JOB SITUATION
(Posted 2008-03-10 14:41:27 by ArchPaladin)

My job hunting situation finally made it up the ladder to the CEO at Sedona
last Friday (it's a small company).  He wanted to meet with my supervisor
and myself to figure out the best course of action to take as to whether or
not I'm going to stay around and work for them.

They told me that they wanted to move forward with some projects that I've
been working during the bulk of my employment.  As my financial situation
stood, however, they indicated that they weren't in a position to provide
increased financial compensation unless I put in more effort.  This could
mean extra hours put in, or a tighter schedule for deadlines.  They said
that when the next big project comes around, we can all sit down and work
something out if I decide I want to stay with them.  I told them that if I
was going to stay with them and help them move forward, then I'd want
increased responsibility to manage my own work and less interference with
the high-level design portions of what I do.  They indicated that they'd
keep supervision in place, but I could assume responsibility for getting
more work done.

The short layman translation is that I get more money if and only if I'm
willing to submit to a harsher standard of work.

Now I've decided to stay, but something about this irks me and it's taken
me a long time to figure out what it is.  As a whole, their offer is not
something I'd consider unusual for the business world - in truth it's
rather expected.  The ultimate issue here is one of managerial control.  I
can work with oversight.  I find it rather useful so that I don't have to
keep paying attention to new areas of work that need to be accomplished. 
However, my enjoyment at my work decreases as I get more direct
supervision.  I don't like managers meddling in the details of my work, and
they have done that on occasion.  My concern is that my acceptance of their
offer will give them greater leverage to interfere.

I have to keep a proper perspective here, and move forward with the view
that what I'm doing is going to be helping everyone at the company.  This
way if I get interference, I can approach it with the understanding that
what I'm getting is requests and feedback rather than criticism or
meddling.  This is of course dependent on whether or not the feedback is
presented constructively, but that's outside of my control.

And above all this I wonder if my mucking around with the language
surrounding this situation is really going to be effective at changing my
mindset, or if it is just delaying inevitable arguments.

The upside is that I don't have to look for a job anymore.

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