Exercises in Fultity: Power Play

Office Job by ed7in5 via Creattica.com

Exercises in Futility is the working-out of the story of the last 3, or so, years of my life. A lot has happened: I moved over 300 miles away from my family for a new job that ended horribly, redefined myself as a person, fell in love for the first time (with that person turning out to the "the one"), and learned some hard life lessons that have shown me what is really important in this life. And if I stayed out all night more than I should have and met some fantastic, crazy new friends on my journey there, so be it! Let's listen in, shall we? Continued from Exercises In Futility: Brave New Girl

I got to spend September through November copying sets of Operations and Maintenance Manuals (some over 14 3” binders long) for the Mechanical Engineering Dept. The paper I went through...the horror...the horror! It was menial work, but it was still getting me noticed. I went through mundane task after mundane task, just plugging away at whatever they put in front of me. Truth be told, I actually enjoyed it. It was all order and logic, two  languages I spoke fluently, and I felt useful. The projects I completed were boring, but necessary, and all had gone way too long without doing. I was hard not to get a small Jesus complex of sorts as it became apparent these "little" things habitually fell through the cracks and it was a huge relief to management to have them taken care of. Everyone grew used to seeing my face pop around the corner asking, "Is there anything I can help you with?" I was working hard to make sure anyone with any sway knew I was down for the cause.

The company was split into 3 separate engineering departments; Mechanical, Structural, and Electrical. Each department was structured similarly with project managers, engineers, purchasing agents and other admin staff. I had been doing work, off and on, for the main purchasing agent, these past 2 or so months, for the mechanical department, Greg*. Word was Greg had noticed my tenacity and wanted to claim me for his team. I was thrilled with the idea, we communicated easily and I had already completed several small projects for him in record time. I'm the type of person who would rather be break-neck busy all day then spend the day watching the clock tick away. Greg really seemed to understand that and was eager to put me to good use.

Now, I came to understand that there had always been a completely unnecessary rivalry between the mechanical and electrical engineering departments and it seemed that as soon as the main purchasing agent for the Electrical Dept, Paula*, caught wind of Greg's play for me it was suddenly decided she needed me more. I had had a few run ins with Paula, but I had never actually completed any work for her, so I was confused when she began showing an interest in me. I could tell her involvement was causing a delay in a decision being made as to my future at the company, from Greg's often pained expression as he assured me, "I'm working on it!". What I had yet to figure out was that the electrical dept was ruled over by a husband and wife terror team, one half of which was Paula. Her husband, Geoff*, was a brilliant electrical engineer from Germany with the management skills of Attila the Hun. He spent long amounts of time in Brazil or South Africa overseeing more important/challenging projects, leaving his wife to keep the troops in line.

I had been in the office long enough to pick up on some of the politics and it was abundantly clear that nobody  really liked Paula. They agreed she knew a lot about the industry and was great at her job, but no one was ever happy to see her walk in their office. The advantage of being a temp was that I could still stay on the outskirts of the politics as I wasn't a full fledged pawn yet. However, becoming a pawn was my goal, so to speak, so I made sure to pay secret close attention to what was being said. The whispers suggested nothing more than an overbearing boss' wife easily placated with diplomacy and I knew I could schmooze with the best of them, but I wasn't listening closely enough. At this point, all I wanted was the "security" of not being a temp, so I, naively, didn't really care which department I went to. Paula felt she had bigger back-up and, before a decision was even made, she began flexing her muscles by moving me away from my current neutral location and into an new office on the Electrical side. Her prediction proved accurate and, despite Greg's best efforts (*sigh* If only!), on December 1, 2008 (yep, mere days before the economy tanked!!) I became the Purchasing Assistant for the Electrical Dept.

to be continued...