One Week Left

Here's what I know.  I officially know that our office has been rolled under the existing Chenega contract.  There are two positions in the office, which is good.  One is an information analyst/techno-geek position, which is basically mine after I go through the pro forma application/hiring process.  My boss "Alan" was, apparently, not even being considered for the position.  He doesn't know this and basically gave me permission to apply.  I'm not going to comment at this time about that little fact.

The other position is a data entry person, which is up in the air.  If they hire someone from off-campus, we are looking at a possible 4-6 month time lag due to the insane amount of time it takes for the Fed-E-Ral Gubment to make their way though the background check required for someone to work on campus.  Ahem.  Which is why all the contractors on campus seem to be doing a round-robin type of contract-hopping because the managers don't want to hire off campus, and I can't say I blame them.

I have made contact with the manager and applied, but I won't be meeting with her until at least Monday, which gives Chenega one whole week to do the paperwork, etc, to hire me.  She told me on the phone that she was told by K, the fed, that I "had walked in, cleaned house, and worked circles around everyone."  I think I said "wow" after a pause.  K is not one to give praise much, so hearing that meant a lot.  I knew he was happy with my work, but I hadn't realized he thought all that.  

He's also told me if I don't take the position he will hunt me down and kill all my chickens.  He asked me "You.....ARE planning on applying, right?  RIGHT??"  and I said to him, "Gosh, I just don't KNOW!  I mean, the position description says I need to know fractions!  FRACTIONS!!!  What will I *do*??"  He just looked at me over his reading glasses and told me I was giving him gray hair.  :D

In the meantime, I found out that he will be at a conference in Phoenix the first week of the new contract.  This is giving us both heartburn since it means I will be basically running the show all by my lonesome for the first week, assuming I will be hired on by the end of the month.  If I'm not, it looks as though I will be cross training another fed to do what I do in the event that it is needed. 

And then there is the question about my boss.  He still doesn't have another job lined up and he'll be out of work in a week.  Even though I know all this isn't my fault, and I know I am not responsible for our budget being cut (all over the government, not just us), and I know I tried to make him see the light about which way the parade was going, and I know he doesn't have the computer skills or the ability or desire to learn them, I still feel a more than a bit responsible for him being ousted.  I know this shows I have a conscious and that's a good thing.  If I truly didn't care I would be more concerned.  If I felt vindicated and happy about it I would be horrified. 

I also made the very difficult decision to go ahead and have a phone exit interview with the HR people and tell them about the questions about my marital status and motherhood status during and after the initial job interviews.  Even though I decided not to do anything about it, they need to know he does these things if they ever consider him for a management job (or any job, for that matter) again, because he is a HUGE liability for them and I want them to know it.

This has been a really emotional and stressful past few months.  Matt has been hanging in there really well, he's been incredibly supportive of me during this time and forgiving of my short fuse and mood swings.  I know going forward some of the stress will be alleviated, but some will be transferred to other areas, like OMG I'm going to pretty much be on-call 52 weeks a year 6am-10pm.  I'm going to have to hob-nob with some bigwigs.  I'm going to have to smooth over some of the relationships that Alan soured. 

I told someone recently that when I get worried about unknowns in the future, I try to look at it as and exiting new thing I get to learn.  I've been referring to it as my Golden Retriever Suit.  Like OH BOY!!  SOMETHING NEW!!!  MY FAVORITE!!!  So, I'm working on the Golden Retriever way of life right now.