Stay Away From The Dark Side

I have to admit something; I am having a hard time adjusting to the new job. The problem? It's a real facility with real professional people with real enthusiasm and real goals. The program has a plan for the future and it is actually ahead of schedule thanks to the right people being hired and they themselves carefully screening their new hires, adding more good people. Basically, it sucks.

You see, here's the problem. I came from a place that was/is the exact opposite. A badly managed, run down facility where only the dopes and a-holes stay with a very few good people carrying the load for them. The place has no structure, no plan and tons of untapped potential. It's basically a wasteland. The turnover is tremendous. It was great.

The real truth is this, once you live unstructured, undisciplined and free to do as you please, it's very hard to go back to the real world. I left a well structured job, went to the place where it was basically a free-for-all and now I'm trying to go back to a well structured existence. It's very hard.

It's like this, if a nice innocent person never experiences the wild side of life, they are blissfully unaware of what they aren’t missing. But if they experience a little wild life, they get the itch. It doesn't go away. "Once you start down the dark path Luke...." Even if the innocent that has been a little wild tries to go back to their innocent lifestyle, they are not satisfied. They know that something more exciting is out there. They are never the same.

That's how I am at the new job. I went from doing my own thing and making my own schedules with no one questioning me (ever) to a structured day with plans and goals and expected results. I am having a hard time with this. It is a struggle.

I guess I just need to buckle down and bear with it. Maybe I can re-learn to be a semi-professional employee again. I hope so. But for right now, I’m more than a bit frustrated.

A word of advice... stay away from the dark side if you plan on being able to step back into the real world again someday.