Oh, the Drama
I should know better than to blog anything about my work, but I find myself in such a bizarre situation that I can’t resist (company names will be omitted, but most people who read this blog know where I work). Perhaps writing about it will help me get it straight in my mind. First, a little background: I’ve been working for the same company for 4 1/2 years as a System Administrator. The group of which I’m a part is kind of like a small start-up in the midst of an established company, so we get to make a lot of our own rules. We’re also successful and profitable, which has been a big plus for the company. I started off in this gig as my first effort at a career change, moving from marketing to IT. I’ve been quite successful at it (toot toot: that’s my own horn I’m blowing) and have been promoted up the ladder a bit here. The problem is that I’ve been steadily forced away from the tech work I want to pursue and into more administrative/managerial roles. The bigger problem is that one of my co-workers has been promoted to manager of our group and has been making a royal mess of it (he’s a first-time manager).
We’re a pretty tight-knit group here, and it was generally considered a positive thing that my co-worker was to become manager of our group, as opposed to having a stranger try to figure out our ways. Unfortunately, my co-worker is something of an emotional and volatile person, and when things aren’t going right he tends to act out in an immature fashion. He throws things, insults people when they’re not around and has tantrums. He refuses to confront his staff about problems, instead bitching about people behind their back. Since it’s such a small, tight-knit group, he must realize that these bitch-fests will inevitable make their way back to the target, which may be his intention all along. Of course, all these issues make this a somewhat hostile workplace.
Over the course of the last year or so, I’ve become a preferred target of my manager and one of my other co-workers (who happens to be best friends with the manager, since High School). I feel my work has still been top-notch, which is backed up by the fact that I’ve received top-ranked reviews almost every year I’ve been employed here. The fact that the kind of work I’ve been assigned lately has been steadily drifting away from cool tech projects into mundane administrative tasks has not helped my outlook much either. After a recent stapler-throwing incident by my boss, I decided it was time to dust off the resume and get to looking.
Imagine my surprise when three weeks after I began the search, I was offered a job at a Fortune 500 company that was a survivor of the dot.com boom and a well-known brand name (if not quite as well known as Google or Microsoft). Needless to say, as soon as I had the offer in writing, I was giving my notice. The most amazing thing was that my resignation came as an complete and utter shock to my boss. He was actually hurt that I was leaving the group. I found (and find) it hard to believe that he was oblivious to my dissatisfaction considering he was one of the primary causes, but I guess one often can’t see the effects one’s actions have on others.
During my notice-giving meeting with him, he asked me if, all things being equal, I would consider staying. Seeing as how this was the company offering a match, I said no. It’s my opinion that if the company wants me badly enough to counteroffer, then they should come back over the top of the new offer. Well, he interpreted that as me stating that there was no offer he could make to compel me to stay. Another miscommunication. Regardless, for over a week, I was ready and willing to move on to my new job and new challenges.
Then the other shoe dropped. My roommate, who works for the same company/group, also got an offer from the new company. We had both applied for the job (they had multiple openings), but he had applied a week before me. While we knew the other was looking, it was not a concerted effort as our reasons for looking were vastly different. The fact that we ended up applying at the same company was coincidental, as we were both using the same job search engine. We did joke about it, though. When my roommate decided that he too had seen enough of the tantrums and bad management at our current job, he gave his notice as well (one week after I gave mine). Needless to say, the shock value was high. As an aside, I fully admit that my roommate is more qualified than I am, as he has 5 years more experience in IT than I do (even though he’s a decade younger than I am).
My roommate was much more willing to consider a counteroffer from our company, as he doesn’t dislike the work environment nearly as much as I do. He was also smarter than I was in that he inflated the offer from the other company by several thousand, meaning that a match from our company was, in fact, an additional raise in pay. I’m not comfortable with these kinds of games (which is why I had to get out of marketing; too much lying and bullshitting), so I’m up-front to a fault. However, I’m not sure that even the amount my roommate eventually wrangled out of our company would have been enough for me to consider staying in an environment that I believe needs fundamental shifts in attitude/culture in order to continue being effective in our ever-growing business unit (wow…maybe I could be a manager, with this biz-speak).
The final result is that both my roommate and I (considered star players of the team) tendered our resignations. I’m still leaving, despite a recent heart-to-heart with my boss that resulted in him going back to the company for more money; a case of too little, too late for me, while my roomate is staying. I ended up eking a couple grand more out of the new company due to my company’s counteroffer, so even though I won’t be earning as much as my roomie, I’m still looking at a great bump in pay and a new start at a company that I’m excited to join. I’m nervous about the change and the challenge, but I think I’m good enough to rise to any challenge. Hell, I’ve spent half my afternoon in the office learning VBScripting for administrative tasks so I can go into the new company with some base scripting skills (which I admitted I didn’t have during the interview).
Anywho, after all the drama at work I’m relieved and content with my decision. I’ll have to make some adjustments, but overall I’m pretty damn excited. Hopefully there won’t be a need to dodge childish tantrums at the new place. Best of all, I’ve kept the friendships intact at my former employer and have an open offer to return to the fold. It’s nice to be wanted.
