One Managers Journal

This is the real life journal of a manager I know. To read what this is all about, start here.

To comment on these entries, or ask questions, go to the Management Forum and post in the folder titled "Journal".

Number 9

I really do get by with a little help from my friends. After agonizing over the betrayal and total confusion I felt after the unveiling, I decided to take my own advice - GET OVER IT! But not without a diplomatic and honorable counter attack.

So I pulled together my project portfolio, past performance reviews, letters and accommodations from peers, managers and customers, and my resume. Then I talked to other people to find out how they felt about the list itself, how the decisions were made (nobody's exactly sure), their new duties, etc. I just wanted to be sure that my own feelings weren't based on anything personal -- like jealousy or unhealthy competition. As it turns out, everyone felt the same way I did -- some stronger than others.

So, I scheduled a meeting with management, gave myself a pep talk and prepared to defend my position and get the THE LIST changed. While I wanted to defend myself, I didn't want to appear on the defensive, so I took some time to really assess the plan we'd been presented. Surely, there's something here that I can get enthusiastic about...something I can find (or make) interesting and challenging. And there were; several things in fact. But I still wanted my "day in court."

Well, by the time I arrived for my meeting, I learned that over the course of two or three days, enough of my peers had already questioned my apparently diminished role in the more critical areas of the plan, that management had revised the list in my favor. I should be celebrating, but I'm not. This victory is rather bittersweet.

On the one hand I'm proud that my peers immediately questioned the plan on my behalf. I'm ecstatic that management was quick to address these concerns and I get to do the things I'm best at and most interested in doing. But I'm a little leery about why any of this was even necessary.

Why was the plan designed this way? Why wasn't the employee's input more heavily weighed (not at all in many cases)? What was the role of our dynamic duo (the two team leaders) in all of this (they are in on all the PLUM projects -- together...joined at the hip)? I have more questions than answers and until I get some answers, it's going to be difficult to jump for joy.

More on THE LIST later. Right now, I'm wrestling with a beautiful and terribly silly little girl on my lap. It's nearly one hour past her bed time. Sunday night's are hard for both of us. I have to go back to a job I'm no longer quite comfortable with and she has wind down from a weekend packed with activities she won't even remember past next week.

Continued.......

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