Phoenix84
Senior Associate
Joined: Feb 17, 2011 21:42:35 GMT -5
Posts: 10,056
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 28, 2014 21:01:09 GMT -5
Phoenix, I often read your threads but don't comment because I rarely have anything of value to add. And I don't have anything of value to add to this one. I think your OP shows a lot of insight and growth, and a whole lot of professional maturation. I wish you absolutely the best at your new position, and hope that your new job and your traveling won't mean you'll be leaving the YM community. I for one would like you to stick around, and I know I am not alone. I appreciate that.
I can't say how the job will affect my posting habits. I may end up posting less, maybe quite a bit less, but I don't plan on leaving any time soon.
If I do end up traveling a lot, I probably will get a tablet to take on travel with me so I can post and do other things while on travel. Posting here might help keep me sane on the road.
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Phoenix84
Senior Associate
Joined: Feb 17, 2011 21:42:35 GMT -5
Posts: 10,056
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 28, 2014 21:13:35 GMT -5
Yes, those are probably good questions to be up front about. I think part of the problem both here and at the Air Force was simple personality/work style/expectation differences. Communication on those subjects probably would have helped everyone involved. I think so, too, because you did fine with the woman who was your previous boss, so it sounds like you did your job well. I had a boss that gave me wonderful reviews, promoted me, gave me additional opportunities, etc etc. Then he moved to a different facility within the company and we got the jackass. Suddenly I went from being the best manager to the worst. It wasn't just me - he didn't think women should be anything but secretaries, and he hated black people of both genders - but it hurt to go from feeling like I was doing a great job to feeling like crap. It wasn't that I did my job any differently. It was just that I didn't get along well with my boss. Sometimes that happens. My happy ending was that the jackass, after constant complaints about him to HR, was finally put on leave and sent to 'remedial boss school' so they could tell him he was an asshole. The he hung around for a while doing 'special projects' that did not involve supervising anyone, until corporate found out he had been cooking the books and making vendors do work for him for free at his house in order to get contracts at the plant. And that, I guess was finally enough to make them fire him - degrading your female and black employees wasn't bad enough, but stealing from the company was. Hopefully your witch of a boss will suffer a similar Karmic response! Sounds like a grade A jerk all around.
I think the big mistakes my boss made are some of the big mistakes the AF made. She is one of those people who is "guilty until proven innocent" oriented. She came in assuming we were screw-ups and couldn't do our jobs. And I know it wasn't just me. She put us all under incredible scrutiny and insisted on reviewing and signing off on ALL our work. Even though all of us had been successfully doing the job for years. My old boss treated us like professionals. It motivated me (and I assume others) because I didn't want to betray her trust. My new boss never treated us like professionals, never even gave a hint of professional courtesy from the word go. Plus she's very vindictive and likes to burn bridges. I think she had the attitude that she was the "chosen one" being selected for a supervisory role, her first one. And that it was her vs. everyone else. It her job to play the white knight and come in and "fix" everything.
She also communicates poorly and then blames us when we didn't understand what she wanted. A classic example is where she gave a three word description of some training she wanted me to do, and then had a cow when it wasn't EXACTLY like she wanted. I must have missed the mind reading class at Hogwartz.
The workload increased dramatically under her regime. I was busy trying to be an RSO, dealing with violations and NRC inspections and getting labs decommissioned, and she kept wanting me to update a branch ledger so she could keep track of the inventory we already had. For all her proclimations to the contrary, I don't think she really knew or appreciated what being an RSO really was.
She is the worst kind of boss. Knows just enough about the my field to be dangerous, but not enough to really know what she's doing. Basically "knowledge without wisdom." Others have made that observation to.
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Jaguar
Administrator
Fear does not stop death. It stops life.
Joined: Dec 20, 2011 6:07:45 GMT -5
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Post by Jaguar on Sept 28, 2014 21:45:39 GMT -5
I wish you the absolute best, go forward and conquer the next job.
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happyhoix
Distinguished Associate
Joined: Oct 7, 2011 7:22:42 GMT -5
Posts: 21,581
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Post by happyhoix on Sept 29, 2014 7:00:01 GMT -5
Well, if this was her first supervisory role, I can see her problem. It's not easy to supervise. At my current company, we had so many complaints about the managers (one of them told his employee no one liked working with him because he was fat, one of them used a racial slur) that finally - FINALLY they brought in someone to spend two days with all the managers talking about how to motivate people, write good annual reviews, what you can and can't say to them, etc. First time in my 30 plus year career where that's happened.
Hopefully this will be a learning event for her, too.
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Wisconsin Beth
Distinguished Associate
No, we don't walk away. But when we're holding on to something precious, we run.
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 11:59:36 GMT -5
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 29, 2014 8:25:15 GMT -5
That's fantastic news Phoenix! I have to admit I was worried that your old boss might try to sabotage your new position, but obviously that's not the case. Kudos to you on all your introspection and all those positive resolutions. I know going through somethings like that is never easy, but I think you've done an incredible job analyzing what happened and how you can do better in the future. Personally, I wouldn't fight about your leaving date. Like somebody else said, you have PTO. Even if that's not exactly the way you planned to spend it, you should have at least SOME leeway in your plans. You could always take a day or two less than you'd hoped for each trip, or compensate with savings if you'd rather. Your boss is talking about an 4 Oct departure date, but you prefer 18 Oct. Maybe you can compromise and agree on 11 Oct? I'd probably ask nicely for that. But again, I wouldn't push it. Do you have any concrete plans for the move / a place to stay? We mentioned this in the previous thread, but I think you need to be within easy access to the airport, since you'll be traveling more. I wish you the very best of luck. I hope that your next job is the perfect fit for you! And you should be very, very proud of yourself. I know you were in two rather sticky employment situations, but you managed to learn from them, and to negotiate new, better jobs. Keep on the learning curve, and you'll do just fine! If the feds are anything like my local gov't - everything must line up with the start of a new payperiod. No promotions, no transfers between depts, etc. unless the start date is the start of the payperiod.
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Phoenix84
Senior Associate
Joined: Feb 17, 2011 21:42:35 GMT -5
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 29, 2014 9:14:42 GMT -5
Yeah, basically everything has to conincide with a two week pay period. The "release date" is the last day of the pay period in which I work for my current job, it's always every other Saturday. The new employer is supposed to pick you up the next day on a Sunday, at the start of the next pay period.
It has to be like that. I can spend annual leave during the week, but I'll still get released on the same Saturday because it has to coincide with a pay period.
My options are basically being released October 4, October 18, November 1 ect.
At this point a October 4 release date is very unlikely, and even my boss sees it. So far I've requested an October 18 release date, but if things are delayed much longer I may have to push it out to November 1.
I'm not that worried about the release date from my current employer's perspective. It's really what's best for me. My current agency wants me gone ASAP because they want to stop paying my salary and start saving that money. I hear the budget climate is pretty bad this FY. However, there's not a lot they can do if I decide to leave October 18 or Nov 1.
I'd prefer to leave sooner rather than later, but I also need at least some lead time.
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