Business is Child's Play

I’m Happy For You, But What About Me?

When my Daughter was born my Mom stayed with me for that first week. She taught me how to bathe a baby, diaper quickly, nurse efficiently, and overcome my fear of using that blue aspirator. My Mom cleaned, laundered, and cooked. She made sure I rested and empathized with my post-baby blues. On her last day, as she was leaving, I cried. I had no idea what I was going to do on my own. I didn’t know the first thing about babies and I had come to depend on her.

What if I fail or mess up?

She gave me a hug and said,

“You’ll be just fine. Every new mom feels this way.”

She said I could call her whenever I needed to. I should also add that my Parents only live 20 minutes away. Now I had to be independent, and I was scared.

I’ve faced this same dread at work.

People come and people go. People I’ve come to depend on for their knowledge, expertise, and direction are moving on to new opportunities, and others are retiring. I’m happy for them, but I can’t help but feel like I’m left in the doorway holding a new baby.

There are projects that I’m not familiar with, each in a different phase requiring follow up and approval. The company is demanding activity, follow through, and results. When I had questions about the best way to approach a situation, or just needed a good laugh, these are the colleagues I went to. What if I fail or mess up? I’m starting to sink into post-resignation blues.

But just like my Mom said, I’ll be fine. People come and people go. Some bring more value than others. I’m lucky to have worked with those that bring value. I’m learning that I need to be confident in my skills and have faith in myself. If I mess up or fail, so be it. It certainly won’t be the first time and probably won’t be the last time. And even though having sudden independence thrust upon you can be scary, it can also be exciting.

How do you handle transition when valuable co-workers leave?

Post By Marilyn Cox (75 Posts)

Marilyn Cox is the Director of Marketing Communications at Cincom Systems. She is responsible for the marketing communication and content strategy as well as sales enablement. She manages technical writing, education development, translation services, copywriting, and graphic design resources. She also manages large scale marketing campaigns, website initiatives, and the Eloqua strategy. Marilyn is a PMP certified project manager responsible for the development of project management processes, integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management. Marilyn received her degree in Political Science from The Ohio State University and is the author of BusinessisChildsPlay.com. She classifies herself as a left brain mind living in a right brain world. Her focus is content development to enable and align marketing and sales strategies. While not geeking out over marketing analytics she enjoys Ironman training in solitude and Ironmom conditioning with her two children.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 2:33 pm. It is filed under Featured, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Marketing Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.