Listening to Your Gut is Good Business

After about 2 years, Allen, the manager who had hired me on my first government contract and our Deputy Director decided to leave our department.   He decided to leave because he didn't like our new Director, Lester.  Everyone had liked our old director, who was also named Allen, but the prime contractor, Come Get These Nuts (CGTN), thought that he was too expensive for the project.  Lester was younger, more ambitious and I guess cheaper.  Anyway, Allen thought that Lester was a snake, and he even called him that publicly.  Well, I didn't know why Allen called him that, but I soon found out how Lester was earning that title. 

So, first let me provide you with the scoop on Lester.   Lester was a young Director on his

way up through CGTN, the Program Manager liked him and he planned to have Lester manage our department for a short time and then move on.  Our department was just a quick stepping stone.  He was going to make some budget cuts, receive his praises and get a promotion.  He may not even be in this position for a year.  So, the goal was to do your job and hopefully you would outlast him.  The first impression of Lester was young, smart, abrupt and rude.  Now, this opinion was from the other directors, his peers, not the people in the department.  He didn't really communicate with his staff, except for the managers and his admin.  He would go into his office, attend meetings, or whatever, and he was out by 4 pm.  I think that I said hello once and he nodded.  Although I was not management, I did report directly to him, but since I had heard all of the negative rumors, I decided to do my work lay low.   

My plan worked for about a week.   I happened to be one of the budget cuts for the department.  Getting rid of a staff member is one of the quickest ways to save money, and aside from the management team, his staff consisted of an Admin, a Facilitator and a Senior Technical Writer.  The former management team had assigned the Facilitator a lot of my traditional duties, because she needed extra work to fulfill her 40 hours and I had a lot of documentation projects.  I didn't get a call into his office, but a phone call from a HR manager from the prime contractor, CGTN.   She told me that she was calling on Lester’s behalf, and she wanted to know what specifically I had been doing on the project as well as what was I working on now.  She explained that to me that Lester was looking at cutting the budget, and I was an expensive contractor.  Therefore, she wanted to know what my average day at work was like and what were my skill sets?   She asked me about my work history and to email my resume as well as samples of work that I had completed while I had been there.  Then, I was told that someone would get back to me.  I provided her all of the information that she asked and then I went to his office and asked if I could set up a meeting with him to discuss what my role was and what it could be. 

When I went to his office I heard yelling coming from inside his office.  It was Allen yelling. 

If you do that, you will not have a department!!  I will help every contractor find another job, and after they all have jobs, I will quit!!  The reason that people become contractors is to make money.   If you take away their ability to earn overtime, then you have taken away their purpose of being a contractor!!  And essentially you want them to work unpaid overtime!!  Absolutely not, not on my watch!

And then, he stormed out of his office.  I didn't say anything; I just scheduled my appointment and went back to my desk. 

My meeting was scheduled the next day, so I started prepping for my meeting.  The meeting went surprisingly well.  I suggested that I should start editing his presentations and reports because I believed that I could do better than the Facilitator.  What was surprising was that he admitted that he knew what his peers thought of him, abrupt, rude, and etc…He stated that he didn't really care, but he realized that you do want to get along with people.  I told him that I was a good communicator, and I could at least make him look more professional on paper.  So, I made a deal with the devil. 

Well, the next issue was paperwork.  As a Senior Staff member, I reported to Lester and I needed him to sign my time-sheets.  I had 3 different time-sheets that had to be signed by my manager, CGTN, Annoying United Systems (AUS) and Act Like A Broke Bitch.com (ALBB).  So I needed Lester to sign all three at the end of the week.  Lester would only agree to sign CGTN’s time-sheet, because he was a CGTN employee.  He told me that I would have to find an AUS manager to sign AUS’ and ALBB’s time-sheets.  There was one AUS manager in the building that I knew, however, I didn't work in her department, in fact she barely even knew me.  We didn't even see each other in the building.  She worked on the other side of the building.  So now, I was in trouble again.  I called HR at both companies and told them the situation and they agreed to accept my time-sheets unsigned.   A week later, I went to Allen’s going away party and I told him that unlike him, Lester would not sign my time-sheets.  I told him, that it made me nervous, because I would have to make sure that the time-sheets were meticulous and I would always need additional proof (emails, being seem by other employees) that I worked hours that I had.  He told me, that I was very smart.  For almost 3 years, I had two sets of time-sheets that were submitted unsigned.   And, I never felt comfortable about it.  

#actlikeabrokebitch
#devil
#listentoyourgut