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Have you asked yourself if you can do everyday what you are doing now for the next five or ten years?

Can I pull you into this call? I need details. That was the message on this screen. He read it but did not respond.

“What we could do is get the data ready, prepare our analysis, then talk to Bryan before we send it to the client,” Mark said over the phone. Jim and he are discussing what to do next after the client call they just had.

Jim did not respond for a few seconds. He was trying to calm his self as he got irritated with the message.

“We could probably talk about the impact of the system issues we had as that really killed us.” Mark continued.

I can’t keep doing this. Jim thought. This is just work. I don’t want to keep doing this.

Jim has been in his line of work for almost 20 years and since he started, it has been a never-ending battle of explaining what happened and if the client is not satisfied, everything goes haywire. He enjoyed it at the start when the data tells the story but now in his 40s, he felt tired from the constant barrage of people asking questions left and right.

“Did we report that we have a system outage that day because if not it will blow back to our faces for not following the process?” Jim asked Mark while closing the message he received and ignoring the rest of the unread messages.

“I can check that with Steve. But that is our best bet. Unless you want to tell that people were not doing their jobs, then I think this is the best we could do.” Mark said.

Two days after Christmas, the calls poured in. Everyone was at work but they still failed to answer all calls that got the attention of the client for not servicing their customers. The industry Jim was in a customer contact center in which they provide people for their clients to support their client’s customers. He had been in this industry for far too long.

And he is getting tired of it.

“There must be something else. Keep those in your back pocket and support them with data. Look deeper on what happened. Check when the calls arrive and how much we are receiving almost simultaneously. We can not support all of the customers if all of them call at the same second.” Jim said.

You there? The message that popped up on Jim’s screen.

I am with Rasheed and Arvind now. We need to discuss financials. Can you join? The rest of the message said. Jim read and continued to ignore it.

“Oh right. I’ll look into that. How about the length of each call? That would have all of our agents occupied and would not be able to take the calls.”, Mark asked.

“Yes. We can get that too. Compare to what we had planned for and what was the actual to see the variance then what caused that.”, Jim replied as he closed the message.

It was about 5 minutes to the end of his shift. Well, to the end of his 12-hour shift that day. He had to start early as he was called to get an analysis out that was needed before the start of the day. Now, reading the messages, he was still needed after almost half of the day.

“Alright. Anything else?” Mark asked.

“Anything you see that we need Operations to know, get it and let’s show it at Monday’s Management Meeting. Let’s discuss there our next course of action.” Jim said. It is Friday. Jim just wanted the week over.

“Alright. I’ll get to it.” Mark replied. They both said goodbye and agreed to talk early Monday for the analysis.

Jim’s phone lit up. A message notification popped up. He always has it on silent for messages and only calls were set up for sound alerts. He picked up his phone from the table and opened the message. His notifications only show the app and the sender. He turned off the message previews too. That way, no one will accidentally read the message.

You have been doing this for almost 20 years. Can you still do it in the next five years? Can you still deal with the long hours and daily stress? The message said. It was from a colleague he respects from whom he would always ask and get some advice.

Jim typed his response. Could it be I am just tired now and feeling irritated because of incessant inquiries from different people? He sent it.

A couple of seconds later, his friend responded. Bro, you’ve been saying this for the past two years. You even quit from your previous company just a year ago because of long hours. You’ve been feeling this way for long.

He is right. Jim thought. He had been in a higher position before and he did not like the toll it gave him. The high demand, the high stress, the long hours. He did not like it. To him, it is like living to work instead of working to live.

You’re right. Thanks. Really helpful to talk to you. Jim responded.

Just think and assess. It is not about wondering if you are fit. It is reassessing your life. What do you really want to do that you do not feel forced to do? His friend responded.

Jim thanked again his friend. He closed his laptop and stood up to get out of the house to have a smoke.

He lit up a stick in the garage. Blew out smoke and now devising a plan in his head.

His mind wandered and thought about his journey from the time he was a customer service representative to now being one of those who run the business. It was simple back then compared to now. Of course the money was way lower than what he has now in his position which is his primary driving force.

But, now that he is almost at the top, he keeps on contemplating if he can continue doing this.

How would I tell her that I am moving on to do other things?