Category: disapproving boss

The Trickster

Oh yes, I am.

The Trickster.

See….soooomehow, in the course of a series of interviews, a fairly well crafted resume and a bunch of conversations, I’ve managed to convince the procurement organization of a well respected Fortune 500 corporation to award me the title of Senior Manager complete with an office (with a window that has a really nice view) and a fairly robust staff of minons to do my bidding.

Me. The goofball from New Mexico. The kid who, once upon a time, had to be taken to the doctor because I got a piñon nut stuck up my nose.

That one.

For some reason they actually think I might be…..good.

Damn. I convinced them. Now what?

I’m pretty sure I’m a fraud.

Day 3, the rubber is, you know, sort of starting to meet the road.

Can I shove another piñon nut up my nose and sidestep this responsibility?

No, probably not. Guess I better just keep showing up and trying to make good on who they seem to think I am.

Abject fear. Whatta rush.

Is it the air up there?

Today one of my employees stopped by my desk, and she was fuming. To be fair, she’s a black cloud kind of a gal, so I take her fuming quite lightly.

“Did you see what happened over there!?!?” she said, pointing in the direction of the corner where the “big boss” sits.

“Yes, I saw,” I replied calmly.

She sputtered. “But…but!”

See…there is some retrofit work being done in the building where Big Boss used to sit. And on an emergency basis, they’ve moved their operations over to our building.

Needless to say, Mr. Big Boss is going to make his space as comfortable as he wants it…even thought he will only be here for three months, tops.

My employee sputtered on, “Did you see that he had all the cubicles rearranged and then booted (her friend) out of their window cube so that his admin could sit there?!?!?”

“Yes, I saw,” I replied.

“But…doesn’t that make you mad!?!?” she howled.

“No, actually…in the scheme of all the crazy things execs have done at this company, this is mild.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said, sullenly walking away, “It’s still not fair, though.”

So that got me thinking…at what point in the escalation of your career path do you flip over from “wow, thanks for doing that for me” to “WHERE IS MY ROOM TEMPERATURE WATER!?!?!?!”

When do you get a hall pass for acting like a turd? How high does the title have to be?

I’m firmly lower middle management, and *clearly* it’s not that level.

I guess the real question is…how hard do I gotta work so I can get to the level where I don’t gotta work much at all?

For now, I can only gaze UP at the ivory tower.