Ok...here it is...

So I know, I probably held onto this so long that you are all not interested anymore but here you go.

And it's no so much gossip as it is the truth, but it's good.

Ready yet?

Are you so absolutely annoyed with me for not telling you yet?

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Mr. THIC gave his 2 weeks notice this weekend. Can I not help but smile right now? My arch-enemy has found himself a new workplace to reign over.

So here's the story:

He apparently got called by a company he had interviewed with a year ago (before he started working for us) on Thursday. They called to see if he was still interested. He said, "what do you have to offer." Apparently it was a whole lot more money because he gave his 2 weeks notice sometime over the weekend.

Yesterday when I came into work he immediately asked me if he could meet with me for a few minutes and he told me. I HAD TO TRY SO HARD NOT TO SMILE THROUGH THE WHOLE CONVERSATION. All I could keep saying was "Well, congratulations!" "When is your last day?" "Why?" "Well, Congratulations!" I am so horrible! I mean, it sucks that we now have to find a replacement (more about that in a minute) but like I've said before (and truthfully never hid from anyone) I haven't been fond on him from the beginning so I am not disappointed in the turn of events.

So onto his replacement. This is something I never really wrote about while it was going on because I didn't really know what to say or how to deal with it, but it was something that I was VERY angry about and eventually found the best way to deal with it was to just let it go. I even got to the point of applying for another job. But I got past it.

Mr. THIC was originally hired part time to be a database administrator (about a year ago). He eventually came on full time as Operations Manager (OM). When this happened, my position essentially got downgraded. It wasn't a downgrade in the sense that my pay and responsibilities remained the same, but suddenly instead of being essentially equal with the Technical Manager (TM), the technical manager and the operations manager were essentially equal, and I was below them all the sudden. It was all a theoretically organizational chart but none the less, it hurt me. Somehow made me fell like I was completely incompetent and therefore my position in the company was being downgraded. I should make it clear, that this was not the situation at all. All it was was that I work for a growing company. Part of those growing pains are a continual reorganization of things to see what works best. This was simply part of it. I got over it pretty quickly because I still was solely responsible to the owner of the company and while I was expected to work with the OM, I officially didn't have to report to him. Then a few months ago, before my boss had her baby, it became very apparent that Mr. THIC was not fulfilling his duties as OM and essentially had gotten sucked into doing a job that he should have been managing. There was a meeting between me, the TM, the OM and the owner. The OM blew up and said he felt he never had the authority to do what he wanted and blah blah blah. In my opinion it was all just excuses. Instead of stepping up and saying, "your right, let's fix it" he shut down. Shrotly after that my boss meet with all of us individually and asked our opinions on the matter and on who should be in charge giving her pending bun in the oven, and the business was at a point where it really needed an OM. She essentially said (at least to me) that the job really was up in the air and it really could be any of us, but that she was also looking for outside options. At that point I tried to put my best foot forward because I figured if the position really was up in the air, I mine as well try my hardest to show I was a leader, I was a manager and that even though I lacked some of the skills and the years of experience I could handle shit. About 2 weeks later Mr. THIC met with us and said that he had been put in charge. Quite honestly, I started crying almost immediately because I was so pissed because I felt like I worked my ass off, all day, every day and here was this guy who was essentially getting paid 2-3 times more than he should be for the job he was actually doing (not to say he couldn't do the job he was hired for, but from what I saw, he wasn't doing it). This is when I got VERY VERY angry and very very bitter. Oddly, none of this was really focused on the owner. It was solely focused on the OM because I felt that my boss what just trying to give the guy she hired to do a job, a chance to do the job he had been hired for. At this point I completely redrew from my job, I let shit slip all of the place, I let client requests go unanswered, I rarely communicated with anyone and I worked just enough for it not to obviously get noticed that I was a raging fireball inside. In fact I spent a large portion of most days writing blogs and looking for another job. I eventually applied for another job and shortly after that realized that this anger I was balling up inside was taking a HUGE toll on me physically. I felt like shit, my back hurt, I had headaches. I don't really believe in 'ah ha' moments of clarity but all I know is that in a very short period of time (a few days) I made my mind up that I did, in general, like my job and would simply do just my job. I would stop covering for him and stop working extra hours to get shit done. If things fell to shit, it would show it was because he wasn't doing his job. I let go of the anger and agreed with myself that I would communicate more with Mr. THIC, because at least it wouldn't be my fault if things weren't going well. Everyone (or at least most people), especially the owner, knew I wasn't fond of him. So that's the background on that whole canolli...

Back to yesterday/today. Yesterday the OM and the TM met with the owner outside of the office. I wasn't invited to the meeting and I don't know if it was (a) because my involvement wasn't necessary and I was not going to be called upon to do anything except what I do, or (b) because I had planned to be out of the office all day working but because of the crappy weather, ended up being back in the office by 10 am. At the end of the day yesterday, the TM came in my office to tell me something unrelated and said that "he was really excited and knew it would be a positive thing but you know, that if I was interested at all or had any questions about this whole situation to maybe give the owner a call."

Today, I went into work early this morning so the 'managers' could have a conference call with the owner to discuss this and announce it to the few who didn't know already. We then scheduled a meeting with the entire staff for later in the day to tell everyone. At this point the TM had let the manager's know that the owner had offered the job to him (he has been with the company for years and years) and he had essentially turned it down. He said he didn't have a lot of experience in the whole business side of things (marketing, admin, billing, cust. service, etc.) and really didn't have an interest in learning them. He enjoyed and wanted to continue to focus on the technically side of things. He was however the interim man in charge. I am completely ok with this because he is deserving in my opinion. Later in the day we met with everyone, with my boss conference calling in over the phone. She repeatedly said throughout the phone call that if anyone knew anyone that might be interested in the position to let her know or if anyone themselves might be interested to let her know. They had also contacted a staffing agency to search for a good candidate. "But if anyone internally was inters ted to let her know."

So here's the thing. At one point, months ago, when I thought that the position of OM was open for the taking, I was very interested in it. Now, I spent all day wondering if it was something I was interested in, wondering if it was something I could do. I mean really, I'm 25, could I even pretend to run a million dollar business? Who am I kidding? But that's the thing, is that I kind of think I could. Or at least fake it long enough to learn how to do it for real. After all, that's what I did with my current position...I had no idea what I was doing when I started. But I sure as hell do now. The position would include a hefty pay raise but it would also include a lot more responsibility and I would imagine a lot more work (and I would imagine more hours working). All day I was pondering this. That is until I had a new employee start and spent the afternoon trying to train her, while trying to get everything done before I left for the day, while trying to ponder if I even wanted to mention that I might be interested in that position, trying to ponder if I was interested. Here's another thing. I have talked to both my mom and dad about this today and both times I almost started crying the second I got to the point of discussing whether I really wanted to do it or not. I am so absolutely confused because I am starting to wonder if the only reason I was interested before was because I subconsciously knew it wasn't really available (I knew Mr. THIC was still going to be in charge) or maybe because I wanted it because I was so pissed at how things were going. Do I not want it now because there's a chance I could actually get it, or because things aren't as bad as they were? Am I just scared to get out of this rut and try for something bigger and better or am I really not interested at all in the position?

So my boss called me earlier in the day (around 12:30) and left me a voice message, just to check in before I went on vacation. At about 6:30 I still hadn't called her back. Partially because I was very busy but partially because I didn't know how I felt about this and thus I didn't want to have to talk to her about it. And I knew she would ask me something about the whole situation. Then the phone rang and it was her. For a while we just chatted about stuff to take care of while I was on vacation then she finally said "So you're probably pretty happy about this whole Mr. THIC situation, huh?" And i thought, 'Why lie at this point, she already knows I don't like him.' So I responded with "Well I'm not jumping for job but I'm not exactly disappointed." And then she continued to tell me that she had already joked with TM and OM when they met the day before that I would probably jump for joy when I heard the news...I knew it was obvious that I didn't care for him, but didn't realize it was that apparent that I dis-liked him THAT much. And then she said "Well Ms. Helper emailed me to say that her step dad might be interested and Mr. S&M emailed me to tell me he was interested (remember this post). But I was kind of waiting to hear from you......" I didn't really know how to respond because I wasn't entirely sure if she meant this in a 'just in general to get your opinion on the situation' way or in the 'I really want it to be you but can't really say that...so are you interested?" way. Then I started to say that, "well, yeah, I mean, I don't know, what are you looking for or what, I mean, what..." And she pretty much said that I should just enjoy my vacation and that nothing was going to be done for a few weeks because they had been in contact with a staffing agency and so on and so on but not to worry because we could discuss it when I got back from vacation. Then she asked exactly when I got back and said that if I was interested sometime between when I get back (late Thursday) and Monday if I wanted to get together to discuss things and discuss some other things that have happen (hiring certain people, etc.) that we could get together. To just think about things and enjoy my vacation. And that we would get together when I got back.

So there it is. The gossip. The good, the bad, the confusing. I guess I now have 7 days of beach time to think about this because I still have no idea how I feel about the whole situation (I mean, except that I am more happy than I should be that Mr. THIC will no longer be working there when I get back from vacation!).