First time poster here and I come with a question that I felt I could not answer for my father.
My father has always kept his true feelings about his work environment hidden from me (to maintain that father image), but recently it has gotten bad at his work. His company was recently taken over by the corporate division, and it has become like that movie Office Space (so many reports and stuff that has little to do with the actual sales he’s used to). So with that, and a wife who needs a nurse or him around 24/7, the change to corporate has not been a welcomed one. He finds him self either confused (probably from the lack of sleep he gets at home), or overwhelmed with paperwork-while trying to do his main job (oversee salesmen).
My question is, how the heck would you help this guy if he was your father? He is 49 years old, so he’s not a prime candidate for hiring I assume, but he has about 25 years of sales/district manager experience + bachelor degree.
He wants a job that’s not obsessed with paperwork, and one that he can do and “forget about” when he “gets home”. The problem is that he also has to make ends meet.
So I guess my question is what sort of jobs are out there for someone his age, and with his need to support a family/a disabled wife? He makes about 45,000 right now, and barely makes ends meet because of pharmacy/doctor visits. If he could make that much in a job that wasn’t so demoralizing he would likely be very relived.
I was thinking perhaps a government job such as the post office, but I really have no real idea.
Assuming he lives somewhere with a reasonable amount of potential employers, I would tell him to start looking for another job. If he doesn’t find one that fits his needs, he’s no worse off. But any job with similar pay and benefits would have to be better than his current situation, and maybe he can find something with better pay and/or benefits.
He should of course tell no one at his current company that he’s looking for other job prospects.
I also hear the benefits are excellent, but I don’t believe they hire managers from outside the company - you work your way up from the bottom. It’s pretty hard work, too.
He could try sales at a much smaller company. People at smaller companies tend to have more responsibility (in a good way) and more power over their contributions. Also, a small, dynamic company usually doesn’t require nearly as much paperwork and BS because the focus is on getting actual work done.
Tell him to get some resumes out and make some calls even if the position doesn’t seem perfect. Sometimes it’s a matter of letting the job find you, rather than you finding the job. He won’t get any jobs until he actively seeks them (and maybe not even then, sometimes.)