Not Bitter

Boss Lady sent me an email this afternoon. She was replying to a work-related one I had sent, but told me to come and talk to her before I left for the day, because she had some news that "may simultaneously interest and exasperate" me. After finishing up the tasks I had started, I went to the kitchen to wash up my mug and cutlery, then went to have a chat with her and catch up on the latest. The news? BlankFace has asked her to draft an advertisement for my old job. Nothing especially unusual there. But she wants her to tweak the job description and make it the level above what I was getting paid at. Yes, the very level that I have just started on in my new job, the same level that I worked at for 16 months, while still being paid at the level below. The same job level that they decided not to recruit to, after interviewing me and saying I hadn't proved I could work at. The same level that Little Big Boss and Boss Lady had been trying to get management to recruit to.

I put my hand to my mouth in disbelief, then started laughing while shaking my head. I knew it. I knew it. Miss T had said she thought it would happen. I didn't think they'd do it at first, but after the redundancies, I knew that anything was possible. Boss Lady couldn't believe it. They had mentioned something a couple of weeks ago, but she had decided not to mention it to me, as she didn't really believe anything would come of it. But now it seemed it really was going to happen, she wanted to tell me first, before word got out and the advertisement went live. She was really apologetic, but it's not like it was her fault. She asked me how things were in my new job and I told her that things were really busy and I was doing the same tasks over and over because we had a backlog of work after losing our temps. "I'm sorry," she said, "I genuinely thought it would be better for you over there." I suppose it still is, but we were baffled at how they refused to upgrade my previous post, but yet I am now being paid at the upgraded rate in a different post, while doing the same work that temps were. It makes absolutely no sense. There seems to be no long-term plan to develop Boss Lady's section, or even any improved understanding of the substantial workload or the importance of what that team does, despite all of BlankFace's involvement. It's like she just got involved, not so she could help develop it as we hoped, but so that she could make gradual changes that would justify downsizing the team altogether. Boss Lady is now anticipating that she'll be the next redundancy and to be honest, I couldn't even really reassure her that it wouldn't happen. We spoke for about 30 minutes and tried to figure out what to make of it all, but you can never tell what is going to happen next. "So there you go," she said, "They're going to advertise the post," she said, "so if it's not working out over there..." I laughed. "I won't be offended if you don't apply," she said with mock sarcasm.

After I left work, I didn't know how to feel. I was still sort of amused by it, probably because I was still in sarcastic shock. By the time I got home, I was starting to feel more upset and frustrated about it. At about 10.00pm, I got a text from Miss T:

Boss Lady told me about your old job. That takes the piss. How mad are you?

We texted our irritations about senior management back and forth for a while. Last week, we got the details of our departmental Christmas lunch through and were asked to confirm our intention to attend. Miss T had decided she wasn't going, partly because it had been arranged on a Friday, which is her day off, and partly out of principle. StroppyPants isn't going either. "Breaking bread is very symbolic," I heard her explaining to Flame Grilled, "and you should do it with people you like and respect!" Fair point. I am seriously considering giving it a miss too, now. We already have a team lunch arranged which will include both my new and old teams. At least they are people that I like. I'm not sure how much enjoyment I will get from having a meal and a quiz with some of the very people who have essentially shafted me and played quite a large role in my unhappiness for the past 17 months.

I'm still glad I moved, I think the change has done me some good and has helped to shake things up a bit. Plus, I'm getting paid more for almost doing less. But I'm still going to watch my back, while trying not to get bitter!