The Lateral Dance
This is the view out the window nearest to my cubicle at work. It’s a nice view, rather relaxing, actually. In the winter the Canadian Geese fly over. The pond is teeming with fish and turtles. Watching the spring thunderstorms come in from the west is especially spectacular.
The land, picked was once owned by Ross Perot, and what remains of his ranch is next door where there are cattle, horses, and for some reason, a camel. Our tract of land has a pasture up by the state highway where our small heard of longhorns stay. It’s a tax write-off, and we get government money for “farming.” Our building is hugs, and holds about 3500 office workers. A new building that will hold another 1500 is being built and should be full when it opens in 2009. This given that there’s no large economic downturn, of course.
I’m going to lose this view on Monday as I’m moving to a new desk and a new role. The desk is only a few feet away from my old one, but faces away from the lake and is a long way away from the windows on the other side of the building. If I could, I’d likely stay in my current desk, but since I’m switching teams, the desk goes with it.
I’ll also miss sitting next to my co-worker Sean who’s always good for a joke and understands my humor. He’s also the only one in my immediate area who seems to understand that I’m gay and I live with a guy name Chris, not a girl. I talk about Chris occasionally, but don’t make a big issue about it, preferring to keep my private life mostly private. The woman behind me who took the desk vacated by Sourpuss a few months back hasn’t caught on at all, and often asks me about my wife. Since she’s a preacher’s wife I just choose not to go into it. I’m thinking the husband’s ministry isn’t that successful as she seems to be the main breadwinner.
There’s other things I won’t miss, including the lady who talks about missing her little girl all day as she works here, and the woman who, when stressed always shouts “Lord Help Me Jesus!” She’s a bit annoying. There’s a lot of talk and craziness over here, and many people wasting their time more than I do, and they wonder why they can’t produce the numbers I can. They worry about their jobs, but there seems to be few repercussions for they lack of effort, so I think they have it rather good.
The only known problem with my new desk, besides the lack of view (I plan on printing the picture of the lake and placing it in front of me) is the fact it’s only two cubicles over from the loudest sneezer on the floor. She sneezes with an “Hhheeee-Hooo!” that is both high-pitched and projects down the halls well. She can be heard at the far end of our wing, some 150 yards away. Think of a Michael Jackson ad-lib, followed with “sham-on!” and you’ll kind of understand the sound she makes.
Like I said, the reason for the move is that I’m changing job functions and teams here. It’s a lateral move, so there are different responsibilities, and supposedly a more difficult job, but no extra benefits to moving. I’m just hoping it will work into my strategy of getting noticed, gaining more skills and eventually getting promoted. My attempts to try to get a higher position in this company - which has been more times than I’ve documented in this journal, have all seemed to fall flat. I was even told by my manager, my lack of time with the company has cost me opportunities, including the team trainer job I was up for last month.
So I’ll be working with mutual fund transfers. They think because I worked for a mutual fund company before I have more insight than others do, but really, it has not been that helpful. The systems used here are different than those I used back at AIM. Still, I don’t have to be trained in the lingo and I can talk to other fund companies with an ease that someone new to the position may not have.
The job is a specialization of the one I’m leaving. It’s a little more detailed, and a little more digging to be done to get the job done right. I’ve been helping out the mutual fund team for a while on a lending basis, so it just became natural that I would move into the role full time. The thing I’ll miss most about the old work is that it was always something different as they gave me different files to work on. I became quite versatile here, known as the guy who could work any file. Now I won’t get as much variety of work, so I know that will quickly become a drag.
My thought is this new position, like the old, is a temporary thing. I know I’m made for better, and I will keep trying to put my name and hat out for new positions, hopefully in management. When I was first hired, I was told I had to stay in the job for a year before I could move to a new position. A month before the year was up I was already applying. I have not been told that there is a restriction holding me back from going after other positions now that I’m in a new job, so I’m going to play dumb and keep applying. The operations group is the hind-end of the company and I think it would be good to get out of here, or at least move up. This fall I’ll also start looking at other area employers to see if I can do better. Heck, I have a Series 7, I should be using it!
It’s time to move forward, even though it’s not quite the leap I would like at this time (and I’d like to be earning about $10,000 more a year, too), but it’s what I have to go on right now. I guess I was spoiled by the job at AIM were there were leaps more than steps forward. I want the same here.
The only way to earn more at the moment is to work a lot of overtime, and since I’m averaging 50 hour work-weeks all this year, I’ve made a little extra cash. I don’t see that the overtime situation will change much with the new job, so you’ll likely find me here on most Saturdays. What a life.
Still, it’s time to move, at least just to get away from “Lord Help Me Jesus!” and her inquiries if I want to go to a Men’s Ministry night at her church - one that has free prostate exams for men 40 and over. There’s just something wrong there.
It's a small change, but at least I'm not stagnant. Little progresses, little changes. One thing about business now is that those who don't accept change get left behind.
I'll miss the view, though.