Honoring my accomplishments

I’m backdating again. I just wrote and published three entries as if I hadn’t suddenly fallen off the edge of the blogging planet.

I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be able to keep up the blogging now that I have a job that actually requires me to work all day. I started the blog when I had a job without very much work (which naturally led to me being laid off) and then nearly three months of unemployment. There were days when just writing a blog entry was accomplishment I was proud of.

I already miss those days! If I could do whatever I wanted, I’d live in a villa on the Amalfi coast and write. I guess it gives me something to work towards, eh? So, I apologize for getting behind, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep blogging. I especially love comments, even the ones that tell me I’m being a judgmental twat.

I started the new job a week ago and it was in chaos the minute I walked in the door. A month behind schedule, and no clear leadership, I was being “trained” by a woman who considered project management to be running reports and setting meetings. She taught me how to upload documents to the extranet and fill out my timesheet like I was starting an after-school job. She’s off to get her MBA at a fancy school and in seven days didn’t think it necessary to explain anything about the actual project.

After a week of inserting myself into meetings and discussions, I took charge. So just as I gained control of this thing, I got my exit schedule negotiated with the two companies (basically I’m working every single day and somehow moving with no time off to accommodate the old and new bosses' vacation schedules). What’s wrong with this picture? I hate that the individual is made to feel so bad for quitting, as if it’s personal, but when we get laid off it’s just business.

Today I had a kick-ass day managing this project myself and people have taken to me being in charge and are reporting to me in a way that I never saw them do with the woman I’m replacing. And I’ve learned quite a bit, like about how data is ingested and what a data model is. My predecessor just wasn’t interested. She’s not a hands-on manager like me. This project will be on a smooth track to production when I leave and I’m pretty proud of that.