Closer... But Still Vague

Alright. I realize it's been a few days since I updated you on my work situation (and the whole Project Lead position possibility). Well, that's in large part because I hadn't been updated in quite a while, either.

Last week, on all three of my days in the office, my boss was in and out of meetings. When he wasn't in meetings, he was frequently in his office on the telephone with the door closed. I honestly don't think he was avoiding me, he was just oblivious.

Finally, as I was about to leave on Thursday, I shot him an Instant Message (because I knew he was at his desk even though his door was closed), and asked if he had time to meet with me. He didn't. He asked if I'd be around after 3. (No. I was done for the day, and my parking meter would be expiring.) He asked if we could meet on Friday. (I don't work Fridays.) He suggested we schedule a meeting for this morning. (We did.)

So, at 10:30 this morning, I found myself back in his office. Only this time I was much more relaxed. Much more willing to just let whatever he had to say kind of flow over me. And flow it did.

The flow started with "It seems a lot of the people who have been here longer really want to take on the website work I was talking to you about." (Okay. Gee. Wonder what that means...?)

Then it moved through "E is going to be taken off of her current position and taking point on the website, so some of what she current does is going to be up for grabs." It took a strange detour around "R is going to be moving entirely into sales, so I'll be hiring someone to come in as an Office Admin to take care of all of her old tasks -- as well as a bunch of the stuff that S will be leaving behind when she leaves the company." Oh, and before disappearing down the drain, the flow swirled to a stop with the facts that T, A, and M might all be shuffling what they do to some extent.

This all came at me within about the first 3 minutes in his office. It felt kinda like being hit by an ice floe, as opposed to just a nice water flow. Or maybe more like that massive blob of algae that's been floating in the North Atlantic but no one could figure out. I thought I was understanding what this meant ("Sorry. No job to offer. Go back to your desk.") but I wasn't entirely correct.

You see, next came a discussion all about how -- although each of these other people would be working on the writing-intensive projects we had been talking about 2 weeks ago -- he's thinking I might get to do some writing since they "will probably need some writing done for them." (No. Really? Let's see... We've got two completely blank websites being written by people who barely put sentences together in email. The target audience is people who know -- or at least should know -- good language. And he thinks the project leads might need some writing help? Who knew?)

But wait... There's more...

Since all of these people are going to be taking on other tasks, someone will need to be picking up the slack. The new Office Admin person will pick up some of it, but apparently -- if I'm interested -- I could also pick up some. Yep. I'm being offered the chance to pick up some of the tasks that no one else wants to do. Boy. How do you pass up a job offer like that?

Especially when you're also told that if the websites don't produce enough traffic to generate more business, everyone might go back to their old jobs. So, in 3 months or so I could be back to 15 hours per week of book orders.

Imagine how you would feel having all of that come at you in about 10 minutes. I think my brain was on overload for the next half hour of more.

Which brings me to the few bright spots I was able to pull out of all of this: (Please go with me on these as being bright spots. I can only support the Pollyanna attitude if I have help.)

1) I'll be moving to full-time hours. (Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.)

2) I'll be getting a bump in pay. (Small, yes, but still a bump.)

3) My parking will be subsidized AND in an off-street parking lot. (I think I'll be paying about what I currently pay for 2 weeks of short days for a full month of parking.)

Things I don't yet have answers to (but thanks for asking):

a) No idea if this means I'm going to be salaried or hourly.

b) No idea if this means I'm eligible for health insurance. (If you know anything about this, let me know!)

c) Not a frickin' clue what my new job description/components will be. (Granted, this is kinda the same as where I am now...)

So. Yeah. That's where it all stands. On Wednesday I give him my answer (as well as a list of any days I know of when I can't work -- probably a bunch of Fridays, just 'cuz).

After all of that, I think I need a Technicolor Pollyanna moment. (Which, happily, also makes this my Movie Monday posting. :-)