Empty Nest and ETS

Megan and Audrey both discussed transitions the other day. I wrote about my own difficulties with the transition, Audrey discussed the transition she and her husband are going through, both moving from being a part of the Army and being empty nesters. 

I can certainly empathize and sympathize with your situation. I had my own transition from military to civilian life, was easy, but most of that was due to my only being enlisted for four years. 

I see many of the privates who I trained in my team, who are now sergeants majors, and I see them struggling with the transition the same way you mention. I see many of them moving up to Alaska to live off the grid. I'm actually a bit stunned by how many have chosen this route. 

The transition moment in my life that I think about is the one I referenced when Megan and I spoke. I had to switch from being a contractor, a position I had held for almost 20 years, to working for a non-profit. It's a transition I'm still struggling with. This mid-life career change has been tough, but mostly because I got used to the pace, the style of work, and the tempo of contractor work. 

Non-profit work is different in many ways, but I'm lucky that my boss, our president, and COO comes from the contracting community as well and many of the new programs, changes, and updates he institutes are familiar to me. So instead of jumping directly into the cold, deep, water of the non-profit pool, I get to swim from the shallow end to the deep end and have someone teach me to swim. 

To bring it back to Audrey's discussion, when I look back at transitions in my own life, I see how my transition from contractor to non-profit employee was an identity shift, and still is an identity shift that I am going through. I liked the old identity but now I'm learning to embrace and like this new one. 

How does this play into my research topic? Not as much as I would like. We provide leadership training to many people who are moving from being a part of a team to a leader of that team. We focus on this and how best to make that transition and smooth the waters. Finding ways to bring it back to a shift in identity might be a bit more that we can discuss with them and help them through the change in their roles.