Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Friday, April 04, 2008
Frying pan, meet fire
New job, day 13:
Had to fire one of my top management staff this afternoon. Without all the gory details, the Legal office was involved, and let's just say it was for "conduct unbecoming a gentleman". And let's also just say that in this day and age of immediate communication with email and text messaging - you leave a trail. In this case, not only was the gun smoking, but he put the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.
While this would be a huge loss to my team at any time - with only 13 days under my belt, I cannot possibly just step in and pick up the slack. I haven't even completed systems training on our primary IT applications yet, let alone even met the 100+ people that reported to this person.
And while I have tons of support from my VP and others, I know the perception in some circles will be that the new girl is cleaning house. Especially since it was widely known that this person was passed over for my position and was none too happy about it. And while I fully intend to clean the dirty rooms of the house, I can't possibly make those kind of assessments with two weeks under my belt.
Needless to say, I'll be working this weekend.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a nice dinner, a glass of wine and a bubble bath... it's been a really long week.
PS Pumpkin is still sick, but is eating and drinking well. He still spends a lot of time in the litter box looking miserable. Hopefully, the antibiotics and new diet will kick in over the weekend, or we're going back to the vet.
