Inspired by @exning but not anywhere near as positive and upbeat as her update, I'm taking a break from sifting through vacation pics to vent a little about my intractably unhappy job situation. It's supposed to be therapeutic, so bear with me!
The background is I've been working at this private continuing education university for about 5 years now, joining them shortly after my getting my psychology diploma (which I did when I already was middle-aged), and also shortly after they began to accept students. My work has been mostly administrative and conceptional, with the occasional teaching stint (we have a focus on e-learning). While the concept was unique and new to Germany, accompanied with political backing at first, and much acclaimed in the field, business was so-so at best, but getting better. Still, in 2012 the original founders bailed, selling the company. And it's been downhill from there, really a case study of what one shouldn't do. There have been no clear guidelines from the new owners, but plenty of red tape and administrative add-ons; they stopped accepting Master's students for a while, and kept up a constant pressure on downsizing while at the same time demanding a complete conceptional overhaul, as they're unfamiliar with online formats. While no one was actually fired, the atmosphere has been such that people have been leaving right and left, and now only a tiny core of operative people remains, all of whom are actively searching for alternatives and may leave at any time. In this situation, where we're hardly able to function as a proper university anymore, they suddenly have decided at the very last and barely possible moment to start with a new MBA cohort this October. Bizarrely, this coincides with the MBA program manager's leaving, and she won't be replaced. At my age, it's awfully hard to find something new, but even so I'm almost at the point where I quit without having a new job, just for my health and sanity, because right now I feel as if I'm paddling a leaking canoe against the current, with the rapidly approaching waterfall roaring in my ears.
Anyway, that's MY downbeat update.
