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Life is about more than work.
How can you reconcile everything that is important to you?
Photo: Tang Ming Tung / Digital Vision / Getty Images
Marion, 31 years old, asks: »I've been working as a key account manager in a large corporation for three years; a 60-hour week was not uncommon. But that is no longer feasible with a small child. My daughter is now two years old. My husband is a pilot, so we couldn't even get child-friendly care. I want to reorganize my professional life and give my job more meaning. You think differently with a child than without. A good salary is still important to me, but no longer exclusively. I want to leave something sustainable in the world. What do you advise me? "
Dear Marion,
Purpose and money are like maternity leave and a career: individually okay, together rather difficult to agree on for a professional realignment. In large corporations, participation is often gilded in monetary terms, i.e. paid extremely well. You'll see that on your monthly paycheck. For this, as an employee, you pay loyalty, conformity and, as a result, sometimes also meaninglessness in the currency, because the work is so fragmented that it appears alienated. Breaking out of this system is a real
challenge
for many, beware of business jargon
, also because the money-security aspect is just as important.
Those who strive for a meaningful job often end up in social professions.
These industries are rewarded differently than with money.
Or have you ever met a kindergarten teacher or street worker who would have said: "Well, I make really good money"?
Of course there are also key account positions in the NGO sector, but I'm afraid you will freeze in shock when you look at the salary tables there.
Should you still dare to do that,
please take a holistic
look at the
salary
: Is there a Chanel obligation in a social enterprise?
Are employees looked at in a strange way if they don't go to the beautician, hairdresser and teeth cleaning three times a week and don't constantly wear new outfits?
Or is the entire corporate culture more grounded so that you don't need as much money as before?
A second possibility
would be to look for an undemanding job (in the social sense) and solve the question of meaning with an honorary position.
If you tutor a girl in the neighborhood once a week, you may be doing a lot more good than you could in a public relations department at a nonprofit.
If you still want to learn something, then take a look at the opportunities for further training to become a foundation manager.
Hamburg is a foundation stronghold in Germany.
There are 1,300 foundations here, more than in any other federal state (based on the number of inhabitants).
And the advanced training is small, feasible (distance learning) and a rare combination of meaning and money.
The third option
is to take a close look at what attracted you so much about the key account in the past and to extract this element and emphasize it solitary in the future.
For example, if you have always had particularly difficult customers, you could possibly manage your own segment in the area of praise and complaint management, but this can be done in a reasonable amount of time.
The teaching later, especially in this segment, would also be conceivable.
Why not teach younger people what you can already do?
And one last thing: the most beautiful sense is sitting at home and is learning to walk.
Don't despair if no job in the world will be able to catch up with him in the foreseeable future.
