Published on 12, July, 2020
"Red flags" or "gut instinct"
I've made a few bad mistakes due to ignoring "red flags" or "gut instinct" at times.
First case was at University - not going into details but I remember sensing loads of 'red flags' and instinctively feeling something was off - yet I ignored them. In this case I clammed up for about eight years and told no one what happened. I did eventually open up, and felt a lot of relief when I did.
The second case was a job interview - I felt drained afterwards - they appeared to grill me and I felt I'd failed the interview. Imagine my surprise when they offered me a job, which I took! I regretted it on my first day. I sat down, said hello to the person next to me, she proceeded to bite my head off! I lasted 10 months and moved on. Never worked anywhere like that before (or since) - everyone just seemed hostile!
So now I try to pay attention to how I'm feeling and it seems to work better. Sometimes helps with job interview - since I've had a long career (40+ years) I've gotten a lot of experience. I can sense when I've not got the job, and sometimes when I have (but I'm a bit negative and think I've failed). I've had quite a few interesting jobs over the years.
Yep - I have been very guilty of ignoring red flags and issues which I knew were going to be negative.
Jobswise - I certainly regret being pushed to go for a managerial job - I could do the admin/planning part, but dealing with other and more senior management as a consequence was not for me. They'd ask me for my opinion and Id tell them what I thought. Turns out they wanted their ego tickling and I didn't realise.
Don't think I ever recovered from that job move and ended up leaving that entire profession. I could never find it in myself to trust again, and still struggle with that now, nearly 20 years on.
I also did not know I was autistic at the time, so there were certainly no provisions for my way of working and thinking. I was just categorised as "undermining authority" because I didn't just nod and smile.