Is now the time?

So here we are, yet again. Pushing on towards five years with EBM. Feeling constantly on edge, health not so good, job satisfaction shite. WTF am I doing?

I have had a small win of sorts. The boss has agreed to let me let go of the "new" part of our business, the quarries, mobiles, workshops etc. across the border, that have been the cause of much of my stress. Compounding it, has been one of my new direct reports, who is a pretty manic and intense individual, and one who needs to vent to his boss frequently. I don't cope all that well with that. Plus, two years of under-performance, two years of not really being able to understand the key drivers of that under-performance, and two years of being spread so thin, and feeling like I am not doing my job very well, have really brought me unstuck.

Health-wise, well I had the iron thing and the blood sugar thing before. Now I seem to have the cholesterol thing and the liver thing too. Yeah, lifestyle plays a key part in this, but so does stress. Of course, we recently bought a house in Echuca, at over 700k too no less. This needed to happen, as renting has absolute knobs on it. But in terms of flexibility, it means we're tied here a bit more. Of course one can sell, but we do like our house. The kids like it here too, wifey has made friends and has a job, so in terms of what we wanted (what I wanted) when we came here, we have all that. Ideally, I would stick this out and try my best to coast towards retirement.

But, as people tell me, kids are flexible, and will adapt to change. My wife has given me license to do what I need to for my own wellbeing. So if I can find the right job, maybe, after a longer stint than I have ever had elsewhere in my career, it's time to go. What I would strongly consider, is SEA. One, because it's my spiritual home, and two, because it's my wife's actual home, and my kid's birthplace. I think it would do them well to have some of their older years as expat kids, in order to have a greater world view than they will get in regional Australia.

So it's not an easy situation to decide on. I think the best thing I can do is see what's out there, and make a call once I know that. 

W.A. / QLD / Darwin

Kell / Craig Bradshaw / Chook

Monument Mining

Seek / LinkedIn

Head Hunters

Kingsgate, Emerald 

That's a bit of a list to start with. I'm not going to do FIFO, nor the Americas, Europe, or Africa, so that really leaves Asia-Pacific. That's my stomping ground anyway, so we'll see where it leads. Chook and Craig likely nothing right now, WA is likely only for FIFO, Chatree and Camabodia likely no good either, as the commute would be too long for me, so the choices are limited. Still, we'll have a look. Hey I got an email from Seek this morning, advertising a Mine Manager's role for a company called Honest Sam Mining. Seriously? Imagine that on your CV haha! Still, with any luck, I am either in my last ever professional role, or the next one will be the last one, so once I'm hired, who cares what's on my CV.

Anyway, let's watch this space.