Updates on "The Work Situation"

Wanted to share two new developments on "The Work Situation" that's been giving me a lot of heartburn and heart ache.

Do you want the bad or the good first? I'll start with the not so good aka bad news first.

I'd already been told in no uncertain terms from my boss's boss's boss (the big dog of the Atlanta office) that my only options were to be forced or to be happy about being force. I can understand what's going on in the company to realize that I don't currently have an option about going into preconstuction however there are other options for projects to be sent to and I think my concerns need to be addressed not only about the project I'm being sent to but also my concerns about this derailing my career path in preconstruction. I'd made my concerns know to big dog, my my immediate boss and Mr. VP who was supposed to be my new boss. My boss and Mr. VP listened to my concerns but their hands are tied by big dog. When I tried to talk to big dog he kept brushing me off (which kept further irritating me and making me more upset about the situation - if you're going to be changing my life at least spend five minutes to talk to me or schedule time to talk to me!). Unfortunately until today all of my communication had to be via telephone since I'm on an out of town project and not in the office with any of these people. Today, I was at a millwork shop with the big dog for an event and even without me saying a word he made it very clear to me that I didn't have any options, it has already been decided that I'm going to this problem project. Then wasn't really the time to talk so I said I'd still like to talk to him more about this and would he have a few minutes tomorrow, I named several times but he wouldn't commit. I'm so frustrated. I've come to accept that I can't work in preconstruction for the foreseeable future since the department is being temporary disbanded but the treatment I'm getting makes me feel even more like exploring my options and possibly leaving the company. In fact, nothing would make me happier than to come in tomorrow and just drop my resignation letter on his desk and tell him I'm otta here and on to some place where they at least make time to talk to their employees. But I recognize its just my anger and I'd never do something like that.

Now on to the good news...

On my drive home from the millwork shop today I received an interesting call from my old old boss. The one before Mr. VP, in fact he was in the same role as Mr. VP until he got promoted to run a different office of our company and became the big dog of the Tampa Office. Anyway he called me up today and said he’d heard what was going on from Mr. VP and knew how much I wanted to go back to working in preconstruction and according to him I am damn good at it and deserved an opportunity to do so. He offered me a promotion and a nice salary increase to go work for his office of our company. He’d offered me essentially the same deal two years ago and I respectfully declined then. I didn’t accept then for a number of reason including that fact that it would be a permanent relocation to Tampa. Almost all of my same reasons for declining the offer two years ago stand except for my concern about the office not being strong enough to support a large preconstruction department. In the last two years since old old boss took over this office they have grow dramatically and have increased their work load to far surpass my office. I’m not sure what I will do but the nice thing old old boss did was say this offer is open ended and when I decide I'm ready to make the move to call him up no matter if its in 3 months or 3 years he’ll always have a spot open for me in preconstruction if I want it. He and I talked for a while after that and just caught up, his final words were "if I know you, you’re not going to accept my offer today or even this month, but that’s okay I understand. I’d love it if you would accept. I'm going to call you back in a few months and we’ll talk because I hope by then I’ll be able to convince you to make the move."