29 Apr 2010

Scribbles for today:

• On days like today, it’s very difficult to not allow your cynical side to dominate you.
• My boss had her last day at work today.  I wish I could say that it was a stress-free, happy time for her, but sadly it was not so.
• Her courage and fortitude, her internal strength, and her faith in people – especially those in positions of power and influence – were tested to the max today; I hope that she keeps a healthy supply of each by the end of her personal odyssey.
• I cannot help but share her anger, her frustration, and some of her bitterness for the cross she has to bear.  But if I know her well enough, though she feels overwhelmed at this time, she will have what it takes to come through to the other side with power and grace.  

One of the things I will associate with my former boss is butterflies.  She loves them, and once told me about part of the reason why she does:  If nothing else, butterflies have a symbolic significance.  They are born into this world, then they cocoon themselves as part of their own growth and emerge even more beautiful, even stronger and even more capable than ever.

My boss is probably in the stage of being in a cocoon.  I know she’ll emerge as a strong, graceful, beautiful butterfly by the time her tribulations and trials are done.

28 Apr 2010

Some scribbles for today:

• I’ve tried extra-hard the last couple of weeks to maintain a bit of a regular scribbling schedule for this blog, but life happened.  That is to say, I’ve been quite busy in the days between this entry and the most recent one.
• Tomorrow, April 29, 2010, is my boss’ last day here at the office.  Her team is very sad to see her leave us, but we’re glad that she has the chance to start afresh somewhere else.  
• I lose a great boss and an even better friend.
• All this week I’ve been training to learn many new duties and responsibilities that my boss originally had.  Some of these duties may seem to be above my job class.  Out of sheer necessity, though, someone in our office has to take on these duties.

All I can ask and hope for is that the management has enough patience in me as I absorb these new duties.  I can only guarantee that I’ll try to learn as quickly as possible, and that I hope make only a few mistakes on the journey to fully learning them.  I’m pretty realistic and understand that any process that entails growth will have its share of growing pains.  

I hope that the new expectations in me are matched with a corresponding degree of reasonable understanding from the management.

22 Apr 2010

Some scribbles for today:

• My boss only has five more days before she has to leave our office because she was laid off.  She has tomorrow, then four days next week.
• I’m terribly sad about it.  Not only has she been my boss, but over the last couple of years she has also become one of my best friends at the Zoo.
• As a consequence of the continual down-sizing of the staff, the remaining employees must necessarily take on more responsibilities than ever.  My boss showed  me the division head’s plans for the redistribution of duties and assignments; per the list I saw, I’ll be assuming the most in terms of new stuff to do.
• On the one hand, I’m flattered to be given a lot of new tasks and responsibilities.  Perhaps it suggests that the management believes that I’m potentially capable of taking on the increased workload.  However, on a more practical level this also means that a lot more will be expected of me, which only means more stress.
• It’s a very interesting conundrum:  Do you take pride in the idea that the higher-ups think you can do a lot for the team, or do you allow the trepidation, the fear of failure, to take over and dominate your outlook when it comes to how you view your work situation?  I honestly don’t know the answer to this question.

I think the only thing I can really do is keep an open mind about things.  You keep on doing the best you can each and every day; you give 100% when you come in, then you throttle down to 0 when you leave the office until you return the next day.  Take each new day, each new situation, as a chance to learn and grow, and keep your eyes on the road ahead.

Who knows?  Perhaps the road you’re presently on is where you’ll always want to be in; more likely, though, you’ll come upon new opportunities that might detour you from the current road, and you find yourself in a better place in the end.

Whatever else, it promises to be a very interesting ride.

Quick Slants – 9 Feb 2010 Edition

Today’s brace of quick slants:

• If you’ve been following me on Twitter (and if you haven’t been, ask me to allow you to be a follower), then you would know how unhappy I am about the fact my boss is being forced to leave our unit due to budgetary reasons.  She is a victim of the City of Los Angeles’ ongoing financial crisis, more directly the fact that she belongs to a bargaining unit that isn’t a part of a labor coalition of unions that has negotiated certain protections against layoffs for this current fiscal year.
• In truth, despite the fact that her union isn’t a part of the labor coalition, our department still had to pick and choose which employees would be sacrificed on the altar of “fiscal responsibility” (a laughable notion when associated with the leadership of this city, in my opinion).  I am very curious about the specific criteria the policy makers at my department used to justify their decisions.  It may not be my place to question the choices made; nevertheless, from my position on the sidelines there appears to be very little logic applied to the whole process.  Here’s how I’ll put it:  Why eliminate someone whose hands helped bake so many pies?
• My boss is not just a great person to work for and work with; she’s also one of the best people I know.  I say that without reservation (and with the knowledge, to a near-absolute certainty, that she will never read these words).
• No matter what else, I hope a lucky department picks my boss.  They’ll get a great asset and a wonderful addition to their team.

I have nothing more to say at the moment, except to say that my own exit strategy is being accelerated.