Thanks to all of you I have leaned on for help in the job search; so far no changes to report, though I did go on some interviews before Christmas. It did not work out, but I am happy I did not get the offer. I don't think I could have worked for the hiring manager, so I was relieved that he didn't want me either. It prevented me from having to say no to him.
I was asked by several folks over the Christmas Break if I had quit. I think my initial eMails out made it seem like I did leave, but I am still working at 3M. My job has changed, so that now I am doing a fraction of what I was doing (and it just happens to be the part of my job I didn't like), but I did not quit. I am pretty bad when I don't have much to do at work; I am even worse when I don't have a job at all. I admire the folks who can quit with nothing lined up. I wish I had their confidence.
I did, however, suggest that my job should be eliminated. Twice actually. Once to HR and once to our Director. The first time I brought it to HR, I think I caught her off guard. She suggested that if I was unhappy, that I look to further job training on 3M's expense, like getting an MBA. Thanks - been there done that, but let me know if you want to pay for the one I got, retroactively. The second time for the Director, I prepared a better story. It actually started out on another topic; with our reorganization, I could see a problem emerging that I was trying to prevent. From there it led to a discussion of my responsibilities. I shared with them my calculation of how much of a person is needed for my job. It ranged from (1) Full Time Equivalent (FTE) to 0.3 of a person. It was dependent on how some tasks were broken up and that was being generous. With the problem of the meeting being resolved, my responsibilities were on the low end of the scale, so I looked at my director and suggested since there was not much for me to do that my job should be eliminated.
It was one of those moments I didn't realize what I was saying until it was said, but even after I said it, I wasn't really worried. He had not thought of this as an option. I brought this up to him, so obviously, he was not prepared to can me on the spot. He did not take offense to my suggestion, but I think he was caught off guard. I didn't say anything offensive; I brought it up like any other decision we have to make on a daily basis, this one just happened to be surrounding my future employment with Mother Mining comp. In reality, all I said was I could be doing much more than my current role and that he should give me more responsibilities. No manager could take offense to that.
As it turns out, I didn't get let go. In fact everyone in the meeting took it in turn to say what a value I was to the organization (doing what, I am not sure), and then after the meeting each one stopped by my office to reassure me one on one that there was a role for me here and that I was necessary within the division. I really appreciated this (whether or not I believe it), and I give my new boss a lot of credit for trying to work with me to find a way to make this job more substantial. In the end, though, nothing has changed so far and I have my doubts anything will for me here.
It did raise an interesting situation for me. I had just told my boss, the director, and everyone else reporting to the director that I think I should be fired, and they didn't do it. To me, this brings up the intriguing possibility that there is not much I can't do or get away with at work right now. Outside of committing a criminal act, I don't think I can be fired. I don't have enough responsibilities to be incompetent, and with the limited budget I have I can't cause major damage to our financials. I show up late, I leave early, I check my fantasy football team (or rather I checked - d@mn crappy team! Just wait till next year!). I am getting to the gym a lot more and I am catching up on eMails to friends. What work I have to do is getting done. I am actually making up projects for myself to do, as I have very little to officially do. I put together my plan for 2008 last week. If I worked at it hard, I could finish all my goals for the year by April - maybe March if I applied myself. In any event, I will be short of activities, which will be fun for a while, but it could soon lead to mischief.
Ahhh, the new year abounds with possibilities.....
No comments:
Post a Comment