Pulling the rug…
Ever hear the expression “Having the rug pulled out from under you”?
I’ve lived that experience more than a few times. And this time, a follow up expression comes to mind.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Why? Because I’ve recently had the rug pulled out from under me… professionally… and worse, the same exact thing, twice in a row, by the same people.
Only this time, my options are far clearer.
Without going into the reasons why, I can’t really specify details on my place of employment. The fewer specifics I mention, the more I can say about the to-ings and fro-ings and daily machination of my work life… simply because in that disconnect of details, it’s near impossible for anyone not close enough to already know the details to determine the rest.
No cloak-and-dagger stuff, just covering my ass from corporate reprisals and a nasty lawsuit. Not to mention potentially getting the sack from a job I particularly enjoy the challenges of.
Suffice to say, in just about any large conglomerate of people working together… there is an organisational structure of some kind. Villages, towns, cities, nations, companies, corporations, the military… in any of these environments, people will arrange themselves, either naturally or by design, into a hierarchy.
Town councils, government’s line management, boards of directors, the military chain of command.
At the end of the day, I have a boss, who in turn has a boss… and so on and so forth. We all have superiors to answer to, people who make decisions with more information than what we mere footsoldiers are privy to.
And when you sit back and consider it, it is how things must be. People in positions of power must be able to make the necessary decisions to achieve the goals and objectives that they are charged with achieving. From something as simple as curtailing the expenditures that provide free coffee and pastries, to something as serious as a commanding officer sending soldiers on a mission that can lead to their deaths.
I understand this… but in understanding, it doesn’t make being on the short end of those decisions any easier.
Some time ago I accepted appointment into a position at work to both backfill a vacancy and to try and learn all I needed to know to achieve permanency in that job. For the longest time I laboured in that role under a job description that was summarily dropped when the senior management of my section changed. Worse still, I then had less than six months to skill up in a new role that the vacancy I was held against was to be.
Suffice to say, when those interviews came along, it was hardly a surprise to learn I didn’t succeed. I like a challenge, and can normally handle a steep learning curve, but I’m not a miracle worker. Not to mention the fact that this particular function was very new and the chance of finding someone in this field with experience was similar to standing in an open field and catching a Snickers bar thrown from the International Space Station.
So, new position… only this time, however, senior management decided to restructure and redeploy the position I was assigned. Long story short, like something out of a Las Vegas cabaret act, the job vanished into thin air with the ‘position’ reassigned as a senior management role.
So then, finally, with my boss determined to retain my talents and skills, the last of the vacancies in our area was to be readvertised… and on the eve of that job being advertised, we find out that the entire organisation is being subsumed by another. All vacancies are put on hold and the news comes down that temporary staff and contractors will not be renewed… and that people will be reassigned summarily in the new structure.
Like I said at the start… the rug has been pulled from underneath, not twice… but three times.
And it seems that I’m the last to find out. It seems that not being an office gossip and being diligent in my work means not hearing all the rumour and innuendo that drive my place of employment.
Not. Happy. Jan.
Bad enough to have been assigned to the professional equivalent of a Siberian Gulag, to have been assigned projects that were the equivalent of swimming in the deep end of the pool with anvils tied to my ankles, especially considering the disagreeable and unprofessional ingrates I have to work alongside of… people who point blank refuse to do any work and try to dictate to me what will happen in a project I’ve been delegate authority over… but now management has removed all motivation for anyone stay.
So much for loyalty, eh?
8 years I’ve worked for this employer. As it turns out, I’ve been told you get about the same for manslaughter in this country.
But I guess I have only myself, and a sense of complacency, to blame. Friends who’ve since left have said that in staying, I’m setting myself adrift in a sea of mediocrity. My boss has said on numerous occassions that I should go somewhere where my talents can be better utilised… that in remaining here I’m not doing myself any favours, and I’m certainly not living up to my skills or my potentials.
Perhaps they’re right. The truth is that I’ve bought into the corporate party line of “there’s no better place to work”…but I also know that I like so many of the people I work with, and that not seeing them each day would leave an absence in my life that would be difficult to deal with. As much as I hate saying it, I would miss them.
However, that is not a reason to stay.
Perhaps it’s not the reason I’ve stayed… perhaps it’s confidence, or a lack of confidence when it comes to the task of selling myself to a potential employer? Perhaps it’s the change from the familiar, to the unknown?
Perhaps I’ve had it far too easy for far too long?
And perhaps, this time, I need to be pulling the rug myself?
