Having had some small role in every major natural disaster since Hurricane Isabel in 2003, sitting at home watching Gustav do his thing has been kind of an interesting experience. Actually, I’m not at all sure what I should be doing with myself. I have a bag about half packed as I really had expected to get a call by now. So all that’s really left at this point is to watch and wait. Maybe I’ll get to sit this one out and get all of my information of questionable credibility from the cable news channels. And since the grass is always greener on the other side, I’ll spend the next week wishing I was doing whatever it is I’m not.
Category Archives: work
Not quite right…
For the last week or so, I’ve had this feeling that something is not quite right and this afternoon I think I finally figured out what it was. Over the last year or so, my average daily email intake was probably upwards of 100 a day… Now that I’ve moved over to a job that deals mainly with issues inside the organization, I’m down to maybe a dozen (that aren’t just cc’d to me for some reason). Today, I had two… that’s right, two emails. I think the strange feeling I’ve been having is my mind trying to figure out what to do with three hours of extra time during the day that use to be occupied by answering email. For some reason I’m sure something will crop up to fill the void.
Discovery…
So, I’ve discovered that without the pain in the ass that was my old job, I really have very little to complain about. Sure, that’s good for me, but it’s completely fouling up my ability to post a blog on a semi-regular basis. I guess some people write about their day to day interactions with people out in the world, but we all know how much I hate being out in the world and being forced to interact with the populace, so that’s not exactly fertile ground for me. You might ask what I’ve been up to now that I don’t spend hours seething about the blundering incompetence at work. I’ve rediscovered actually reading books, which is something I still don’t get to do enough of. I’ve managed to spend a little more quality time killing zombies, so that’s good. Even Winston benefits as I have more time to roll around on the floor with him. Of course all of that makes for perfectly bland blogging, so I’ve spared you the details.
At the instigation of one of my oldest and dearest friends, I’ve even taken my first tentative steps into the world of Facebook. Thanks a lot, Sandi… Another social networking addiction is just what I need. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be as labor intensive as MySpace, so hopefully it won’t be too distracting. It also currently has the benefit of not being blocked by our network administrators… yet. So, if you’re on Facebook, look me up.
Booooooring…
So, for the rest of the week I’m trapped in the most boring class ever. I so don’t care how many “cool” tables I can pull out of the database “using these simple commands.” If anyone wants to sneak in and pull the fire alarm tomorrow or Friday let me know.
Finally…
My four-month odyssey to move from one end of the building to another seems to be complete this week. I say seems, of course, because every advance on this front has been beaten back up till this point. Now, finally, with all my workly possessions moved into my new digs, taking marching orders from my new boss, and only occasional questions from the old, I dare to hope this could be the real deal. I forgot what it was like not to be continually surrounded by procedural dysfunction. I haven’t wanted to beat anyone to death with their own arms for at least three days… and that might just be a personal best.
Just when I thought I was out…
So, it’s been no secret that I’ve been trying to get set up in my new job for the better part of the last three months. Management, circumstances, and just pure dumb luck have all conspired against me at various points and now, in a personal affront, nature (that bitch) has decided to throw her hat in the ring… Every tried to leave a job in emergency management during a natural disaster? Yeah… good luck with that.
Anyone out there need an exceptionally well-qualified logistician or need a campaign plan written for taking out those damned pesky neighbors? I’m totally on the market.
Deliverance…
My voice has been heard calling out from the wilderness and I have been delivered! Unending thanks to an old friend who with the simple word “tomorrow” has granted a reprieve from two months of delaying tactics which others were too timid to protest. With that, I conclude my short career as an emergency manager. I still love the work, but find that continuing to work under a regime willing to exploit my talents while at the same time being told that I was not yet ready for greater authority was simply intolerable.
I’m just glad this version of deliverance doesn’t have a scary banjo-playing kid.
Swan Song…
This trip reminded me why I have enjoyed the work in emergency management since I first got the bug five years ago… It’s also reminded me why it’s time for me to go. While I’ve been here smoothing ruffled feathers and talking up our operation, I’ve been constantly peppered with emails from the home office about things that could more easily be handled by others. With a rare few exceptions, everyone in the office is senior to me in terms of years of service by 20-30 years. With that many years of experience stacked up, an office should be able to run for a week without sending major decisions through me for evaluation or to send in a report about how many of our people are working overseas. Sometimes I can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s amateur hour at the icecapades around here.
This trip is probably my last big roundup before moving on to other pastures, but one of the most gratifying things in it all is knowing that my opinions in the field are sought out by senior leaders and people who awed me when I was just starting out. It’s a little humbling… but fortunately, my ego is sufficiently large not to be too deflated by that.
Second time around…
Well, here’s hoping I manage to get it right the second time around. I’m leaving tomorrow on a redux of the trip I was too sick to go on last month. Mercifully, I’m feeling well and it’s possible that this will be my last big trip before the job swap takes place. I’m not holding my breath on that one, though. Seems no matter what my job is, I’m always needed somewhere other than where I happen to be at the time. After a long weekend of waging war on my back yard and getting it primed for spring, I think I am ready for a nice quiet boondoggle. Talk to you from Kansas City… Or from the airport if I see something that just demands an immediate rant.
Wanting and Getting…
In life one of the hard lessons I’ve learned is that there’s a profound difference between wanting and getting. Wanting leaves open the window of great expectations where the actual getting has the hard finality of real world consequences. For most of my post-teaching professional career, the only thing on earth I wanted to do was run my own operations center and be at the center of the action. It’s a hell of a way to live and almost never a dull moment.
While I’ve held my own over the last year and even excelled at some points, what I have discovered is that my real talents don’t lie in running an operation. They lie in developing the grand strategies and seeing the big picture that the entire organization will follow. With my own frustration rising to a point that I haven’t seen since I was still teaching, I decided it was time for a change.
To make a long story shortish, I asked my boss if he would endorse a reassignment if I formally requested one. He offered training and a lot of other things to try to change my decision, but I think even he knows that if I’m talking about it openly, my mind is made up. So, yeah, I’m putting the wheels in motion for another change. If all goes well, I’ll still be here in Memphis, just down the hall from where I’m sitting now. Someone once told me that I seem happiest when I’m the calm center surrounded by mayhem and chaos. Maybe that’s true… and since nature has been letting me down in the mayhem and chaos department, perhaps I’ve decided to create my own.
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