the good:
last week at work i got an email about 6:50 or so as i was about to get on the train to work. now, i really shouldn’t have my work email on my phone, but that’s another story. the email was from the head of special education for the region i live in. she said that she had called me the night before, but that she was going to be at the district office and wanted to talk. i responded that i would be around but had a meeting in the morning. when i got to work i got the voicemail leaving me her cell number and asking me to call.
later on in the day she called and said she had a break and to see if i was at my desk. i told her i’d meet her by the elevators. she got off the elevator and we went over by the window, away from all of the offices. we made a little small talk and then she asked if i was interested in being an administrator in her area. oddly enough, this was the same position that i had applied for over the summer, but didn’t get. i had done a horrible phone interview from san francisco. i told her yes and wondered why there was an opening. apparently, one of her staff had taken a similar job, but different, with the same group.
funny enough, at the end of the summer, i had been asked if i wanted to make a lateral move from district offices to her area. i said yes, but my current boss, vetoed it. they can veto any lateral moves but don’t have the same authority for promotions. she’s been trying to find a way for me to work for her and it worked out. probably a good thing i didn’t get it over the summer because it probably would have been in a different area.
she said that she was going to ask her boss if she could just hire me or if we’d have to go through the whole process. she came by later with another boss who wanted me to make a lateral move and said that she would have to refly the position. however, it seems like a formality. the other boss who wanted me to make the move said it’d be a month or two and then i’d be out of there.
we shall see. funny how things work out.
the bad:
one of my current bosses (not directly my boss now, soft of) came by the other day. the same one who vetoed my lateral move. basically he asked if i heard about a specific case about where something didn’t get done. i told him i hadn’t and when he told me, i told him i thought that was the responsibility of the areas now that we were more decentralized and they all got additional staff. apparently there was an issue with one of our data systems and it didn’t show correctly. however, on all of the documentation and data i was on charge of it did. he asked what happened. i really had no idea, my area was clean, but i couldn’t speak for other areas that i had no control over. even if i was in the other area, i had no authority. he wanted us to do some analysis (basically) what we used to do. however, now we are a much smaller group and i barely have enough time to do my work. who are we kidding…my goal each day is to be less behind. i will never be truly caught up.
i get that he thinks i do stuff, but c’mon. he is at the same level as my boss’s boss. don’t come to me with this. i asked how he thought it would get done and he said we’d have a meeting about it. ugh.
the …:
the big boss of our division emailed me the other day to ask me to see him about a project. i went and saw him a little later. apparently, he asked another group to come up with some visualizations of data and the work our division was doing. they said they couldn’t so he asked me if i could. i said i could (i hope i can) and he told me that he would give me any overtime i needed and any equipment as well. i’ll have to look at how some other divisions are doing it to get some ideas.
i emailed him back yesterday and told him i’d probably need about 20 hrs to get it started, but wasn’t sure how long it would take to maintain. really that’s just a ballpark figure. i need to work on collecting data and making sure all of the formatting is correct.
i haven’t told any of my bosses about the conversation i had, but until something happens, i don’t want to say anything to them. i told some coworkers today and i hope they keep it to themselves.
i don’t want to leave my big boss in a bind, but if the opportunity presents itself i will take it. i am going to work on it, but also try to get some other people involved who can do it if i leave.
i also do some very specific things that no one else has done so i’ll have to start training some people. it will be difficult since i’m the only person in my position in my group, but we shall see…
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