You may or may not have heard of part of my story. Basically, right out of high school, into college, I started my career at a “big box store”. I was supposed to only work there until I finished my degree and was able to find a different job. Fast forward through my 13 years working there, I found myself facing complete burnout! I literally felt like I could no longer function. It was interesting because after becoming a manager I was believing I had found what I was meant to do (I was doing very well in my position; enjoying my job, and the experiences that came with it), but it suddenly crashed into pieces.
With changes in structure within the company that brough increased responsibility, lack of staffing, increased pressure to manage overworked employees, and the holidays. I found myself struggling with no signs of relief. Honesty, I believed I would have been able to handle all these challenges of my work life if it was all I had to deal with, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Simultaneously, my father had been in and out of the hospital with health complications, including an open-heart surgery that was nearly fatal, that left him with terminal health problems. At the times he was a single father of 3 children still in school, living with his elderly mother. Throughout these several months I helped take care of his household. I had no life apart from work and home life, which were both extremely taxing, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not to mention my relationship with God was hanging by a thread. There was no relief and no hope. I was broken down. I felt like I literally could no longer go on (not in a suicidal sense, just completely burnout!). Something had to give!
It was during a black Friday sale that I found myself questioning if I should just quit my job. I was forced to work that shift because of my position in the store. My role during the sale? Stand at the end of an aisle. No real purpose other than to be an employee to direct that flow of a line around a corner after several hours of just standing there. This is when I began to pray and ask God if I should quit or stay with the company.
About a month later I was pulled into the office to be written up for a second time within a short period of time. (What hurt most was these instances I was called into the office was because my coworkers who claimed to be my friends saw me as a weak link to throw me under the bus when I needed help.) At the moment, I basically told them I was done and that I would be putting in my 2 weeks’ notice! (Also to add to it, I ended up working a couple extra days to help with inventory, because that’s who I was) I had to choose between my job or my family at that point. Both I realize were a result of a very unhealthy codependent lifestyle I had developed, where everyone and everything came before taking care of myself.
What I didn’t expect is that God would rebuild those pieces and turn them into something I could have never imagined. And He gets all the glory for it.
Life Unlimited Coaching 