Wednesday, December 05, 2012

work

I was having a lot of problems at work that started August 2nd. Sparing myself from reliving that, I’ll just say it was horrible. I felt crazy and completely unsupported by management. I would have thought it was all my fault had I not had the support of the infrastructure unit and the manager that fought like hell to get me over in their group.

Very validating.

On the day I like to refer to as Black Friday, I emailed said Infrastructure manager and asked him if I should file a hostile work environment. Now, this is the guy that supported me for MONTHS during this dreadful time. His response was “do you really want to be known as the one who files a hostile work environment? Do you want to be known as Angry Tanya or Frustrated Tanya or no one wants to work with you because you might get upset?!” I just stared at the instant message dumbfounded. Really? REALLY?? I’ve worked for the state for 20 years! Do you know how many hostile work environments I’ve filed?? ZERO! That’s how many. I left the building to take in some fresh air and my walk was in a cloud. I felt fuzzy. I had 3 months of this shit and now it’s seeping in to the ‘good guys’.

When I got back, the CIO called me in to his office and his first statement was “I really don’t have time for all this drama.” Dumbfounded. Again. I wondered if I was Jack the Ripper and just didn’t see it? After about 10 minutes of talking he told me ‘effective immediately I’m putting you under Mary Smith* in Project Management’. And that’s when I just put my head down and cried. Project Management? You might as well just make me a secretary! I was pissed that I was the one being removed from a job that I loved and stuck somewhere I didn’t want to be because management would not address the real asshole. And she was never held accountable for her actions. I was the one being punished. I emailed the CIO half hour later and told him I was going home because I just could NOT stop crying.

One month later, I am dumbfounded yet again. I adore my new boss. She is smart, articulate, calm, appreciative and she is doing her best to make sure I’m happy in this job. I told her when I was assigned to her that I was sorry. Sorry that she had no choice in taking the ‘problem child’ on to her team and that I would really try to make sure she didn’t regret that. She asked me to send her a list of my strengths and weaknesses. I decided I was not going to be phony and tell her exactly what my strengths and weaknesses were:

Strengths:
Resourceful
Hard working
Able to work with all types of personalities (well, not all)
Have a fair amount of common sense
Intuitive & Insightful
Able to work & maintain multiple projects
Always open to any assignment; I never say ‘no’ (in this case, eventually)

Weaknesses:
Have too high expectations of those around me and of myself
Don’t like working in a cube
Impatient & Impulsive

Long story, medium she thanked me for that and said she would try to accommodate me. And she has. I am now the trainer for my department which will involve traveling and meeting new people constantly. And since I am brilliant with superficial relationships, I will shine.

She gave me an assignment that involved creating a newsletter announcing our new password policy. I worked on it last weekend and submitted it yesterday. The CIO left a copy of it on my desk with a note that said “Best thing I’ve seen in a long time”. That’s the same CIO that told me he didn’t have time for this drama. The same CIO that put me in a group I thought I would hate. But that CIO knew more than I did. He knew I would fit in to this team and he knew I would love my new boss. He knew so much that he told me if, after 3 months, I’m still unhappy he will GIVE me a hundred bucks.

I am high right now. I am appreciated, supported and encouraged. I like my job. I don’t feel compelled to call in sick and I would never do anything behind Mary’s back, like sneaking out early : ). She lets me be me and she makes no attempt to ‘reel me in’. To have a great manager like that is exactly what I needed.


Jamie. You can keep your hundred bucks.

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