Even my bad days aren't that bad.
On Monday, my office manager and the consultant for the majority of my projects came back from their vacations. That was when they checked their e-mail and voicemail and found out about my big mistake that our client caught last week. (I sent 80 letters to Union workers stating that they have a benefit that they don't really have. So, sue me. Oh wait, they could.) My bosses decided to have a meeting to discuss how we can fix our process so that these mistakes don't happen next year. (There were actually multiple mistakes this year, but I won't go into details because they're tedious. read: embarrasing) They were very polite and they used all of the PC words so that I wouldn't take the blame for my mistake. "We're not blaming you. We need to work on the process." I didn't take it personally. I know mistakes are made. We do plenty of good work for this client. I know I do good work for this client. Also, our data is very bad. And too many of the data's problems are caught just because I work with it so much. But no matter how friendly my bosses can admonish me, it was still a crappy meeting to sit through.
Then at our staff meeting we discussed how the new hire has decided not to work with us come June. Great. And this means that all of the best candidates have already taken jobs. I also took this opportunity to point out that the last candidate that they interviewed this late in the year was me. "And look where that got us." retorted a snarky coworker. I set myself up some days.
When I got back to my desk, I had a message from my friend in the Chicago office, Jison. She told me that she has decided to move back to Korea - the first weekend of May. This isn't so Earth-shattering except that we were hired together and it reminded me of how many of my peers have already quit our firm.
It's funny how events like this make my job tougher, but it also puts me in a better position. There is so much work to be done at my level, I get to choose my projects. My bosses and peers are afraid to lose me too, so everyone is very nice to me. These days, even the bad days aren't so bad.
3 comments:
i want to write a comment to this - about how i feel what you're saying about people who started when you started are already gone - but it is late and i am waiting for dan to wash the hair goo out of his hair so we can go to bed. remind me tomorrow.
why is it that so many people have left? is it that people don't like working there, or is it that they are climbing the ladder?
It's many things. Some are unhappy with this career. Some can't handle the work. Some aren't passing their exams. Some know that if they go to a competitor they can haggle to get more money. Jison tried to transfer to the Seoul office, but they didn't have an opening so she's switching firms.
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