The Circus That Is Work

Thursday, April 28/16

Today's musical suggestion is "Lost Boy" by Ruth B

So I'm pretty I've mentioned in a prior post that my company was bought back in January by a competitor located down in California.

Nothing really unusual in that as it tends to happen in the high tech field, the big boys devour the newcomers in order to get access to new and upcoming technology.  That really is the story with us, we have a method for optic packet compression that lets large web based companies like Google and Apple reduce costs but our lead time took it's toll on our financials and we needed someone with deep pockets to see things to completion. Not the end of the world and also not why work has been a circus the past few weeks.

No, the circus atmosphere comes from our controller leaving before the sale even closed to pursue her dream of a being a CFO. Can't fault someone for following their dreams, nope not at all.

I do fault our new parent for leaving the position vacant for almost a month and when they did do something about it they completely fouled it up by saying the new controller, G, was here to help us and we all reported to someone down in Sunnyvale.

Now with a group of professionals this wouldn't have been an issue but unfortunately I've come to discover that I don't necessarily work with those who consider themselves professional and therein lies the issue........

I consider myself a professional and have the +25 years of varied and ever increasing experience to show for my efforts. I work with numbers and live by excel to create ways to express information so that meaningful results can be achieved and acted upon. I've got a few degrees but consider myself more street smart than book smart and try to remind my son that option almost always works out for the best, combine street and book to create opportunities for yourself.

I work with a couple of other analysts and we tend to get along fairly well. Big M works on Inventory and interacts with global supply chain, little M works on planning and analysis, T works on revenue, and yours truly is responsible for expenses, taxes, and transfer pricing. Somewhere along the way the new corporate masters got my name as the person most likely to get things done and I've found myself on more task forces working on multiple integration projects than is possible for one person.

The circus came to town about 10 days ago when little M decided he didn't work for G and pretty much called him out in a staff meeting, implying he was incompetent to handle the controllers position. Now we all worked for a good controller but she was very hands off and didn't make huge demands on our time, things that were bound to change with the new ownership but I get the sense that little M thinks he can dig his heels in and keep things the way they are but he is in for a rude awakening as I've been doing this for far longer and know how the wind flows. Change is a coming and people better be prepared for it.

As little M was calling G out we all got very busy looking at our cell phones or pads of paper as it was extremely awkward to say the least. Not two days later and it happens again when G asks for the backup to the revised Q1 forecast that little M sent to corporate and little M tells him he sent it to his boss and G can ask him for it as he doesn't have to provide it to anyone else. Now this happened late on a Friday and I literally thought they were going to come to blows as they went at it.

Last week I was out sick on Tuesday and Wednesday and guess who got into another shouting match on Tuesday? Yes, G & little M. At least this time they took it behind closed doors but from what I've been told it was still pretty loud.

Normally you'd expect to see someone terminated over behavior like this and the fact that nothing happened after the first time might have empowered little M to keep pushing.

Monday I had my first formal discussion about my current work load with the group controller and one of her first questions was what the hell was going on up there..........I took a few moments to consider my answer before I explained all that had happened and told her part of the blame rested with her as she had not clearly outlined what G's role was and how he was the boss. She replied that I didn't seem to have any issues working for and with G and I laughed and told her I'd been around the block a few times and had some years of experience on the others and could appreciate the real world whereas they were still a bit wet behind the ears workwise. Plus I said I knew my position would end on September 30th and they'd give me a bucket of money to go away and I was perfectly content with that arrangement. She asked how I would feel if they wanted to extend me past that date and I said we could talk about than as we'd need to revisit that bucket of money and she laughed and said no doubt.

Now I'm not sure if someone had a talk with little M but he's been civil to G this week and the hope is that it continues but the feeling is that it's only a matter of time till little M explodes once again, and should that happen I'm pretty sure little M won't have the permanent job he has now but will find himself holding a box with his belongings and the bare minimum severance due under the Ontario ESA.....and should that happen I'll feel bad for little M but I also know that little M would never let someone talk to him the way he was talking to G so as the saying goes.....you reap what you sow

The weekend is almost here and I've got tee times lined up for Friday after work and Sunday morning so you can colour me a happy duffer :)

My name is Marcus and this blog documents my attempts to be a good father, friend, co-worker, master the perfect 8 iron from +135 yards, begin dating once again, and maybe meet the one.