Time for a Change
January 28th 2006 Posted at General
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I had my annual review with my manager last Tuesday and based on my past reviews it went about as expected. For some reason my manager feels that every year he needs to find some new ways for me to earn my position there. I guess the facts that I work damn hard to make sure we get jobs done, hardly miss any time and have been a devoted employee for over seven years escapes his mind! He said he thinks my management skills are lacking, well of course they are, I haven’t had enough projects to manage lately because apparently the sales team is clueless as to how to sell a CAD job. Why in the hell is that my problem? So his solution is that I need to get involved with the sales team and show them how to sell CAD. Does this sound odd to you at all?
There are several teams at my company and no other team manager is being asked to show Sales how to do their job! At first, after the interview, I was thinking this was okay but the more I thought about it the more I realized that is not my fricken job! Months ago I did try to help the Sales team. I put together a 20 page document that included all the different services and examples of what we do so they would know what to sell. I even did a class with them and explained the material I put together and told them to contact me with any questions. Do you think I ever got one call? No. The problem is that CAD isn’t as easy to sell as say scanning services. You actually have to have some knowledge to sell it and apparently the Sales team isn’t willing to put that much effort into it.
So my manager wants to meet again next Tuesday to discuss a possible schedule change. He knows that I enjoy working so close to home and to be honest, that is the only reason why I haven’t gone hunting for a new job. But now with the task of most likely going to the main office 1-2 times a week so I can be the “face” of the CAD team at all locations and so that I can teach Sales how to sell CAD that means I’ll have to lose that convenient 3 min drive to work a couple of days. Now the main office is far from home now, a good 35 minute drive and that’s without traffic so with traffic I’m probably looking at 45 mins to an hour drive…not very appealing. So this in addition to the fact that my manager doesn’t think I’m earning my pay and I’m going to do a lot more work for probably a 3% pay increase if that…I decided, it’s probably time for a change.
The thing is that I think I am worth what I make. If we had more work I could prove that my management skills are up to par, but without doing what I think isn’t my job, I can’t prove this. I think I’m an asset. I’m great at CAD, 2D and 3D work. I work hard, I’m a quick learner, I’m organized, I know how to manage projects and people and yes, sometimes I can be too direct with people (Another thing my manager thinks I need to improve on… sorry I’m not a good BS’er, just get to the damn point!). If you are not following the rules I’ll tell you to just do it and if not, get the hell out! So I guess after this huge rant, I should get to my point.
My manager has given me incentive to do more than “keep my eye out for a good job”, I started looking. I started looking on Thursday after I had a day to ponder my situation. What are my criteria, I asked myself. First of all, it has to pay what I am making now. It also has to be no more than a 15 minute drive from home. It has to have decent benefits – another area my current job is lacking. I’ve been there for 7 year and I still only have 2 weeks vacation. I’ve suggested several times that they change this policy to give dedicated employees like myself incentive to stay, but to this day all I’ve been told is it’s not going to happen. The last requirement is that there is opportunity for growth.
So off I go searching. I found 2 jobs that looked promising, both within driving distance but the other criteria unknown. So I applied for both. I got a call about an hour after applying to them from one of the places. He says he likes my resume and says he’s received a lot of them but I jumped out (Nice compliment off the bat). Anyway, so I didn’t call him back right away. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting such a quick response so I needed some time to prepare.
I called him back during my lunch break on Friday, he wanted to meet after work, whenever I was available. I could tell from his accent that he was a New Englander like me, I assumed from NJ or NY. Some people are intimidated by this, but for some reason I like it. My experience is that most New Englander’s are not BS’ers – they get to the point like me…maybe that’s where I get it. So I go to the interview. I met with the manager Joe and his second hand man, also Joe. The manager Joe is the burly type. A bigger man, about 6′ and 250 pounds, you know – husky. His side-kick, Joe, was a little odd. Seemed nice enough but very shy, had a hard time looking me in the eye which is strange to me for a “second-hand man”. None the less, seemed to be 2 likable guys. We talked for a while about the job and what they expected and I asked questions and put some cards on the table. For example, I have some vacations already planned and let them know there… the last thing I want is to go to a new job and then request time off, that is just not right. Basically I am replacing the one girl that did the drawings so I don’t have to worry about the “last one in – first one out” problem that occurs with a new job. He said that my requested pay was a higher than what they planned on paying, but the fact that I have management experience and is something they are lacking was a plus. He said he’d need to get approval from his boss and that he would contact me with an offer if it all worked out. So the interview ended well, I left confident that I was honest with myself and them.
After the interview I was heading to the wine bar, Cave Creek Wines, to meet up with Rick and friends – a fun way to unwind from the week. I was about half way home when I got a call, it was Joe. It had been about 10 minutes and he offered me the job. He said his manager was fine with the pay, in fact, they offered me 1.70 more per hour to start. Super! So he said he was going to send me an official offer letter and that HR would be contacting me next week about the background check and drug testing etc along with all the other paperwork.
I got to the wine bar, all smiley and announced the offer to Rick. I was expecting a better response, but I think he’s sad about it. He loves working together with me and I do too with him, we are a good team, but I just don’t think I can deal with the thought of continuing what I’m doing. I am a good worker and if my manager can’t see that then I have to deal. So, instead of meeting with my manager again on Tuesday to discuss what more I can do to earn my job, I’m going to hand in my 2 weeks notice on Monday. Guess he’ll have to learn the old saying…don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
