Thanks!

I feel a bit crazy right now... the conversation went really well. My friend's friend is very nice, and smart, and since she came from the group that I'm in, she totally understands how badly it's being run and how it feels like my brain is dying. She felt the same way before she got out of the group, and told me that it was a bit scary for at first, having to really *think* about things again.

But the group sounds wonderful, very collaborative and friendly with good management. And, it sounds like they've got some neat projects going on. I'm a little worried that their charter is a bit more limited than ours, but at this point, even with that I think I'd have more work to do, more challenges, and more learning opportunities.

It IS a little scary though. I was pretty honest about things I was worried about (areas where I don't have as much expertise as I think they'd want for this role), but she wasn't worried about it, and said alot of that stuff she had to learn on the job too.

I guess I'm also kind of nervous because... this isn't really my end-goal for my life/career. I don't know what that IS though... and I haven't made any progress figuring it out, despite having lots of free time while working mostly from home, so... I'm thinking the benefits of this job would very much outweigh the risks here. It sounds like there'd be a LOT of work though... so it would be a big change, and that is scary. I'm not a super fast worker (I tend to be slow, but thorough!).

PHEW! Thanks for letting me blab! Like I said, my head is spinning a bit... but I think it's a good opportunity, and if I don't do this, I can't see any other options. The current job is just really killing my career, honestly. There's no room for any kind of growth, and my boss won't/can't acknowledge that!

Oh! And, I totally what you get about some people having an easier time dealing with the workplace. But you know what, I bet if you were in a position to have really honest conversations with others on your team, you'd find quite a few of them had the same concerns/issues as you did. Part of what amazes me at my current job is that it's very isolating... but when I do manage to talk to people, I find out that there are many others who are unhappy, feel isolated, aren't challenged, don't have enough to do, think our boss isn't managing the team well etc. It just feels like it's "just me" because I'm not often in a position to talk about this stuff with people (it's usually not a good idea to talk about this stuff, unless you know someone really well!). It's sad... I was thinking in my current position, it *should* be a very cool awesome job. We're supposed to be doing really neat, innovative stuff. But *I* don't get to do any of that stuff. Maybe my boss gets to, but it doesn't trickle down, and nobody realizes how sad those of us at the next level down are!

How is your stuff going? Have you thought any more about reaching out to your friend? Or are you going to hope it all sort of dies down?