Saturday, May 26, 2007

Goodness, what a week

and for once, I'm not being sarcastic. It really was a great week! Along the way there was some rain, and the vaguely annoying, vaguely exciting process of trying to dash 12 miles home on a scooter that does 35 mph in between torrential downpours that cut the power at work, brought down some tree limbs all over town, and flooded a few underpasses and entrance ramps. 30% chance of rain my ass. In case it wasn't clear from this post's existence, I made it home safely, and honestly, not even all that wet. I've ridden in much wetter. Of course, if I'd been caught out 30 minutes earlier, I'd have probably drowned... so good thing number one.

Good thing number two, is huge: I finally got my promotion and raise. Both of you, my loyal readers, may remember my random work venting posts from a few months back (it shouldn't be that hard, I've hardly posted anything since). The outcome, which I see now I never did post, was a great success. The inservice day was lauded as a great triumph, much fun was had, and the internal bickering of our work team was in no way apparent to the agency at large. Our workgroup got the spotlight in a big way, with two notable outcomes - P the annoying slacker whose broken body we were on the verge of burying secretly in Swede Hollow found himself OFF the team, reallocated to a different unit because there wasn't enough impetus or actual evidence to fire him outright. May he enjoy counting down his days to retirement somewhere well out my sight and hearing.

The other outcome was that my annual review was a huge ego-stroking pat on the head, with a recommended promotion and raise. Which has taken a full eight months to process, with one thing and another. There was an issue with selecting the right title and grade for the position so that P couldn't use his union seniority to bump back into it once his reassignment was up. There was the prolonged position rewrite, which ultimately I had to do myself, since my supervisor spent several weeks out with a back injury and surgery. There was political jockeying and budget pressure, with the post-election reassignment of commissioners, deputy commissioners, and "budget experts" within the administration. There was me applying for a couple of competitive positions with other agencies, because damn, people, how long is this going to drag out? I'm almost up for my next annual review, already! But, at long last, everything has been signed, sealed, date-stamped, and delivered, and I am now an Administrator Senior, with an 11% raise. I think I mentioned back in March that a lot had happened since my final post of 2006 in October, and this is mostly what I was talking about. Now that it finally has some resolution, I guess it's worth posting after all.

So, onto number three...About the same time that this was happening last week, my supervisor pointed out the application deadline for the state's leadership academy - a program designed to build new managers and supervisors to fill the voids left by baby-boomer retirement. The deadline to apply was yesterday. I hadn't planned to apply this year, because the next few months are going to be crazy busy, and last year I didn't get in, since most of the 30 slots available went to state employees who are already managers or supervisors. Which may be the most succinct explanation of state bureaucracy you'll get from me.

So, yesterday, I pulled out last year's application and revised it, and got my two letters of recommendation, and turned the whole thing in. It is a better application than last year, because I have a much more focused idea of what my role in the department is, and more importantly, what it could be. It's not a slam dunk by any means, but my supervisor wrote a great letter of recommendation, and while this is also not a slam dunk, I think I see who he and his boss hope will replace him when he retires in 10 months. But I'm not going to say it out loud, and I think I'll quick knock on wood for even thinking it to myself.

So, all in all, a good week. I didn't go into education thinking it was a good way to make a lot of money, and it has been a struggle for much of the past 15 years, even though I love what I do. Finally making grown-up wages for what I do is tremendously validating, and seeing how the choices I've made have opened up the type of career I've been trying to build all along is really rewarding. Keep your fingers crossed!

The capper, of course, is that the great week has a three-day weekend. Woohoo!

By the way, this week's video has absolutely nothing to do with anything. But I thought it was hilarious.

2 comments:

Grouchbutt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grouchbutt said...

Aw, crap. I frakked up my comment. I meant 'Good luck with Starfleet Academy.'

Glad to hear things are going so well for you. You deserve it. Now that you're an Administrator Senior, does that mean you get to wear ruffles on your blouse?

(Sorry - I'm still purging all that Are You Being Served? I took in a few weeks back.)