The Working Girl Blogs Revision 2.0 Blog #53: Getting tough, sort of To see all of Bobbie's Working Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

Last Friday I moved into the new room. It was larger and so much better than my itty-bitty office with the glass front. The new one has a glass front, too, but this one has vertical Venetian blinds (I googled them and found out they're called track blinds) that you could twist the slats open or closed, or slide them aside altogether by pulling on cords, or by pressing a little button on the desk. So if I wanted some privacy or had a meeting, I could slide the blinds over the glass and close them.

It also had windows in the back that faced northeast, that looked out to the outside sunshine, the parking lot and the trees that hid the plant from the highway. Best of all, they could be opened to the outside if needed.

Also, it was outfitted with a big wooden desk. Clearly, the desk wasn't part of the standard furnishings, and per Sammi, it was just a cheap used desk that was put in when the building was first put up maybe fifteen years ago, and was intended to be for temporary use only until all the real furnishings were delivered. But for whatever reason, it was never replaced. Anyway, it's mine now, along with a couple of heavy duty shelves which Sammi had quickly filled up with a lot of ring binders and folders of all the stuff I was now handling.

My old boss handed me the office and desk keys when she and some of the HR people met me in the morning, and I now have drawers that I could lock and put my purse and other stuff away. (My new position had been officially announced, despite the fact I've been doing the job unofficially for over a month now, which accounted for my moving in to the new office) It was so large that my leather blotter, little desk fan and lamp, netbook and a little in-box/outbox tray in the corner, hardly filled up the top. I was going to be assigned a nice ThinkPad laptop but it hadn't been delivered yet so I had to make do with my personal netbook for now. (The techs had transferred my stuff from my old desktop to a portable drive for the moment)

In a corner were a small LaserJet printer and a small free-standing shredder. Beside them was a small table that looked like a tall coffee table, with a little thermos and a 5-cup drip coffee maker, some mugs and a small coffee service. There were two visitors’ chairs plus a small couch that leaned against the glass front. Flush against the left wall was a small closet where I could put away my coat and my wardrobe bag which contained the de rigueur suit. (Sammi had already moved them in there when I got back from lunch, as well as my little wheelie bag, overnighter kit and spare shoes.)

I had second thoughts about the large leather chair — it was too big and looked more appropriate for a man. But my old boss said that I shouldn't replace it since, as most managers know, there's some symbolism behind big “boss’s chairs” that she said I would find useful. So I made do, adjusting it to a comfortable height and pulling up the lever that stops the chair from leaning backward.

I, as well as some of the staff, had said goodbye to our old boss (and friend) before lunch, which probably accounted for my bad mood. Anyway, since everything's out in the open now, I had decided to get tough and called some of my new direct reports for a meeting. I had cranked up all their deadlines with the hope of accruing some savings and freeing up people earlier so that we could accept more projects and make our little branch more financially productive. Maybe by end-of-year, we can get the hiring moratorium lifted and get more people in, or at the very least, improve the image of our branch and get some job security for everyone, for one more year at least.

I guess all of this worry & work, and the departure of my old boss had put me in a bad mood so I couldn’t really enjoy my new office, and this bad mood spilled onto the people who were logged on to the chatroom late Friday evening (my apologies to those who had to endure my ranting and whining).

But, y'know, despite all of this, I felt my sort-of isolation evaporate. People's feelings hadn't changed, I'm sure, but no one was going out her way to avoid me anymore, perhaps because they knew they had to work with me now and they therefore couldn't deliberately avoid me. There were a lot of people who congratulated me and everything, but I guess that was just for show and perhaps for collecting brownie points.

That afternoon, my tough stance, though not unheard of, lessened the number of suggestions I was used to. The meeting wasn't the open-style type of meeting that I liked, but I didn't regret being brusque and abrupt, and raising my voice from time to time. Perhaps my bottled-up resentment of the month-long pseudo-isolation had bubbled up, and perhaps a little bit of anger still remained at that thing that happened September 13.

I think I'm over it now. I hope I am. I know things can't go back to the way they were, but I hope things start to normalize.

To see ALL of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot