Lucky breaks and perfect timing

It’s not always about ability but having the right connections and walking onto the stage on time.
I think that my current position owes a lot to timing. A year ago, I shared that long road trip with the former head of the area. That meant a lead position to getting my old job. Now, there were some departures that opened up a path to a more senior position. I was in the department, able to express my preferences. So, I’m here. It’s a good role and one that sets me up for better things later on.
As with most things, timing enhances ability and inter-personal know-how.

Becoming a Corporate Somebody

My job is fairly high profile – at least internally. I’m the guy that people go to if they have a query about market information. That’s not to say that I necessarily know about all the dynamics of the industry. I’m the funnel – all market information coming into the company go through me. By inference, people expect me to understand what’s going on.

So, from time to time I get the MD walking to my desk, wanting to understand this or that. The other day, I got a call from our CEO, too.

I never really sought to be a high profile corporate person. It’s sheer luck that I found this job. It’s also lucky that I like it and apparently I’m quite competent at it.

It just goes to show that sometimes, it does fall your way.

Lost and Found

I find that working is a lot like lost and found. The joy of starting something new is the essence of being found – things couldn’t be better and the worries you once had dissipate into thin air. You have an air of confidence and possess exuberance to make a change, as if you alone held the likelihood of success or failure for any given venture. Being found is renewal.

Lost is description enough. No-one wants to be there and sometimes it’s the stage from which being found meanders to. Once found, now lost.

I started a new job and am in raptures about the world. Things are fresh and I have a will to make a difference. My main concern is avoiding getting lost again.

Shuffling Decks

More changes at work. My current manager (who has been in the seat for about six months) has been promoted. That means the big chair has been populated by two people in the last six months; both had been from other states and obviously in a holding pattern until their real seats were made vacant.

The next guy in line isn’t as brilliant a thinker as the previous two but is arguably reasonably politic. My concern is whether the Director thinks this department is really one that produces anything or is just a holding bay until he can find a box for his mates.

It doesn’t fill me with any more confidence.

The Phantom Resignation

 

I was venting, as usual, to a close colleague at work. She mentioned that one of the best ways to release the tension is to pretend that you had handed in your resignation that morning. It was supposed to free one from much of the day-to-day anxiety, as if the weight of the crap you were hauling were no longer there.

I can see a downside here. What if the resignation never really comes true?

When Friends Leave

Almost always, it’s the people you work with that stop you from canning a job you hate. It’s the fact that there are a bunch of like-minded individuals who equally hate:

1. the direction (or lack thereof) that the company is taking
2. the people at the helm who are responsible for 1.
3. their job because they have to follow orders from 2.

This work clique can be a bit of a trap at times. Perpetuating the disdain for the job can divert focus away from trying to get into a better spot and just breeds the hatred. The group’s collective purpose should be to motivate and not to foster unhappiness. I’m stuck in one of those groups now. Thankfully, a number have left, finding new jobs. This, if anything, is a great motivator. I’m one of the few that are still stuck and heaven forbid that I become the last man standing. I need to get out of this place. 

The Pensky File

I was recently given some work to do by the Hi-Pot* in our team. We’re peers but I figured that being in his good books would perhaps reflect some of his shine to my tainted career. I was wrong. Mr Hi-Pot was looking to offload the scum from his work pile. His close relationship to the Director locked me in since he had “a word” about my delivering the appropriate outcome. So, I’m stuck doing garbage and unable to escape because of the obligation to my unrepentant superior.

The scope of the project is to assess “the degree of risk” within the operation of the sales function. The first measure of which was a survey filled in by the sales team itself. I scoured through the responses only to find the the Director had over-written them. Apparently this was so that the “right” answer came up during the external audit.

There are three wrongs here: my acceptance of bad work; the palming off of said bad work by someone who should be well-intentioned; and a superior with poor integrity. It’s not good for the company.

*Hi-Pot = High Potential (also Golden Boy or the Director’s be-yatch) 

The Beginning

Yes, 25368 is my employee number.

Yes, I’m trying to hide my identity.

Yes, I work in corporate job that I hate.

I am angry, despondent and frustrated all at once.

I know I have choices to make. Writing this is one of them.