Untouched

Hi there, Interwebs! It’s been a while.

It’s been a busy few weeks. I’m speadheading the redesign of our training program, I’m designing our performance evaluations, and I’m designing and building our tests.  I presented my evaluations project to the senior VP, who was impressed enough to enthusiastically recommend it up to his boss – and assign me another major project, one he’s been looking to start for month. He’s also pleased that my department is getting on track and producing cleaner, more timely results thanks to my organized, methodical approach. I’m hoping all this will pay off when a position opens up above me soon.

The drama on my team seems to be fading. More fun, less fighting. I decided to have them create a pledge around what kind of team they want to be: how do they want to conduct themselves, treat each other, and build their environment. So far it’s going well. There’s some resistance from the group that’s at the center of the drama, because they’re not seeing the difference between a team and a group that happens to work together. More than that, they’re not sure why they should care. So I need to sell them on that a bit more.

Other than that, there’s not tons going on. I’m having fun at work, but I feel like I need there to be more than just that going on.

 

The Desire to Crack Skulls

I take some pride in having happy, successful teams. I treat them fairly, with respect and compassion. I try to be consistent so they know what to expect and don’t feel I’m playing favorites. I try to make their work as fun and easy as possible, and I work at helping them be successful not only in their current role but in whatever career path they have in mind.

That said, I’m also a realist. I know that however they might praise me to my face, their real opinions may be widely divergent. They see it as being in their best interests to stay on my good side and keep their criticisms to themselves.

Leap Day Learning

Every so often my boss does a thing called a “skip level” – he meets with each of our teams without us to take a temperature check and see how they feel about their supervisors.  It’s a good idea. A successful business is more than just the numbers.

Predictable Chaos

The testing that I do for a living has to be pretty structured. To deliver consistent, repeatable results, we need to have a clear, documented process and follow it as consistently as possible. The further we stray from that process, the less reliable our results are. And since there’s several companies looking to our results to make their business decisions, we need to give reliable results.

My partner has a different take on this. While it’s a given that I can be more rigid and rule-bound than I need to be, and that’s something I’m learning to modify working with him, I still think there’s a lot more room for order in his approach. 

Words I’ve Never Heard

I’m uncommonly lucky. I’m white, male, and of Protestant upbringing. I work in the low-level management of a large, successful, and stable company – a job I got because I know people who like me, trust me, and recognize my potential. I’m not living the life of Riley, but I’m doing a lot better than the vast majority of the world: I don’t have to worry about where my next meal will come from or how many days I’ll have to wait for it. I can afford to keep two cats in my home just for the pleasure of their company. I drive a decent car, I wear decent clothes, and not once in my life have I ever been insulted for the color of my skin.