Mike is leaving next week :'( Caution: work rant
I have been crying about this situation so much.
This is the only time I have been truly upset at this job. There has been times that I have been told no or someone has not agreed with me. That has not upset me as much as Mike is leaving next Friday on his birthday.
I will talk about this good this month but I have to let this out. Don't get me wrong I have not lost any interest to have fun and spend time with friends, family and Paul. I have been more anxious than depressed. I am truly disappointed that the BOS did not support Mike being a Town Manager. I understand completely Mike applying and interviewing at Boxborough and Middleborough. I mean hello how about my last employer's situation with Fran being terminated and targeting me to be terminated next. Fran, one of the best HR professionals that I have worked alongside with Mike, Julie Burke, and Dan Briggs.
Plus the BOS wanted to restructure Mike's position to be just a HRD and reduce his pay. Jeez fucking christ every place has its strengths and weaknesses. Even though this is going on, I still like working here. I do have the support and backing of Bill, the Town Manager. Christina and I do not even acknowledge each other anymore.
Her and I have our differences. She has felt targeted because she feels no one knows what she does. However she hoards so many projects/tasks, and Mike, Bill, and I met with her to work on this. She was not having it. Mike and I wish that we terminate months ago. Even before this, Katie and I met about what Christina has control over. I presented this to Mike about the after math, what needs to happen to continue the organization being consistent, and who needs to take over what. I also asked him do we have documentation before we do this? Yes he does and he has shown me the layout of his office just in case I need to refer to anything and show the new HRD. But it decided that Christina was going to send a weekly report to Mike about what she was working on. I mean hello I send reports to Mike about worker comp & IODs and recruitment. He is the HRD and Assistant Town Manager (ATM), lol. They need to know what you are working on for your job. I had to generate many reports (orientation, terminations, active employee reports, and per request reports) at NESH and send to Julie and Mary Beth in the past. I didn't think it was micromanaging. It's all data that the organization needs to know and plus HRDs have to present this stuff at meetings. It is good to know what everyone is working on because you get perspective and the supervisor can say good job or maybe save that task for a rainy day. Plus it helps if someone tries to offload a project/task onto you even though you have to work on your main deadlines, priorities, and duties. Mike asked Christina if she wanted to work from home to focus anything she needs to prioritize but she decline it. So we have tried to get her solutions but she is not having it.
She has not liked me because a few reasons. She has been talked to about her tardiness and she threw me under the bus stating that she noticed that I have been late too. So Tricia has suggested to me to be on time to say "Screw her!," to Christina. Lol I love her! I know I need to be on time especially with new management coming in. After being in these types of situations, I do not care about who is on time because I have been on scrutiny on this topic. Do you do your job? I stay later to get things done. Something Fran and I have the same outlook on. I do get it from an employer stand point on how it shows your loyalty to the organization, the patrons, and the employees.
She has not liked some of my graphic design. However I have not asked her to help on my graphic design because she is by herself upstairs. She has some of Katie's responsibilities/duties while Katie is away. The last time she was mad at me. I get it because I did not communicate to her that I was all set. She wanted to add me to our Survey Monkey account. I spoke with Mike on this. I asked Christina and the Planning department on this account. I came to the solution that I should have my own account due to the sensitivity and nature of what I need to ask folks.
So yeah it is a lot of trivial stuff. Every place that I have gone to has their weird quirks. For example, Luis at my last job was pissed because he was the first person to be copied. However we have a lot of information to communicate in a short amount of time. We do not mean to come off insensitive at all. We do care but we do have other pressing matters to attend to.
Katie and I get along but she won't be back until December from maternity leave. Her and I have the mentality of get the job/task/project done and ask questions if we do not understand. We chit chat to say hi and coordinal to one another.
To reduce my anxiety about this situation, Bill and I have screened about 8 applicants. We narrowed it down to 5 to meet with him, Mary Beth, and Leah Gibson. Ooof I don't like her! She is one of the main reasons that Mike is leaving. She finds that Mike is not Town Manager. Fucking BULL SHIT! He has a lot of the qualifications for the fucking position. When Bill was giving a speech about Mike and I had a High Noon, I looked right at Leah and said wow he has worked here for 12 years. Also when I said good night to Mike and his beautiful/nice wife Janis, I accidentally bumped into Leah. I did apologize to her but I feel like a part of me subconsciously (Freudian slip as Mike said) wanted to do that to her. I know in time these feelings will dissolve and life will go on. From everything I have experienced in my 20 years of working from retail, software, manufacturing, healthcare, staffing and now municipal.
It's surreal with having Mike's resignation letter and going to his farewell/best wishes party. It was a nice party. I had Paul come along with me. He wanted to meet some wrestlers instead but he went to go with me because this event meant a lot to me. :') He got to meet some of my work colleagues which was nice to see them outside of work.
What did Mike teach me? As I cycle through this emotional process and change, I have been trying to figure out what he has taught me. I think I am just so caught up in the moment of this, getting things ready for an employee engagement activity and improving & figuring out how to navigate through the new payroll change form system.
He taught me how things are done at Foxborough. He taught me how essential everyone is including Human Resources especially with getting me to full-time status. He taught how some of the departments are taught and how their unions are connected. He taught me how unions and CBAs are peace keepers between management and the union. He taught me more humility in Human Resources by being understanding, patient and supportive to each department even I do not see eye to eye with them. I am going to miss him as he has taken time to listen to me if I felt lost or overwhelmed on the job. He has given me constructive and positive feedback, most of it has been positive feedback. I know I felt a little overwhelmed in the beginning of the job because it was new and being on a part-time basis was difficult to keep up. I was trying to learn the job, ask questions to Mike, help him with some employee relations, keeping up the recruitment, filing, and the IODS/worker comps. Now I am trying to work on employee engagement, complete the onboarding software and the PAF process within DocuSign. I definitely am getting anxious and acknowledge that it will be an adjustment period.
My mom and dad told me and Paul that they will be getting surgeries done next month. My mom is going to get a node out of her lung. She said she will be staying at the hospital for 24-48 hours. My dad is getting hernia removed and it will only be a day surgery. I am not too worried about them even though I hope nothing goes wrong for them. I love them however I trust the medical professionals. Paulie and I will help them on whatever they need. They said that they don't need us to take any time off of work which I do have the time off of work if they do need me.
Ok onto the good in life.
Paul and I ended being Pee Wee Herman and Ms. Yvonne for Halloween. We had a blast at our annual Halloween party. I loved the Hocus Pocus, Stranger Things, and everything in between. Paul's costume was the easiest. He got a Pee Wee Herman mask, red bow tie, and he had the gray suit. I got the pink dress from Savers which was in an XL plus it was a David Bridal dress for $6 and alternations were $20. It was great to see our friends. Rosie and Scott stopped by even though she was not feeling well. They brough Mooney and Jojo. Everyone was happy to see the puppies. <3 Ashlei, Chris, and Sinead won the Halloween costume contest as the Hocus Pocus characters: Sarah Sanderson, Mary Sanderson, and Binx. Dave Lang was in 2nd place as Eddie Munson from Stranger Things. Paulie and I will watch the show again.
Kat and I went to a vampire themed circus which was cool. Then we talked about what's going on with her lives and vented.
Abby and I hung out last night and watch Hereditary. Paul went to a GWAR show with Adam. I am glad that we have separate plans. It is good for our relationship.
Tonight we are going to see Brian and Bry for Brian's birthday. We got our massages at 2:15PM. As Abby says this is a self-care weekend for me.
Paul and I got our shots (4th COVID shot & flu) done. I am looking forward to celebrating our anniversary for 7 year of marriage and 13 years of being together. We are going to go out to Hemmingway's in Providence. It sounds fancy!!