In 2020 I found out I was losing my job at IBM. I hated my job at IBM. Grateful to have a job, which is why I kept it for a couple of years and I enjoyed some of the people I worked with, but ultimately the atmosphere and lack of insight into any feedback of the product we were building was incredibly stressful. After leaving IBM, I got a contractor gig at Home Depot. I was thrilled to get a job at Home Depot, I always loved going in-person to the stores. I hated my job at Home Depot, probably more than IBM, which is a shock to me. I really enjoyed most of the people, the job itself was interesting but it had a very familiar feel to it. In both positions, there were just a handful of people that happened to be in higher positions than me, that just weren’t very good at their jobs of being a manager. Don’t get me wrong, my actual manager at THD was fantastic. But this put a tremendous amount of stress on me. I complained so much while at THD, that Kacie finally just said, “you need to just quit, you can’t complain to me every day.”
So I did. Well not exactly, I found another job, then quit. That leads me to Omni Federal and what separates it from most of my other positions. I have a great boss, the CEO of the company. He treats me with respect, lets me do my job, chimes in when he needs to, handles the hard conversations with customers, is extremely flexible as far as my work goes, continues to give back to his employees (company match, company swag, Christmas gifts). In all my years of working (13+ years now), I have NEVER had a boss like him. He cares about the projects, cares about the customers, isn’t all about the money and/or contracts. My anxiety, although still high sometimes due to the nature of my work, has dropped tremendously. Instead of complaining every day to my wife, I can just talk to her about my day. Of course I still complain sometimes, I do work in federal government after all. But the work is genuinely interesting. I thank God for this breath of fresh air and hope that i can continue on at this company for as long as I feel God calling me here.
In other exciting news, baby #4 will be here soon. Goodness, I never, never, never thought I’d be here. We moved to Omaha in 2012 to start a family. It wasn’t happening, I got a job in Austin in 2013, told Kacie we could move back to Omaha whenever and here were are, 2022, a family of 5 (+2 dogs and another kid coming soon) and we’re still in Austin. I don’t know how much longer we will be here, so I’m trying to soak in the 70+ degree weather in January. We’ve already got a name picked out (unusual for us) and will just try not to lose our minds when he decides to come.