Yesterday was a good day.
In the past couple of weeks, we had a visitor--a Navy reservist from North Carolina who was only going to be with us for a couple of weeks. I knew he was staying on base and probably wasn't getting much of anything good to eat. So I let him and my lunch buddies know I was bringing in homemade tacos and all the fixins for our Thursday lunch. I think I ended up feeding a dozen people with enough left over to feed the sailor and my buddy Julius for lunch today.
Right after lunch, I had my annual review. I hate those things...always did. I never know what to say, and neither do the multitude of bosses I've had over the years. Just do what we have to do and get it over with. Pretend everything's fine so you can get out of their office and get back to work. I've never had a bad review, but I've had reviews where I know I was graded lower than I deserved. Oh, they were good reviews...but does a boss truly know how hard a person works (or doesn't work)? That happens rarely.
Yesterday was an exception. This year I have taken over the duties of another co-worker on top of my already overloaded job. I'm now doing nearly all the work of one coworker and about half the work of another coworker who has gone to another position--and that's on top of the job I already had. The thing is--the way this job is, it makes sense for one person to do it all--unless you have two people with the same knowledge about the software that I document and the same work ethic. And they would have to be able to work very closely together.
In every job I've ever had, all I've gotten for my hard work was somebody else's work. I don't know if it's a sub-conscious thing that bosses do or what. But they seem to know who to assign work to when someone else can't or won't do the work. It's easier than trying to train someone or change their work habits. It's not fair, but just a natural thing to do. I've always expected that my work will speak for me, but have come to realize that the rewards go to those that just know how to work their mouths--either to give excuses, lay claim to someone else's work, or just double-talk their way through it and make it sound good.
As I said, yesterday was an exception. I finally got something for my efforts--and it wasn't more work. Part of the reason was the fact that we reorganized a bit and I now have a boss, his boss,
then her boss. The two new bosses are more familiar with my work since they, like me, work in the trenches. My immediate boss is two cubes down from me, and knows my work and sees that I'm there at 6:30 every morning without fail.
Yessiree...Thursday was a good day.
