Work weirdness

I haven't been posting as much lately as I used to, it seems, because there's been work weirdness going on. So, I feel I should bring the internet up to speed.

Well, where to start? A couple of things have not gone according to plan at work over the past few months - nothing major, just some niggling things that went wrong or didn't get done as quickly as they should have. In my defence, we've been overworked and short staffed, but I guess that's pretty normal! But I also have been spending too much time surfing and not enough time working. As a result of all this, the senior guy (the former big boss) started treating me like shit and made me feel miserable about coming in to work. My boss has, over the past year or so, tried to get me away from doing work for the senior guy, because he supposedly treats everyone like shit at some point, and it would be better for me if I didn't have to interract with him. It seems like the less I interracted with the senior guy, the more like shit I was treated. And I've been getting more and more miserable.

So I've been doing some navel gazing, and realized that in actual fact, I'm miserable because of the way my boss treats me, and because his work is pretty damn boring to have to do day in and day out. This is in addition to the way senior guy treated me, of course. And I just couldn't bear the thought of continuing along being bored, underperforming, being thought of as someone who made mistakes and generally being miserable. I thought I'd have to move back to the UK because I couldn't take it any more (I can't move elsewhere in the US until my green card comes through, which could be several more years at this rate). I thought I was done here.

I have also heard over the last few weeks that the big boss and the senior guy were cooking up a scheme to create a new team of people to handle some work. I would be so perfect to head this team, so let's just call it "the Sarah team" and be done with it. It has my name written all over it. Everyone else in the office who I've talked to about this has said that they didn't understand why I was not being considered for this team. But they were talking to other people about being on this team, and even about having people lower than me head the team when it's quite clear that the lower people don't have the ability to stand up to the higher-ups about some of the things that will need to be done, or the knowledge of how to do things. I was getting pretty pissed at this, and figured it was because the senior guy was so pissed at me that I was getting shut out.

Well, yesterday, I decided to do something about it. I went to talk to the big boss about me heading up the team. I explained how I was the logical choice, how it would make me less miserable, how I could work harder because I would be more motivated, how I could really whip this stuff into shape. How I could work less with my boss, because he's really irritating me, and that would make me happier. And he agreed that I was the logical choice, but that the senior guy had some issues with me, and that he wasn't sure if senior guy would go for it. And even though he is big boss now, as senior guy was formerly the big boss he still defers to him on many things. Greeeat, I thought. Now I'm really screwed. I'm going to have to leave because I cannot stand these people any more and their ineffectual non-management and self-serving crap that they pull constantly. I'm going to have to get a job in London and live in a shoebox-sized flat. I spent all last night just feeling so awful about the end of my US dream. The end of Florida. The end of my kids being US citizens. Failing at life. All of that.

This morning, senior guy came into my office and closed my door. He said he was thrilled that I wanted to head up the Sarah team, and thought it would really be a great opportunity. He said that while there had been some issues, he thought most of them were due to my boss who has been acting really weirdly, and that I would benefit greatly by not having to run so many things through my boss. We made up. He smiled. I didn't feel like a piece of shit any more. I also spoke to the big boss, who confirmed that they'd like me to head up this team. That I would be perfect, and that I could really make a go of it, and make it my niche. That I could really get out on my own and manage the team and be on a higher level from where I am now. It'll be a slow start though, as they're not going to switch everything all at once, but can I just say that I am amazed. Clearly, in this place you have to be pro-active, but I just didn't realize how pro-active you have to be to get what you need, as they would totally have bypassed me if I hadn't spoken up, yet now they're going to put me in charge of this team.

So I may not have to go back after all. :)