This update sprung from an assignment from my writing class. I never posted the update although my entire class had ample opportunity to review it and add their comments. The edited result received a good grade from the professor after multiple rewrites and submissions.
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I really liked the results, but didn’t know how to effectively share this magnificent example of English literature with the world (especially how to post it on Facebook). So, I just forgot about it.
The line about a professional chef and waiter referred to me. I ended up doing both chores during Julie’s party and the professional people did a much better job than me.
Julie got a new feeding therapist in March. We had grown tired of the previous therapist. Although she had helped Julie in many areas, Julie remained stuck with regards to feeding issues. We stuck with her until she went on leave for her first child and then petitioned for a therapist with better credentials and experience. We hoped a new therapist would bring a fresh approach and restart some of Julie’s lost progress.
The new therapist, also called Julie, diagnosed our Julie’s condition in her first visits. She put together a real plan with new goals and tasks for Sarah. Once again, we started over from the beginning. I’ve lost track of the number of times that has happened. This time, both Sarah and I felt a renewed optimism. Big Julie seemed more organized and professional than our previous therapist (who, admittedly, had never treated this condition before and had no training in the field). The new therapist also included social behavior lessons in between feeding therapy. This helped little Julie ease into each feeding session while looking forward to a reward (a few minutes of games on an iPad while the therapist filled in her paperwork).
My toenail story produced a lot of laughter from my classmates. I might have shared their levity if I could have used the procedure to get some time off of work, relief from chores around the house, pity from friends – anything! Poor, poor me! Sniff.
I didn’t mention my mounting problems at work. I became a project facilitator for my group tracking project status and developing slides to present to management for about 70 to 100 projects. Our department had real project managers, but they managed only 5-6 projects each. This group refused to take responsibility for the other projects in the department. I spent three months tracking down the correct projects, determining project leaders, and accumulating the information for status to present to management.
The real project management team had a lousy spreadsheet to summarize projects. They had it so messed up they couldn’t automatically sort it or organize it. After a month of struggling with the thing, I asked a couple members of the team about making some changes. They agreed and I removed inconsistencies, added some new features, and generally made it easier to maintain.
A week later, their team leader stood in front of my cube and bawled me out loud enough for the entire floor to hear for messing up her spreadsheet. Her complaints – the print margins and several hypertext links had changed. Although I hadn’t done any of these things, I graciously accepted her blame, promised to never make another structural change and agreed to fix the two problems. The margins worked perfectly for everyone except her. Since she was so angry with me for my errors, I never could help her resolve the problem.
The hyperlinks changed each time someone saved the spreadsheet. Since I worked on the sheet more often than anyone else (I had more project than her entire team combined), the hyperlinks appeared to point to my PC. Eventually, we ended up removing the links because they proved impractical for a number of reasons (some unrelated to my mistake).
Also, my boss and new team leader had updated the spreadsheet and had really messed it up. I got the blame because I had been the last to update the sheet.
Meanwhile, I introduced myself (at my boss’ suggestion) to the newly appointed czar of IT projects. He gladly invited me to several meetings. Once my boss found out, he forbade me from contacting this man or attending his meetings again – I was out of my pay grade. Of course, my boss held several meetings about projects and never invited me, so he blindsided me several times with new requirements, changes to the spreadsheet, and elimination of old processes/procedures.
BTW In previous jobs, I have met with C-level executives of my company and my customer’s company although a mere computer geek. I had sat in on their discussions, contributed when asked, and made presentations. So, I honestly didn’t understand the culture of “out of my pay grade.”
About the time I identified the missing, duplicate and erroneous projects, determined the correct project leaders, and collected the status on all but three projects, my boss yanked me off this assignment saying I had totally failed his expectations. Once again, I came into the one-on-one meeting with a stack of paper proving my progress, but he didn’t give me a chance to present any of it. Instead, he summarily dismissed me from his office with a new assignment that I didn’t understand and that he couldn’t explain. Two months later, he hired a real project manager who had the exact startup problems I had, but didn’t receive disciplinary action for not meeting schedule.
The injustice of my situation irritated me so much that I couldn’t sit down long enough to document what my boss did to me. I became so angry that I couldn’t think straight. Occasionally, I pointed out the more egregious issues privately to my boss when I could identify them clearly and felt calm enough to remain detached. He sometimes listened, often retaliated by chastising me in front of others, and always returned to his obscure and changing priorities.
I recognized that God understood my situation and respected my genuine desire to please my boss. I didn’t care about my pride or being right. I really just wanted to get along, find peace in my job, and keep getting paid. With Julie’s health issues, I couldn’t afford losing healing insurance and the treatment/medications/supplies she needed so badly. I didn’t confront the project team leader with the facts to prove her wrong – instead I gladly took the hit because the spreadsheet became easier to use, read and understand. When top management loved the changes I made, I said nothing to take credit for them (it’s not like I had access to them anyway). So, they praised the project team. I went to the monthly awards/recognition meetings hoping for some relief but leaving with only a piece of cake. I never did receive recognition for the bonus I received back in June 2012, but the money spent just the same.
Whenever another reversal occurred I came to God and asked for grace to humble myself and wisdom to understand the reason for this downward spiral.