future
Backstory
For last 2 years I have been engrossed in getting a better job and getting my career on track. In this quest I only thought about selling myself as a bright professional, always I was worried about getting a salary hike and was worried but upgrading Technology. I always thought: How I can get a job which suits my wish of pursuing my technology interests with a good work life balance. In the current project the situation was particularly bad. As I joined the project many people from client side left the project, but then subsequently since last few months people have left and who have replaced them have not been able perform well. Hence this has added to the stress in the workplace to people who want to contribute and learn with a positive work environment. It did not help that the client was erratic and very demanding.
Causes
To be honest they did not have a specific process in place at least with respect to vendor management and most of their requirements was mostly handled via emails. But this was also a very hard time for client organization where half of their IT work force had left and many of their key infrastructure had no people to support. And the business pretty much drove the delivery timelines and who ever was left was under deep stress to deliver. Also in my company who had taken the IT operations of my client, specifically in some operations it took time to fill the gap. But specifically in my team we have a situation where the client is very hands on and likes to micromanage and with good reasons. With the restructuring and delay in deliverable at our end and business pressure, the client started questioning our skills and some times the unprofessional behavior only added to the stress. The skilled or the experienced started leaving.
Outcome
In this frustration I reached a tipping point where I and my team was working 20 hours a day and still we were unable to meet the clients wishes or shall I say their ever changing requirements or their lack of requirements. I reached a point where I gave a free hand to my team to work the way they chose and look for opportunities outside if required. Now combined with the remaining people leaving from client side and the frustrated people from my team leaving it came to a point where today a good friend of mine put his papers. And in one single moment I felt a sense of desperation and wished if I could have done better. Now in office the talk is who will leave next. These are bad times and I feel when team needed my leadership skills I succumbed to work pressure.
Lesson
Today I really felt, instead of worrying about job, moving out and getting stressed if I would have lived in today and deliver the work at hand and had I worked in making life of my team mates better than I could have bought better change in all their lives. While given the current market condition and the last few opportunities that exist before market closes, I feel that while I may still look out for jobs. But from now on I should again focus on enhancing and sharing my knowledge and do my job better rather than worrying about the outcome.
