If someone had given me £1 for each time I was asked ‘are you going back to work?’/’have you sorted childcare?’/’are you going back full-time?’/’will you go back to the same job?’ when I was pregnant and on maternity leave, I would be a very rich woman! It didn’t bother me (I love to chat!) but it did strike me that my husband wasn’t asked any of these questions – it was generally assumed, as it is often the case with dads, that they will be continuing their usual job no questions asked. So when local dad Jason offered to share with Mumbler his story of changing his career to spend more time with his family, I couldn’t wait to hear more!
“A year ago this month I walked out of a career that I spent over 20 years building. I’d love to be able to say that it was a carefully considered moved but it wasn’t, circumstances just finally catch up on a bloke.
I’d spent the last 10 years or so working for Tesco as a Personnel Manager, a senior position which in many ways I loved, the pay and benefits were good and I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment at having done well with my career after a rather disastrous time in school.
Happy times, celebrating my 40th with colleagues at Tesco Glossop
On the other side of the coin was a great deal of pain, which came from always feeling that I was not spending enough time with my wife and or two children, or able to support Nikki in our work as Foster Carers for Stockport Council.
My job at Tesco involved long shifts covering the entire 24/7 business, I loved helping the colleagues in my store but it often meant supporting them through the hardest of times.
For the 3 years running up to leaving I was off work with anxiety twice, both for months on end. Having left Tesco and taken a well needed rest, I was ready to get back to work. I could go back into the corporate world and for a time actively looked at this.
However in the end I decided to start out on my own, with the support of my family I was going to take the aspects I loved from my HR role and develop them into a business.
Peak Performance Business Training and Coaching has been a passion for years, developing training that specifically meets the needs of an individual or team. Engaging training and focused coaching seeing incredible results achieved is what it’s all about.
So now after a year in business for myself I balance family, foster care and running a training and coaching business. But all without stress, I’m in the best health I’ve ever been and I truly enjoy everything that I do.
Planning, organisational skills and a supportive network all help with this but the real key has been a change of mindset, and outlook on life. A realisation that by taking control of my own life, what I do and how I do it is the only way to be truly happy.
Please connect with me:
https://m.facebook.com/BrooksCoaching/
http://linkedin.com/in/jason-brooks-b8ab5666”
Jason Brooks
Stockport Mumbler would like to thank Jason for this blog. Have you got a story to share? Why not write a blog for Mumbler? Get in touch for more information.
