About a week ago I celebrated my 18 month anniversary being employed by my company. If you read the post on Joe’s Journal, then you know that I wound up celebrating in rare form. And while that journal entry is more a display of a minor annoyance, there are other things going on that warrant an employee’s attention.

Sometime in January our Chief Operating Officer decided to move on to another job. She found a good job that is closer to home and – more importantly – closer to her family. As a working Mom, she needs to be close to home base. While we were all sad to see her go, it was a logical decision and she will be missed. Her last day was two weeks ago.

During her last week at the office, our Executive Director/President also announced his resignation citing that he was extremely proud of the organization and that it was time for him to move on to a new endeavor. No one is sure if he has a concrete job locked down somewhere else (he’s been at the company for the better part of the last decade). I know that he’s smart enough to make a ton of money with a financial consulting firm, if he decides to open one. We’re not entirely sure when he’s going to move on, but we know that each day that goes by we are closer to having no leadership in the office.

It is times like these that make employees reevaluate where they are in life and where they are in terms of their occupational situation. For me, the truth is that I began this reevaluation process in earnest sometime last spring. Then for family reasons, I stopped evaluating my employment for the summer and most of the fall. When I had to close a very big deal for our company in November, that pulled me back into the grind and ever since then, I’ve been thinking about this job and my future. The loss of the top leadership at my organization has sort of put this whole thing into hyper-drive.

The truth is that I really hate my commute. I drive an hour to work and an hour back each day (unless I’m working from home). The 100-mile daily commute is really a pain in the ass and for those of you that make this commute or longer, I’m not at a point where I can continue to blow $400 per month on gas so it’s a double whammy. I can’t take mass transit without adding another two hours onto the daily commute (ain’t happening). A few months ago I was really thinking about moving closer to my job, but I don’t really like Trenton area and there isn’t anything exciting going on anywhere between where I live and the office. In terms of getting to and from work, I hate it.

As for the physical place where I work, I really don’t like the building at all. We’re in a building that has got to be over 100 years old. One of our former COO’s tasks was to have the building upgraded. Well, now that she’s gone I’m confident that the building is not changing. Personally, I hate the all-white walls and the almost unmanageable parking situation in our extremely small lot. The crappy carpet and painted-over-panel walls in the offices don’t help either. Let’s just say it’s not a place that I’m comfortable bringing my clients. In terms of the physical space, it’s not a nice looking place to work.

Then there is the staff. The truth is that even though my post about the secretary showed how completely outlandish one member of the staff can be, I really like everyone (including the secretary). The staff at this place is among the best out there, period. They are good people with good hearts and that is important in the grand scheme of things. In terms of the staff, I couldn’t be in a better place!

Of course, one must consider advancement opportunities. Here is where it gets interesting. Is there a great deal of “upward mobility” in my job? No. In an organization with about 10 people, no one is more than one step removed from the top of the heap. It’s weird. The advancement opportunities at my job are more industry-wide advancement opportunities. In other words, an employee is likely never going to be “the boss” at this office, but he may find a new way to finance a particularly complex project that is duplicated by the competitors (which, in this industry, is a good thing). In terms of advancement I have to rate this position as 50/50.

One of the final things I’ve been considering is my remuneration. I get paid a decent salary, but it’s high time that it increased. I’ve only had one automatic “standard of living” raise over the last 18 months and believe me, the cost of living has gone up more than my raise! The problem is that with the top brass at the office leaving, I do not know who to ask for a raise. I was just getting ready to talk to the COO about this, but now she’s gone. Considering that it will take the new Executive Director a few months to really get the feel of the office, I may be out of a raise for a long-time to come and I’m not happy about that at all. In terms of remuneration…18 months ago I would have said that I’m very happy. Today? I’m not and it appears that there is no person to talk to about it. Not good.

All in all, my assessment tells me that I am not in the right employment situation right now. However – after all of the criticism above – I’m awkwardly content at my job. I will probably begin to look for a new place to work in the next few months, but not rigorously. If my company does actually move out of Trenton and into New Brunswick like the rumor has been for months, then I would probably move to that area of the state (or further north) and stick with it. However, I feel like something is missing at my current job and unless I can figure out what it is, then it might be time to move on.