The Working Girl Blog #29: It's dangerous to assume, or You're sending me where?!? To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

It was just another routine day yesterday - everyone working on their stuff, and me walking around from time to time, looking over everyone's shoulder.

It's not that I didn't have anything to do, but since most of the hard decisions were already done (things to do with file structures, screen formats, the algorithms and formulae to use, the number of decimal places for numeric fields and rows even...), most of what we were doing now was the grunt work. Lately, I find my days filled mostly by proofreading the draft documents that my own team was churning out (boy, don't computer people have the worst grammar skills...). That and filling out my quota of red tape, daily progress reports and getting up from time to time and looking over everyone's shoulder.

We were weeks ahead of schedule, even by the boss's truncated deadline, and we are slowly inching towards that next momentous point in an IT project - system and (soon after that) user acceptance testing, or UAT. I should probably get someone to contact the client and start arranging things soon. Might even get to see Texas Girl again.

Anyway, at around two or so, Sammi comes rushing in and sez there's a meeting being called by the boss in fifteen minutes (yes, I did see the boss come in about twenty minutes before Sammi came in, and looked even more harassed than Sam).

Though I didn't have anything up in the air, I shouldn't have worried, but I guess it's in my nature to panic.

So there we were in the boss's office (no projector on the desk, which was ominous in that it wasn't the normal thing), all the managers and the boss sitting around making a bit of nervous chit-chat. I was the last to come in, and as soon as I found a place to sit (still had to consciously cross my legs at the ankles - that particular feminine motion not yet coming automatically to me), we started.

Anyway, after a bit of banter, the boss segued in talking about smaller budgets and contracting projects and workforces, and then sez that I was going to have another manager assigned to me to help me in my project. Whoa!

Well, needless to say, alarm bells rang in my head. The boss points to one of the junior managers, saying that he would be helping me out with my team. At that point, Sammi buzzes in, saying there's an important call. Our boss decided to step out to take the call so that we could continue the discussion. Sammi stays, probably to take the minutes of the meeting down.

Anyway, this wet-behind-the-ears snotnose starts talking about problems that newbie project managers usually got into, and that he would have a hard time turning my numbers around and getting my project back on schedule.

So I brought my laptop out, popped up my progress reports, and showed them how far ahead of schedule we were. The SOB said that the numbers might not be realistic, and maybe my group was due for a reorg. I wanted to slap the silly grin off his face and make his head spin. I dared him to point out where the numbers where inaccurate. He didn’t even bother to read the reports.

One of the slightly more senior guys took the laptop from me, put it on the boss's desk and started to pore over the charts, and me and Mr. Snotnose got into the beginnings of an argument. I felt picked on. I knew we were doing good work, and here's Mr. Johnny-come-lately saying I'd done wrong.

The other guy sez that he couldn't see much wrong nor could he guess where I padded any numbers, if at all. He quizzed me a bit on our status reports, and I felt more picked on. But after digesting what I told him, he said we were doing okay. For which I was grateful.

Anyway, the boss comes in and sez that the decision was final. The company was putting up another helpdesk-slash-call center unit to manage the call center requirements of a new client of the company's (in the business, these clients are called "BPO's"). It's going to put up an offshore unit in the Far East, manning it with locally-sourced agents.

Well, I was thinking, this was great news for the company, but what has that got to do with us? Specifically, what has that got to do with my group?

Well, apparently, she had just attended a ManCom meeting at the main HQ in New York, and had just gotten in. Seems the company was trying to man the new operation using existing staff, and though most of the key positions were filled in, they wanted another person to oversee the setup and the initial organization/reorg of the new unit. Weeks before, she had suggested me, that, even though I was fairly new, I did have ISO Auditor and CMMI credentials. And word had come down, and that I was approved.

Eh?

And in order to make this happen, I had to get my project finished up, or at least to UAT level. That's why she was assigning another person to help me speed up work even more. So she had decided to assign her most junior project manager to be my assistant.

I couldn't help but grin evilly at Mr. Snotnose, making him turn redder than he already was. That'll show him to assume, and to shoot off his mouth.

I knew it was bad, but I couldn't resist it. I said to the boss that I think I needed someone who wasn't so inexperienced. That earned some nervous laughs and giggles, which puzzled the boss a bit.

At that moment, I wanted to cram all of this office politics crap right up Snotnose's ass. It was rare that I would be this angry (at least, I think so). Most times, I'm as meek as a mouse. But I guess when someone "gets my goat" as Dad says, I couldn't really control it.

Anyway, the guy who was reading my reports volunteered to sub, and it was all set.

I was tentatively scheduled to leave on June, but it would depend on a lot of things. So, I was supposed to check on my team's progress and to report everything during our regular Monday meeting next week.

Well, after we had adjourned, we all left the boss's office (Except for Sammi. The little wink she gave my way made me giggle a bit.)

My new "assistant" and I adjourned to the conference room, where we pored over my laptop and I gave him a backgrounder on my stuff. Mr. Snotnose came in, and tried to join in on our discussion, perhaps in his own heavy-handed way, he was trying to apologize. But I wasn't having any, and I ignored him. When he thought I couldn't see, my "assistant" waved Snotnose out, and mouthed something like "later."

I had an idea about that phrase, "a woman scorned," et cetera, et cetera. I never even knew it could apply to me in this way. Are girls that vindictive? It is tempting to think so, and, I suppose, being more emotionally aware, women would naturally be more emotionally volatile as well. I wonder if that's true. And if it is, is that true of me, too. Well, at this moment, yes, it is.

Women and office politics - I've always thought that would be a volatile combination.

Anyway, got lots to do today... Traveling to the Far East. Cool!

   

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