What seems like an annual thing
I have noticed over the bast 4 yrs that I tend to post the same thing around this time of year. But this year it is different. Typically I complain about how unhappy I am at work due to lack of recognition, limitations in being able to do the job I was hired to do, an empty wallet, and being emotionally and physically drained. But not this year.
At the beginning of the year management changed for me and the same and even more grandiose promises were made. For most of the year I have been struggling due to the lack of commitment to those promises.....again. We run on a fiscal year and last year no one received a raise, upper positions were changed, managers had to take on wearing even more hats and with no other compensation than a title change. I then realized we were all struggling so, in my head, I gave them until the end of July, one month after the end of the fiscal year, to come through with at least one change that they had promised me, it didn't matter which one it was.
That time came and went and nothing changed so I felt I had to make a bold move and take my career in my own hands. I told my new boss that I was between a rock and a hard place, explained why, and reluctantly expressed that though this was not what I wanted, I was looking for another job. It was a HUGE risk because I was honestly expecting to receive shortly after my pink slip. The way I felt was they may have been looking for a way to let me go, couldn't afford or justify me, and so on. But that isn't what happened.
Through weekly meetings with my new boss things started to develop without my saying a word further. A nearly completed job description was produced, a new title was presented, and a new pay grade was offered along with going from hourly to salary. Sadly I had to decline the pay offered as it was the same that I made the year prior with the overtime I accrued. Surprisingly I was asked what amount would stop me from looking elsewhere. I threw a number out there and cringed, waiting for a bad reaction, but instead she said 'ok, let me take that to HR and get back to you'......wow!
Two weeks ago they came back with a new number that was $1,240 less than my number, which I expected. I counter offered, asking if the made it an even number, increasing by only the $240, then we would have a deal. Yesterday I was told it is on the presidents desk for approval. FINGERS CROSSED!
In the mean time I have been working as though this will come through, researching new and free online tools that will help me as one trainer become many along with tools to make the system administration portion more streamlined and manageable. Emails and outstanding issues have been processed and cleaned up and new projects are those that can happen if everything is approved. Apparently I am valuable to the organization because the others that have taken such a bold step as I took did essentially receive their pink slips.
Additionally there are several big changes happening. Two directors and the Vice President decided to take up employment elsewhere this month. Not because they were upset with the society but life has simply taken them down another path. This has put management in a bit of a panic trying to cover the soon to be vacant positions but personally, I think change the is good. One of those that are leaving is my previous boss who has been the primary director of the system that I manage. This is huge for me and for the society. Now all decisions fall to me and to my current boss, who doesn't have anywhere near as much experience with the system as the VP does so ultimately, it falls to me.
I was told a few weeks ago that our relatively new president wants to make us the biggest and the best on the west coast, putting us up there with the ASPCA on the east. When the news came through that the VP would be exiting her role and that they are truly working to keep me and allow me to do what I am best at, what will excel the teams in their jobs, an amazing idea popped into my head and spit out of my mouth.
The computer system that I manage is our primary database and it is typically the first to be blamed if there are any issues, even though most of the time it is user error due to lack of official training. On several occasions a few of the higher ups have expressed, even threatened, as if that would make things happen faster, the desire to change to a different system. The VP is the one who put her foot down on this issue so in that respect, it may not be a good thing that she is moving to a different adventure in her career. Guilty by association and because most have not learned that to assume is to doom, I took the opportunity to let my current boss know where I stand on the issue, potentially allowing the information to filter up.
Our system is starting to feel a bit out of date. There are new technologies available that it seems the developers are slow to implement. For an organization that is trying to be a leader and on the cutting edge, this can be seen as a negative. I made it clear that should the current changes provoke the higher ups to start looking at employing a new system, I am not against it and I would love to be included in the search. I also reiterated that our current system, though seeming a little behind the curve in technological advances, is still the best out there, it then spilled out. I followed with, 'if that is in fact the case, and we want to be a direct ASPCA competitor, it might be worth following the footsteps of the RSPCA QLD (the developer of our current system) and build / market our own system'. GENIUS! My boss was a bit taken aback because she had assumed that because of my professional history with the current system I would be reluctant to even entertain the thought of changing.
If the changes come through in terms of my position that are now on the presidents desk, they have been set up to be implemented in just that kind of role, as if that is already the plan. All of the stars are lined up to actually make his vision happen and nothing is coincidental in business. We are the first shelter to open a highly successful kitten nursery, saving lives rather than having to euthanize because the necessary care is not there. We have a launched, though it is still in developmental stages, new behavior and training program that will soon be the leading program in our industry and in two countries. Plans are on the table to make our main campus open intake like our north campus, thus no longer refusing any animal that is brought to our front door. So why not launch this too, especially since they have someone on staff who has the experience of being there from the beginning of a similar en-devour. Someone who knows the successes and the failures to avoid. Someone who is dedicated and willing to give everything to see it succeed. That someone being me.
So it seems the trend of painful disappointing annual posts has begun to transform into something truly positive. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.
At the beginning of the year management changed for me and the same and even more grandiose promises were made. For most of the year I have been struggling due to the lack of commitment to those promises.....again. We run on a fiscal year and last year no one received a raise, upper positions were changed, managers had to take on wearing even more hats and with no other compensation than a title change. I then realized we were all struggling so, in my head, I gave them until the end of July, one month after the end of the fiscal year, to come through with at least one change that they had promised me, it didn't matter which one it was.
That time came and went and nothing changed so I felt I had to make a bold move and take my career in my own hands. I told my new boss that I was between a rock and a hard place, explained why, and reluctantly expressed that though this was not what I wanted, I was looking for another job. It was a HUGE risk because I was honestly expecting to receive shortly after my pink slip. The way I felt was they may have been looking for a way to let me go, couldn't afford or justify me, and so on. But that isn't what happened.
Through weekly meetings with my new boss things started to develop without my saying a word further. A nearly completed job description was produced, a new title was presented, and a new pay grade was offered along with going from hourly to salary. Sadly I had to decline the pay offered as it was the same that I made the year prior with the overtime I accrued. Surprisingly I was asked what amount would stop me from looking elsewhere. I threw a number out there and cringed, waiting for a bad reaction, but instead she said 'ok, let me take that to HR and get back to you'......wow!
Two weeks ago they came back with a new number that was $1,240 less than my number, which I expected. I counter offered, asking if the made it an even number, increasing by only the $240, then we would have a deal. Yesterday I was told it is on the presidents desk for approval. FINGERS CROSSED!
In the mean time I have been working as though this will come through, researching new and free online tools that will help me as one trainer become many along with tools to make the system administration portion more streamlined and manageable. Emails and outstanding issues have been processed and cleaned up and new projects are those that can happen if everything is approved. Apparently I am valuable to the organization because the others that have taken such a bold step as I took did essentially receive their pink slips.
Additionally there are several big changes happening. Two directors and the Vice President decided to take up employment elsewhere this month. Not because they were upset with the society but life has simply taken them down another path. This has put management in a bit of a panic trying to cover the soon to be vacant positions but personally, I think change the is good. One of those that are leaving is my previous boss who has been the primary director of the system that I manage. This is huge for me and for the society. Now all decisions fall to me and to my current boss, who doesn't have anywhere near as much experience with the system as the VP does so ultimately, it falls to me.
I was told a few weeks ago that our relatively new president wants to make us the biggest and the best on the west coast, putting us up there with the ASPCA on the east. When the news came through that the VP would be exiting her role and that they are truly working to keep me and allow me to do what I am best at, what will excel the teams in their jobs, an amazing idea popped into my head and spit out of my mouth.
The computer system that I manage is our primary database and it is typically the first to be blamed if there are any issues, even though most of the time it is user error due to lack of official training. On several occasions a few of the higher ups have expressed, even threatened, as if that would make things happen faster, the desire to change to a different system. The VP is the one who put her foot down on this issue so in that respect, it may not be a good thing that she is moving to a different adventure in her career. Guilty by association and because most have not learned that to assume is to doom, I took the opportunity to let my current boss know where I stand on the issue, potentially allowing the information to filter up.
Our system is starting to feel a bit out of date. There are new technologies available that it seems the developers are slow to implement. For an organization that is trying to be a leader and on the cutting edge, this can be seen as a negative. I made it clear that should the current changes provoke the higher ups to start looking at employing a new system, I am not against it and I would love to be included in the search. I also reiterated that our current system, though seeming a little behind the curve in technological advances, is still the best out there, it then spilled out. I followed with, 'if that is in fact the case, and we want to be a direct ASPCA competitor, it might be worth following the footsteps of the RSPCA QLD (the developer of our current system) and build / market our own system'. GENIUS! My boss was a bit taken aback because she had assumed that because of my professional history with the current system I would be reluctant to even entertain the thought of changing.
If the changes come through in terms of my position that are now on the presidents desk, they have been set up to be implemented in just that kind of role, as if that is already the plan. All of the stars are lined up to actually make his vision happen and nothing is coincidental in business. We are the first shelter to open a highly successful kitten nursery, saving lives rather than having to euthanize because the necessary care is not there. We have a launched, though it is still in developmental stages, new behavior and training program that will soon be the leading program in our industry and in two countries. Plans are on the table to make our main campus open intake like our north campus, thus no longer refusing any animal that is brought to our front door. So why not launch this too, especially since they have someone on staff who has the experience of being there from the beginning of a similar en-devour. Someone who knows the successes and the failures to avoid. Someone who is dedicated and willing to give everything to see it succeed. That someone being me.
So it seems the trend of painful disappointing annual posts has begun to transform into something truly positive. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.