I really need to do some catching up. I got online last night and read journals, but I got sleepy and went on to bed before I did any writing in my own.
Monday started out to be a pretty good day, and then it got stressfull. Debbie called a meeting about 10:30. As soon as we walked into the conference room we saw a lady there whom we'd never seen before, and I guess all of us had a sense of forboding. Debbie got right down to business to let us know of the latest development in the "transition" business, but she started crying as she was talking. I think the fact that she was breaking down bothered us all more than the actual news.
In a nutshell, it's this. When they first let us know about all of document mangement being outsourced to another company, and what that means for all of us now through Spring of 2006, it was our understanding that there would be a "temporary" manager, hired through Kelly Services, who would shadow Debbie until next Spring or until Debbie transfers to another position within "W/A" or takes a position with some other company. Okay. That made sense. We would need a manager if Debbie left before we did.
Change of plans. Debbie also manages the EDI department upstairs. She likes us better! EDI is staying with "W/A" document management, but that is no guarantee that Debbie would be their manager. Her management of them was supposed to be temporary until a permanant manager was hired. But that was before this outsourcing thing happened. Anyway, Debbie doesn't know if she'd want EDI even if they did offer it to her. Well, guess what? The lady that was there was introduced to us as "C", who, within the next four to six weeks, would be our manager (short-term, full-time through Kelly Services) until the Spring of 2006. And at that time Debbie would no longer be our manager, but just EDI's manager.
Now we really love Debbie. She is great! The best manager we've ever had, and we are a really tight-knit group. We've gotten into a rhythm as a department that is awesome! And it's mainly because of Debbie. She feels the same way about us, so the thought of leaving us and managing EDI, whom she says are not close like us, and who have a lot of petty complaints, really choked her up. She's very emotional anyway. We were all in shock.
As for "C", she is very nice, and her husband is going through what we're going through with his own company. In a year his position will be obsolete. So she can empathize. She was really thrown into a bad position, so I really tried to be nice to her on Monday to make her feel welcome. Also, she had been under the impression that she would just be shadowing Debbie, and then stepping in if Debbie left the department before 2006. I have to say, that with everything I like about this company (and there are a lot of positive things and reasons to want to stay with them), that the handling of this particular situation was very tacky and non-professional. Debbie was told on Friday, by voicemail, that she had an 8:00 am manager's meeting with our Director Monday morning and not told what it would be about. Then during that meeting, with "C" and the other doc. management managers sitting there, she found out what was going to be happening. She didn't find out until later that "C" was just as surprised as she was. The other two managers (there are more than three doc. management managers, but only three at our building) will have "shadow" managers also, but they may actually just shadow. We don't know yet.
So, anyway, it was really hard to concentrate and stay focused all day Monday. I caught myself making stupid mistakes that I don't usually make; and I wonder how many I made that I didn't catch! So that was my Monday. Stressfull!
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