Cory is the holder of the paper in our family. He takes care of the taxes, and records the things that need recorded, plus stuff that doesn’t need recorded. I am not patient enough to be interested in such things. He recently brought home a stack of family papers that had been living in his office at work. In that stack, for some odd reason, was my work performance evaluation from 2014. I read through the feedback, and reminisced in my mind about the work that I had done during that review period. It was a good year. One of those when I was still only a couple of years into my tenure at the company I still work at 9 years later. I loved my job. I was doing important work for a company that does really important work. I was getting to travel to new places, meet lots of new people and learn the ins and outs of project management for a B2B and B2C company. I was learning how to do my job better, and learning so much interesting science.

Between then and now lots of things have changed. The company has more than doubled in size and was sold to a larger company. Lots of the things I loved have morphed, into new things that I don’t not love, but I am missing something. I am trying to understand what it will take to get me back to the energized employee that I once was. Is my role the problem? or my attitude? Am I the problem? Is it my management?

And in the meantime, two rounds of layoffs in the past 6 months and performance based bonuses may not exist this year. Is this just part of getting old and realizing how many long years of necessary employment remain while my back hurts more and my kids just keep getting bigger and closer to leaving the nest?

If anyone has any advise on this rut, or some low upfront investment passive income suggestions, I am all ears.