Opportunity Crocks
Jul. 20th, 2005 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsI know that sometimes there's things that happen in the workplace when there's a committee that's truly useless, but they have to show that they are doing something something to sort of justify their existence. One of our groups is all about promoting career development, promotions and cross training between the different departments, so with this in mind they have scheduled a large career fair tomorrow.
The only problem is that we have a hiring freeze going on.
So we're having an event over in the hotel that's a couple of buildings down from ours (and close to the new Lakewood Church, that now occupies the old Compaq Center arena), that will feature hot dogs and pretzels and some sort of career/country fair theme. To somehow get around the fact that no one can actually use this event to move up, or get a new position anywhere in the company, its being advertised as a "resource fair" so you can learn about the mysteries of other areas of our division. Guess what, I've worked here for six years and ran division-wide meetings with all of the senior vice presidents, I certainly am not the target for this.
As for my team, they are about as thrilled as I am. Now there are some on the team that are looking for an opportunity to move on with their careers, either at the company or elsewhere. Since I feel the same, I really don't have a problem with this, and really, I worry about those who don't have a desire to try to achieve something more than what they are doing now. I encourage them to achieve, and if there was something positive to get out of this, making connections and looking for opportunities, then this would be a good deal, but since they are just as stuck as everyone else, it's a waste of time.
It's also a waste of money as we lose productivity when people go to attend the fair, we rent the ballroom at the hotel, and we spend money feeding everyone once again. this in a time where we are cutting jobs through attrition and cutting overtime. Things are good.
Of course even though I'm not supposed to work overtime, and am not getting paid for it, I can't seem to help ending up working late. It sucks. It feels like the year or so that they actually had me on salary and they worked me harder because it didn't cost them a cent more. That's the year i was working until nine at night, making 12 hour days. That year sucked. At least now I'm not going in on weekends, but i can't seem to get out of the office before seven, and hour and a half late.
So much for the extra spending money for San Francisco.
Also at work, I was finally told who won the big lottery to be my new manager. As you may guess, I couldn't apply to move up to the position due to the hiring freeze, so another group was collapsed and Ed, one of two managers will move over to take Lisa's place. Am I a little unhappy about this? Certainly. I know a lot more about what my team does than anyone else in the company, including our senior vice president (by her own admission) but I can't even be considered for the job, plus I'll have to train Ed on just what we do.
The funny thing is that Ed was in college and a part-timer when I started with the company, and I helped him get his licenses. He's a good guy, and actually one of the first people I came out to at work. He became an manager when he took a leap and I didn't to work on more project-oriented subjects, rather than playing the games to try to leapfrog others. Truly the teams and the work I've done is much more significant. It's not a boast, it's just the way the opportunities landed.
Still, I would have preferred to have the chance to run this on my own...perhaps with manager in absentia, if necessary. it certainly wouldn't have hurt my feelings, but i couldn't seem to convince my senior Vice President of this, so now I have to figure out how to instruct Ed on why it looks like we don't actually look productive, but actually end up doing more than many other teams.
Of course my team isn't helping when all they have been doing lately is talking about hurricanes that crash into Mexico and going out to play golf again.
The only problem is that we have a hiring freeze going on.
So we're having an event over in the hotel that's a couple of buildings down from ours (and close to the new Lakewood Church, that now occupies the old Compaq Center arena), that will feature hot dogs and pretzels and some sort of career/country fair theme. To somehow get around the fact that no one can actually use this event to move up, or get a new position anywhere in the company, its being advertised as a "resource fair" so you can learn about the mysteries of other areas of our division. Guess what, I've worked here for six years and ran division-wide meetings with all of the senior vice presidents, I certainly am not the target for this.
As for my team, they are about as thrilled as I am. Now there are some on the team that are looking for an opportunity to move on with their careers, either at the company or elsewhere. Since I feel the same, I really don't have a problem with this, and really, I worry about those who don't have a desire to try to achieve something more than what they are doing now. I encourage them to achieve, and if there was something positive to get out of this, making connections and looking for opportunities, then this would be a good deal, but since they are just as stuck as everyone else, it's a waste of time.
It's also a waste of money as we lose productivity when people go to attend the fair, we rent the ballroom at the hotel, and we spend money feeding everyone once again. this in a time where we are cutting jobs through attrition and cutting overtime. Things are good.
Of course even though I'm not supposed to work overtime, and am not getting paid for it, I can't seem to help ending up working late. It sucks. It feels like the year or so that they actually had me on salary and they worked me harder because it didn't cost them a cent more. That's the year i was working until nine at night, making 12 hour days. That year sucked. At least now I'm not going in on weekends, but i can't seem to get out of the office before seven, and hour and a half late.
So much for the extra spending money for San Francisco.
Also at work, I was finally told who won the big lottery to be my new manager. As you may guess, I couldn't apply to move up to the position due to the hiring freeze, so another group was collapsed and Ed, one of two managers will move over to take Lisa's place. Am I a little unhappy about this? Certainly. I know a lot more about what my team does than anyone else in the company, including our senior vice president (by her own admission) but I can't even be considered for the job, plus I'll have to train Ed on just what we do.
The funny thing is that Ed was in college and a part-timer when I started with the company, and I helped him get his licenses. He's a good guy, and actually one of the first people I came out to at work. He became an manager when he took a leap and I didn't to work on more project-oriented subjects, rather than playing the games to try to leapfrog others. Truly the teams and the work I've done is much more significant. It's not a boast, it's just the way the opportunities landed.
Still, I would have preferred to have the chance to run this on my own...perhaps with manager in absentia, if necessary. it certainly wouldn't have hurt my feelings, but i couldn't seem to convince my senior Vice President of this, so now I have to figure out how to instruct Ed on why it looks like we don't actually look productive, but actually end up doing more than many other teams.
Of course my team isn't helping when all they have been doing lately is talking about hurricanes that crash into Mexico and going out to play golf again.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 12:29 am (UTC)They used to do nonsensical things like that.
It used to hurt my head just thinking about it.
You have my complete sympathies.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 11:45 am (UTC)First it was things like free lunch, then they rented an ice cream truck and bought us all ice cream, etc.
After a while, we knew the company was getting a divorce. Our parents (owners) were giving us the gloss-over treatment. Don't notice that over here. Look at the pretty candy.
Management tends to not budge on things. I found that a lot of time when I worked at SLU, the way I had to get things done was "on bet" or "on trial". For example, if I needed to purchase something, I'd get what I needed and offer it up. I'd get denied. I'd then find something wholly overpriced and then offer to use the first one as only a trial. Then they'd agree and it would work exactly as I expected.
Good luck with Ed. You could always refuse to train him given that you are so busy... :P