The Pain of Moving

There's no way around it. Life is full of stressful events. Some of these daily nuances are more of a bother and others will nag at you much longer than a spilled cup of coffee.

The top three most stressful events in life are typically documented as the death of a loved one, divorce and moving. And while I haven't conducted a formal survey, I would presume most people would prefer to move given the option of the three.

I'm choosing to be thankful as my wife and I change living quarters. At seven months pregnant, the stairs in our previous apartment were becoming an arduous climb. As we pictured carrying our newborn and stroller up and down in the months to come, we searched for a new solution.

Maybe we were naive or overly optimistic. But we were sure that we would be living at our mountain climb of a location for the pregnancy and post the birth. So, we had mixed emotions in making the decision as we loved our old home.

As we packed up our stuff and prepared for the move, we were both sad about transitioning to the new place. But the decision had been made. And while moving tends to always be a headache, this one would be extra hard as we decided to tackle it in my wife's third trimester.

We woke up early for the move only to be met with pouring rain. Unfortunately, we didn't even have keys to the new place yet. It was being cleaned, and we needed to get them from the maids prior to the moving van arriving in the afternoon.

Heavy rain in Istanbul makes it nearly impossible to get a taxi. No drivers were responding to the app. And no matter how many taxis we called, we could not get someone to come to our house. Nearly two hours of waiting had us give up. The drivers were too busy collecting customers from the main areas to bother re-routing to our neighborhood. Knowing we needed to get the keys before the moving van arrived, we made the walk in the rain to the nearest busy street.

Thankfully, it worked and we quickly arrived at our new location. But we were not met with the new home glow we were expecting post the cleaning. The maids looked frantic when we walked in as water was dripping everywhere in the kitchen.

It was pouring through a hole in the ceiling unceasingly, and they didn't seem to have any idea on what to do. Our new situation was no longer looking like the ideal move we thought it was. We now had an elevator, but we didn't have a boat!

Nervous and frustrated, we got the keys. And the long conversation began. Should we back out of this? Are we doing the right thing by moving? Are we going to need to find another place with an elevator minus the growing indoor pool?

We had a hard time deciding, but, ultimately, decided that the leak was only in the kitchen. At minimum, all of our stuff would be safe in the bedroom. In a worst case scenario, we would find another place if the landlord was unable to quickly solve the issue.

The stress of moving is real whether you have water coming out of the ceiling or not. We all enjoy the personal comforts of our homes. And when we change our location, we need to create new habits and routines for our unfamiliar environment.

While I'm happy to report, the leak was fixed the next day. We have, no doubt, spent the past week regaining our confidence in our new apartment. As in any new living quarters, we have been unpacking suitcases, boxes and writing a shopping list of items to get properly settled.

Moving positions in a career or at a company are equally stressful. While the rewards can be endless for taking a leap of faith on a new position, the first day can be frightening with or without rain. Whether there is an immediate leak in the ceiling or you just don't know where the bathroom is, your friends and family will undoubtedly ask you how your first day went.

To all managers, leaders and owners out there, please know your employee's first day is the most important day of their career. You are either going to set them up to feverishly work and accelerate their career or go looking for another job.

Just like us and our new apartment, the employee will typically stay longer than one day even if there is a leak. Regardless, each hire you make is an investment in your company. Take the time and due diligence to make sure there are no leaks in your roof prior to them joining your team. The rewards are endless for an excited employee going full speed ahead at their new position. Don't let an unsuccessful day one get in their way!

Click on the image above to purchase the sales or leadership edition of the series, The Grass Is Browner on the Other Side. They are both available on Amazon and written by the same author of this article.