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livingdebToday my boss asked if I would like to attend the weekly meetings of some group with a generic meaningless name.
What's that?
It's a meeting not of the head honchos, but of the assistant honchos.
Uh, why?
So I could be in the loop and know what's going on. Only if I'm interested.
I don't think it's appropriate. Of course he might know that better than I would. But wouldn't all the assistant honchos start hating me for invading their territory?
No, they are too busy hating the fact that they have to go to a meeting on Friday afternoon.
Um, no thanks, not interested. I'm perfectly happy to let my boss catch me up after these meetings.
Later it came out that one job is opening now that might itnerest my boss, and another is opening in several months that would definitely interested him. So I finally figured out he's wanting to groom me to take his place!
That is a fabulously wonderful thing for him to do. So sad I had to explain to him that I had no interest in that job. Unless...
How much higher would my pay be? How long could one coast in that position without doing a very good job (which I wouldn't, because I don't have the skills or interest)? Long enough to save enough to retire on?
No, no, that's evil.
So, once again, opportunity is knocking, and I am not letting it in. Merely because I don't want to:
* Beg people to fix our system when it breaks, all to no avail
* Beg people to fix our system when a long-standing problem comes to light, all to no avail
* Beg people to add functionality when it is discovered that large numbers of people are using our system in ways it was never designed to support, all to no avail
* Fight and claw tooth and nail with other assistant honchos over apparently inadequate resources
* Yet somehow deal with watching the resources go not to increasing usability for someone else, but for decreasing usability for no comprehensible reason
* Put on dog-and-pony shows to remind people how great we are
* Put together a 27-point presentation on reasons why a new off-the-shelf system won't work for us, even though it's very, very pretty
* Be a yes-man
* Simultaneously, train the next me, which takes two years.
His is too much of a people job, and I really should have only data jobs. By which I mean I can handle working with problem data on a continuing basis, but not problem people.
Obviously I am too closed-minded for my own good, and I can and should learn those skills. But ick. And it would only be a small raise anyway, because they know what I'm making. And sometimes they change your title and give you no raise at all.
But I really think this is more like a distraction than an opportunity. I still want to stay focused on getting to work with academic materials.
What's that?
It's a meeting not of the head honchos, but of the assistant honchos.
Uh, why?
So I could be in the loop and know what's going on. Only if I'm interested.
I don't think it's appropriate. Of course he might know that better than I would. But wouldn't all the assistant honchos start hating me for invading their territory?
No, they are too busy hating the fact that they have to go to a meeting on Friday afternoon.
Um, no thanks, not interested. I'm perfectly happy to let my boss catch me up after these meetings.
Later it came out that one job is opening now that might itnerest my boss, and another is opening in several months that would definitely interested him. So I finally figured out he's wanting to groom me to take his place!
That is a fabulously wonderful thing for him to do. So sad I had to explain to him that I had no interest in that job. Unless...
How much higher would my pay be? How long could one coast in that position without doing a very good job (which I wouldn't, because I don't have the skills or interest)? Long enough to save enough to retire on?
No, no, that's evil.
So, once again, opportunity is knocking, and I am not letting it in. Merely because I don't want to:
* Beg people to fix our system when it breaks, all to no avail
* Beg people to fix our system when a long-standing problem comes to light, all to no avail
* Beg people to add functionality when it is discovered that large numbers of people are using our system in ways it was never designed to support, all to no avail
* Fight and claw tooth and nail with other assistant honchos over apparently inadequate resources
* Yet somehow deal with watching the resources go not to increasing usability for someone else, but for decreasing usability for no comprehensible reason
* Put on dog-and-pony shows to remind people how great we are
* Put together a 27-point presentation on reasons why a new off-the-shelf system won't work for us, even though it's very, very pretty
* Be a yes-man
* Simultaneously, train the next me, which takes two years.
His is too much of a people job, and I really should have only data jobs. By which I mean I can handle working with problem data on a continuing basis, but not problem people.
Obviously I am too closed-minded for my own good, and I can and should learn those skills. But ick. And it would only be a small raise anyway, because they know what I'm making. And sometimes they change your title and give you no raise at all.
But I really think this is more like a distraction than an opportunity. I still want to stay focused on getting to work with academic materials.