In what may prove to be the most damn fool thing I’ve done in my life, I’m changing jobs. So we’ll see how my blogging holds up for the next few months. My new job is still here in Japan, but it is vastly different from my current position and has little or nothing to do with transportation planning. Since I’ve been at my current organization for over 6 years in various capacities, it is going to be odd to leave a place that I think of as “home”. And despite the frustrations, especially in the last couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed my work.
However its time. I need a change. Plus to tell you the truth, I just don’t know how much longer I can fight the same fights over again, each time trying to keep a new cast of characters from doing things that are really stupid. That’s how large bureauracies wear you down, they keep dredging up old ideas, put a different spin on them, and then trying to get you to believe they are the best thing for the organization. Especially when the organization thinks it can manage every thing from afar, and feels it has no need for a local office in the correct time zone. I feel like I should plaster up the slogan from HSBC bank, “Local knowledge is critical”. The powers that be in the Navy would be well advised to remember that. Its a better motto than “people are expensive”, that’s for sure.
Hopefully the folks here will be able to keep up the good fight, and keep the micro-management hordes at bay. I really do hope so. But it won’t be my fight anymore.
The new job is a 2 year contract, and I doubt it will be able to be renewed, so in a couple of years I’ll find myself on an (Asian) street, looking for work again. That’s a real risk, but I’m hoping the rewards will be worth it. At least I’ll still be traveling around Asia and that’s a plus. As a bonus, I won’t need to go to the Middle East anymore. Which is fine with me. If I never see Bahrain again it will be too soon. Same goes for any of the other garden spots over there.
So next month its back to the US to tie up some loose ends, play some golf, get some training, and see my parents. Then back here for moving to another city in Japan. Ought to make for an interesting summer to be sure.
And after that, who knows? Maybe I’ll just become another drunken expat living in Pattaya……
Wish me luck……cause here I go! Stayed tuned to this channel for updates.
