All [my] Own Work

[dgs49]

As some of you may have surmised, I have the conflicted blessing of having a job with very little to do. In theory, I am an advisor to the Purchasing department (what is now called, "Supply Chain Management"), but they are not doing much these days. The only way I can justify my paycheck to myself is to consider that I'm doing everything that is asked of me (more, in fact), and I am prepared and willing to handle anything that is thrown my way. I jokingly tell my few trusted co-workers that my position is analogous to that of a fireman: I sit in the firehall all day, polishing the trucks and playing ping-pong, but when the fire bell rings I will be Johnny-on-the-Spot. But actually, nobody realizes how little I do. The people I do serve are thrilled with my support because I can respond to their inquiries instantaneously, which they have never experienced before I came here.

And though I really have nothing to complain about (I have experienced unemployment), my employer is, to be both crude and accurate, fucked up. They are horribly bureaucratic, with policies and procedures that pretend to ensure accuracy and prudence, but have the effect of promoting sloppiness and inefficiency. Just one quick example: I was asked today to sign off on a Purchase Order Change Notice that changed the shipping terms for some equipment we are buying. The supplier was going to ship the goods CIF, but now we are going to do it (changing the terms to EXW). We are getting an appropriate credit (about $20,000) for the shipping costs, and we can ship them for less than the credit we are receiving. So the change order itself is fine.

But our policies and procedures require that this change order be approved by eight (8) people, going up to a Director and a Vice President. It had been approved by three of them by the time I got the signature sheet. And yet the Memorandum was filled with typographical and logical errors, sentences that made no sense, and mathmatical errors in charts. I have told this Buyer to send me these things in advance, in WORD, so that I can edit them for her so that they won't be an embarrassment, but she usually doesn't think of it and - of course - this document has to go out TODAY or the world will end. Clearly, neither she nor the other people who signed it before me even read the document. But who cares? It's just a lousy $20,000 change order that she should have been able to do on her own, with maybe a quick review by her supervisor.

Not surprisingly, I have been scanning the electronic want-ads for another position - one that would have me doing something meaningful for a better company, and maybe making a little more money. At just a couple weeks shy of 63 years old, I feel very conflicted about changing jobs right now. I'm really pretty close to retirement, after all. But the only thing I see in my future here is more of the same or, worst case, they figure out what I'm doing and get me more involved in work that I find meaningless and wasteful.

Last week, I interviewed for a job that is much more in line with my background and seems like something that I would enjoy doing. In fact, I did exactly the same job for a couple other companies over the years, and even worked with the same customer group. During the interview, when asked about my "career plans," I candidly told them that I had none - I was looking to find a job for 4-5 years, after which I hope to ride off into the sunset.

A verbal offer followed the next day, and I have tentatively established a start date of September 17th. This gives me some to time to plan my departure, and maybe take a couple days off before I start the new job. It's a little bit more money, puts me into a better bonus plan, and they seem very keen to have me working for them. I assume that there is still the possibility that some glitch will come up in the process of getting and accepting the written offer, but it seems 99% certain that this will come to pass.

During the interview I asked my future boss what I could accomplish in the first year that would make him happy that he hired me. I noted his responses and I'm sure I can accomplish all of that and more. So I'm really looking forward to this.

No offense, but if this works out I will have a lot less time to spend on this BBS.

[dales]

Best of luck, dave

[Gob]

Indeed good luck, you are lucky to be able to move on! Will you be letting your current employer know how sloppy and inefficient his systems are?

[kristina]

Congrats!

It doesn't sound as if the employer is particularly interested in how badly their systems are set up...but I'll bet they'll be more aware of the problems once dgs49 isn't around to make them function.

[Econoline]

Congratulations! At 63 you're extremely fortunate to get an opportunity like this. Best of luck, Dave, and even if you won't have as much time to spend here as you do now, I hope you're still able to stop by occasionally.

[Lord Jim]

Good luck Dave...












(Of course if you're not posting around here as much, we may have to set up grief counseling for Scooter and Grim.... )

[Rick]

Busy is better good luck, break a leg, whatever...

[dgs49]

I will discuss my concerns with my boss when I give my notice, but I doubt it will go any further than that. The people he works for are responsible for much of the bureaucratic B.S., and they apparently are proud of it.

Thanks for the good wishes.

[The Hen]

Bonza dgs.

I wish you all the best for the future.

[dgs49]

Well, I have reached the end of the line with this job. Today is my last day. I'm taking a week off before starting with my new employer on September 17th (the day after my 63rd birthday).

Everyone has been gracious with me - took me out to lunch, gave me a card, and so on. I will miss a couple of my coworkers here, and the 15-minute commute, but otherwise I'm damn glad to be moving on.

This has been my 16th full-time job since getting out of the Army in 1971. It is, in my estimation, somewhere between ridiculous and disgraceful, particularly when I consider that all these job changes haven't made my career a meteoric success. Would that they had. All I can say in my behalf is that (1) I make a decent income doing work that I enjoy, (2) my employers have been uniformly pleased with my work (even the ones who laid me off), and (3) I have never knowlingly left an explosive situation to be handled by those who replaced me.

My work philosophy has always been, "Good enough is good enough." Not exactly inspiring, is it?

[MajGenl.Meade]

God bless dgs - hope it's all you wish and more. My work philosophy (when I worked) was F'EITCTAJ where J = Joke

Meade

[kristina]

Congratulations on the new job, and enjoy your week off!

[Lord Jim]

Congrats Dave, all the best.

[Gob]

Yep, all the best Dave. I may not like a lot of what you say, but I respect you for being true to yourself, and being willing to take the flack your views provoke.

Still working at 63? Bugger that, I'm retiring asap.

[The Hen]

*ahem*

On current projections, unless an unforeseen futunate circumstance presents itself or my mother dies within the next ten years, you will be retiring at 63 years.

Juss sayin'

[Gob]

Bugger!

[Long Run]

Best of luck at your new business.

[dales]

My work philosophy has always been, "Good enough is good enough." Not exactly inspiring, is it?

Perhap not, mine has always been: "Close enough for government work."

Bet of luck you old war horse!

[Gob]

Mine is "Let's pretend I give a shit and leave it at that."

[Lord Jim]

Well, that beats the old Soviet saying...

"We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us..."