Thursday, February 28, 2008
After a long fight to upgrade the standards of things, my tyrannical boss had her first major triumph in winning us a million dollars in funding for a major database project (and recognition by top management as a force to reckoned with). Getting money in a company struggling during these uncertain economic times is no trivial matter.
I’m impressed. In the next year of so this will mean less bull-shitting around by my team writing queries that produce some fairly basic reports (a fairly sophisticated querying tool will enable users to do this themselves) and allow us to focus on more strategic and complex analyses. This is really secondary to the fact that my boss is now in a great mood, and will focus her attention on fixing these technical things. In effect, I’m finally being left alone as she wallows in her success and in working on this big project.
For once, she comes into my office with a smile on her face. She leaves me alone as I aid the merchandising and marketing folks in their analytical needs - she’s focused on her million-dollar project. She is far less petty and involved with my day-to-day activities that have contributed to my irritation with the job.
Things are looking good (for the time being). During our bleak business outlook, I think I can be of great assistance. Patients that are healthy require very little. Now that the patient is sick, I now have an opportunity to be an asset to the company navigating through it.
Sticking this thing out would mean being a part of a team that is truly changing things. It’s time for the ER to really pull through in saving the patient. I now have a consultant working for me who is worth his weight in gold, and am getting so much more done than with the team I inherited who are now gone. I now search for more folks to build out my team and am going to be extremely particular in choosing them. I don’t want to work with mediocrity any more.
For the first time since I've joined, I’m encouraged.
