Stress Relief
I have had an issue hanging over my head for about two weeks. I finally got rid of part of the stress today. There will still be stress but not for all of the same reasons.
My job, like many other jobs is being looked at more closely by management because of what the economy is doing these days. The president of the company has told management that dead wood needs to be cleaned up. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't see myself as dead wood, but, we need to make sure that we don't even look that way to those in management. Now, for the issue.
Tickets to the Taylor Swift concert were made available to me as an employee. I had to pay for them, but it was a pretty good deal for me to be able to get tickets in the company suite for this event. I jumped on it because we thought it would be a good gift for our daughter on her birthday (it was). When I went up to pick up those tickets I talked with the Presidents secretary for a little bit. The conversation started out with her telling me to enjoy. I told her I was too old, that these were for my daughter. She then said I'm not that old. I said I was old enough to have a heart attack. She started asking me questions about that and about the other two in my department that had the heart attacks. I was up there for about 15 minutes.
At two points the president came out of his office. I asked him about a break I had heard he had in his water line on the first one. On the second one he asked his secretary to come into his office when she got a minute. We were done with our conversation anyway and I left.
A couple of days after this, we were all sat down in smaller groups and told that the President (without naming names) told my boss that an IT person had spent two hours talking with his secretary. My first thought was that this wasn't me because I knew I hadn't been there for two hours, but everything seemed to be that it was me. I went to my boss and told him that I had talked to her for about 15 minutes, and I may be the culprit, which I hate to think the president would think that was two hours because it doesn't put me in a good light at all. Well, from that point I had the extra worry. Would I be seen as the dead wood because of something like this? I didn't tell my wife about it because one of us worrying was plenty. I didn't want her to worry, especially as she is approaching her 50th birthday (tomorrow).
Yesterday I went to a meeting that all employees were requested to go to on how to handle irate people. It was a safety meeting. The secretary was in that meeting. As we were walking out, she approached me and said, "Sorry if I got you in trouble". I told her that she hadn't, but I had worried about it. She told me that she had gone to the VP over us and told her that I hadn't talked to her for two hours, that it was 20 minutes tops, and that she felt she had initiated it. Well, now I knew it was me. That didn't make me feel a whole lot better. Since I knew it was me, I felt I could go talk to Debi (the VP). She wasn't available that day, but this morning she contacted me as soon as she got in. I went and talked to her about it all.
Debi did a lot to belay my fears. She said that the Presidents secretary had talked to her and basically what she had told me she told Debi. This would not be a factor in any decisions about me staying or going if it comes down to that. Debi is trying to help us all keep our jobs by telling the truth about our jobs. If they get rid of one of us in IT, then the departments all suffer because somebody else has to add to their already overloaded workload. There is also some training that would have to go into that. While claims and policy holders are down, that doesn't effect the work of the IT department, and indeed more just keeps on coming at us. If they dump any one of us (we all have specialized areas of work), timelines will not be able to be met that have been given on the roadmap. Anyway, I certainly hope nobody in my department is laid off. Being laid off is a terrible thing. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I am also hoping that the economy has bottomed out now (as they are suggesting it may have) so it has nowhere to go but up.
Anyway, we'll see what happens. I had some relief tonight from that extra stress and it felt sweet.
My job, like many other jobs is being looked at more closely by management because of what the economy is doing these days. The president of the company has told management that dead wood needs to be cleaned up. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't see myself as dead wood, but, we need to make sure that we don't even look that way to those in management. Now, for the issue.
Tickets to the Taylor Swift concert were made available to me as an employee. I had to pay for them, but it was a pretty good deal for me to be able to get tickets in the company suite for this event. I jumped on it because we thought it would be a good gift for our daughter on her birthday (it was). When I went up to pick up those tickets I talked with the Presidents secretary for a little bit. The conversation started out with her telling me to enjoy. I told her I was too old, that these were for my daughter. She then said I'm not that old. I said I was old enough to have a heart attack. She started asking me questions about that and about the other two in my department that had the heart attacks. I was up there for about 15 minutes.
At two points the president came out of his office. I asked him about a break I had heard he had in his water line on the first one. On the second one he asked his secretary to come into his office when she got a minute. We were done with our conversation anyway and I left.
A couple of days after this, we were all sat down in smaller groups and told that the President (without naming names) told my boss that an IT person had spent two hours talking with his secretary. My first thought was that this wasn't me because I knew I hadn't been there for two hours, but everything seemed to be that it was me. I went to my boss and told him that I had talked to her for about 15 minutes, and I may be the culprit, which I hate to think the president would think that was two hours because it doesn't put me in a good light at all. Well, from that point I had the extra worry. Would I be seen as the dead wood because of something like this? I didn't tell my wife about it because one of us worrying was plenty. I didn't want her to worry, especially as she is approaching her 50th birthday (tomorrow).
Yesterday I went to a meeting that all employees were requested to go to on how to handle irate people. It was a safety meeting. The secretary was in that meeting. As we were walking out, she approached me and said, "Sorry if I got you in trouble". I told her that she hadn't, but I had worried about it. She told me that she had gone to the VP over us and told her that I hadn't talked to her for two hours, that it was 20 minutes tops, and that she felt she had initiated it. Well, now I knew it was me. That didn't make me feel a whole lot better. Since I knew it was me, I felt I could go talk to Debi (the VP). She wasn't available that day, but this morning she contacted me as soon as she got in. I went and talked to her about it all.
Debi did a lot to belay my fears. She said that the Presidents secretary had talked to her and basically what she had told me she told Debi. This would not be a factor in any decisions about me staying or going if it comes down to that. Debi is trying to help us all keep our jobs by telling the truth about our jobs. If they get rid of one of us in IT, then the departments all suffer because somebody else has to add to their already overloaded workload. There is also some training that would have to go into that. While claims and policy holders are down, that doesn't effect the work of the IT department, and indeed more just keeps on coming at us. If they dump any one of us (we all have specialized areas of work), timelines will not be able to be met that have been given on the roadmap. Anyway, I certainly hope nobody in my department is laid off. Being laid off is a terrible thing. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I am also hoping that the economy has bottomed out now (as they are suggesting it may have) so it has nowhere to go but up.
Anyway, we'll see what happens. I had some relief tonight from that extra stress and it felt sweet.
posted by Craig's Blog at 10:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home