Why I left my Corporate Job -Part 1
Today I want to share a bit of my personal journey because I feel the need to be fully transparent. And I want to breakthrough my own ‘shame-wall’. A wall I have built up without even realising it and I'm no longer comfortable with.
Please note that I will share purely my own experience, with no judgement of the company I worked for last (which happens to be Nike). I have had the best experiences at Nike for many years, I have met wonderful people and I had the chance to grow and learn as a professional and as a person. I'm eternally grateful for that. However I also have experienced first hand the short comings of the corporate system and that is what is driving me now to work with leaders and emerging leaders in an attempt to change things for the better.
My journey with Nike started in 2014. I joined the Ops team (back then 'CustomerService' was still part of Sales, but who cares) on a local contract in Russia.I had moved to Moscow following my fiancée at the time and was in desperate need of a job, so that I could get a visa and stay on. Nike provided me with an opportunity in a field I had zero experience in. I joined the Customer Service team as project-manager and while it was a step back for me career-wise, I was very grateful for the chance to work for Nike and being hired into a field I was not trained in, nor had experience in.
The goal was to move to the EMEA headquarter in the near future and since I was on a local contract I had to use all my skills to become visible with the hiring team in the Netherlands. I fell in love with the Nike energy and the Nike products shortly after I joined. I learned a lot from my Russian colleagues and to my surprise I was promoted into a role at the European Headquarters (EHQ) only 15 months after my Nike Journey had started.
I moved alone to the Netherlands in January 2016 (my fiancee needed to stay 6 more month in Russia to finish his rotation) and started in my new role (that I had even less experience in), in a new country, with a teenager and a toddler. It was tough. I worked a lot to make up for everything I didn't know, I had to manage a team in 2 countries. My teenager didn't want to leave Russia and made it known. But I also tremendously enjoyed being at EHQ, my new challenge and meeting great people. My manager at the time gave me the utmost freedom (something that I learned is invaluable) and I could shape the role (which was newly created) how I wanted. I was able to re-build the team and bring my all transferrable skills to the Leadership table.
I fast forward 18 months (to my first major life-crisis, while being at Nike), here is what happened:
Nike went through a re-organization and as result I was promoted again (and again into a newly created role)
My fiancée ended our relationship shortly after we were re-united in the Netherlands (with quite a bit of struggle over it)
My teenager struggled and I found it very difficult to get adequate help for him in the Netherlands
I had bought and renovated my first house, including being without a home for 2 months
The former toddler had just started Dutch school
I didn't share what was going on in my personal life with my colleagues at work (only very few people at work knew) and despite all this struggles I was rocking my new role.
2 things made this possible:
I had great help at home (My nanny back then deserves a medal for saving my ass. I don't know what I would have done without her ( Thank you, Viki <3)). I’m completely aware that many people go through similar life changes without having help, like I did. I don’t know how they do it. And I have the most respect for that.
My new role (with the same manager who brought me to EHQ) came again with lots of freedom. I was given time, space and trust to figure it out. Instead of being overwhelmed at work, work became my sanctuary, a place where I could regain my confidence, a source of positive energy that bolstered me through my personal battles.
Work, for me, was an anchor, a place where I found strength and believe in myself. It demonstrated the incredible power of feeling safe and appreciated in the workplace, a power that can transform lives and enable us to flourish even when life's storms are at their fiercest.
Feeling safe and appreciated at work can change everything for everyone. It can help us through life’s difficulties and allows us to still thrive, even during difficult times.
The opposite is also true.
In next week’s Blog I will fast forward another 3 years and continue my story….
