8-52-2014: Wall-E gets a stay of execution

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February 23, 2014 – Wall-E thought the end was coming up next week, but he gets to keep using his head, for a few more months anyway.

So do I.

My term was scheduled to end this coming Friday. It’s been a frustrating few months all around as those higher up the chain have been trying everything to have me extended and try to get me on permanently. But in the current environment that’s been a challenge. There are those in an ivory tower somewhere who don’t stop to consider the position and what it requires in the way of expertise. Instead they see only numbers and priority lists and think that anyone should be able to be trained for any position. I can see that for some jobs, but not when you are expected to advise stakeholders on things that need a major background in a biological area in order to be able to address direct questions, provide information for media lines to reporters on a very specific topic, and teach others in a specialized topic area.

You don’t learn the things I’m doing in a year or two. And to think that someone without any background in the program or the topic area can be trained on the fly is laughable. There is no training in our group, it’s sink or swim and you figure out what you need to figure out yourself. You need to come in already knowledgable, but also ready to learn, because there is so much to learn, even though you are expected to be an expert.

So a week ago I was determining how many boxes I was going to need to hold my books and carry them home, my manager was turning himself inside out trying to get that extension, and people around me were venting to people above us about how losing me would be detrimental to the program and the team.

Those things certainly were nice to hear, but they didn’t help my situation.

Then Wednesday I got word that the higher-ups had given me a temporary reprieve.

So I don’t have to pack up my things just yet, and I will continue to hope that the environment will settle down and that staffing might finally open up.

It kind of sucks when you are doing what you want, and you are loving what you do, and those you work with are supportive of you, that you are an area expert, and yet…. everything is beyond control.

The funny thing is that I had accepted what I thought was the inevitable this time. People on the priority list were, well, looking like they were going to get priority, and the program would end up with someone without any experience and no one to train him/her. That person would have to take over the projects I am managing, and I’m not sure how he/she would do that without any background. But someone up the chain of command, someone without any comprehension of what the challenges out this way are, would be able to check their box.

So I was pretty much ready to settle in for being free to get going on painting and gardening, doing all those things to the new home that I have grand ideas for.

I was already thinking about all the free time I’d have this spring to ride and explore.

And then that extension came unexpectedly.

So for now I’ll just take a deep breath and keep doing what I do and try not to think about the fact that we will be back here again in five months.

Because that’s work in the government these days.

And the work I do just doesn’t exist anywhere else.

And the people I work directly with are so fabulous.

And, and, and….. and so I accept that for every downside there is an up.

And I try to focus on those ups.