Plus, it's kind of depressing!

Self-demotion is not something I'd recommend.

I’ve worked for my current employer for almost 12 years. I was IT manager for 10 or so, until I demoted myself. It’s a small organization with around 200 employees and way too many servers. There are two buildings. The second building got its own IT guy, who I will call "Guy", about 7 years ago. He reported to me until we changed roles.

This is part of the speech I made when I asked if I could demote myself:

“I think a fresh perspective would be good for everyone. Guy has some great ideas, and it would be great if he could have a shot at making some changes.”

Sounds a lot better than: “I am soooooo burned out on this job, and my house is such a freaking mess that I need extra time just to pick up the f-ing toys.”

And my manager, who is one of the nicest people in the world and a mom herself (to more children than me) agreed.

Great! Except that when I said “change would be good,” I should have expected change to actually come, and not be so damn whiney about it.

Guy is changing A LOT OF STUFF. Stuff that I purchased, sweated over, and tenderly cared for for over 10 years. No offense to Guy, some of this stuff needed to be replaced. With my relaxed attitude and the relaxed environment there (we’re not exactly on the cutting edge of technology) I guess it was easy to just let some things slide. I got them through Y2k unscathed. Got them Internet, and a website, and a modern operating system, and added lots of computers and new applications. I guess after that I just got tired. And after going through some things once, it seemed pointless to go through it again, no matter how much time had passed. New phone system? I replaced the phone system once already (10 years ago)! What’s wrong with our Internet connection? We have a T1, it’s fast enough. Etc.

Guy wants to be cutting edge. Which is great for the organization, just like I said in my speech. But…maybe I’m just sensitive, but I feel like Guy talks to me and about my stuff as if we’re in the stone age. And really, he’s probably right about a lot of it. The thing is, I was burned out and ready to move on a long time ago (and I probably should have just done so), but I was proud of what I’d accomplished there. I think it may be better for my self-esteem, sense of accomplishment, and pleasant memories (I wasted spent all of my 30’s there) to just make a clean break, instead of feeling like the doddering old guy employee who won’t leave.