Gypsy
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2005
- Messages
- 40,225
So background for those who don't stalk Gypsy's life. I am a Contracts Manager and have been for a few years. Just got a new job in a different type of Contract Management a month ago. TRUE STORY
I like Contracts Management, the way I was doing it before-- "PRE-AWARD". So actually getting the contracts into place, drafting, negotiating, and revising. I am really good at it, and yes, I like it. Is it hard, yes.
The new job is "POST-AWARD" Contract Management so it is basically contract compliance (making sure the work my COMPANY is doing for another matches the contract that was agreed on by the parties). Baby sitting basically, but with a nanny cam manned by Atilla the Hun. You get two managers at this place: your reporting manager (More senior Contract Manager) and your project manager (A person who is the ring master in a circus as far as I can tell).
So far at this job I've been told... "this is not the place for independant thinking, when I say Jump, Jump as high as you can" by my project manager (AKA Atilla the Hun) and "You are it, the last bastion of sanity on the project I absolutely NEED you to think outside the box and be vigilant about everything" by my reporting manager.
And MY two managers can't stand each other. Neither really trumps the other though when it comes to assigning me work. And both of them tell me to prioritize their projects over the other (which basically means-- just get it all done, don't ask what's a priority it all is), then get mad when I tell them what the other told me.
It's insane. Just take sanity and chuck it out the door.
And then there is the CEO of the project (Circus Owner)
On my first day the CEO of the project walks into the conference room where we are ALL gathered pissed of as all heck, slams everything around looking for a marker for the whiteboard. Finds one then writes in HUGE writing "THERE IS NO 'Z' JUAREZ" ( Juarez is just a stand in for the project name which is confidential).
Yes, you read that right. No Z in JUAREZ.
Everyone in the room nods as if God has spoken and is silent while writing that down in their note pads.
I snorted once when I read it. THE ONLY SOUND IN THE ROOM. The CEO looks death daggers at me. Then you can SEE the light go on in her head. So WITHOUT A WORD, she turns around and changes it to say: "THERE IS NO "Z" <in the middle of> JUAREZ." and SLAMS out of the conference room.
That's what what my new job is about. C Level Executives that started at COMPANY right out of school, went through 'trial by fire' and have now been 'forged' and are treated like Divine Right of Kings exists in their little project fiefdoms. No one thinks independantly. And it is MY JOB (as a person who is SEVEN levels below this woman) to tell her when she is wrong so she can fix it before the client finds out. People were typing the project name wrong (by adding a letter in the middle) and that's how she chose to handle it.
I'm Quality Assurance and Contract Compliance to a God.
I like Contracts Management, the way I was doing it before-- "PRE-AWARD". So actually getting the contracts into place, drafting, negotiating, and revising. I am really good at it, and yes, I like it. Is it hard, yes.
The new job is "POST-AWARD" Contract Management so it is basically contract compliance (making sure the work my COMPANY is doing for another matches the contract that was agreed on by the parties). Baby sitting basically, but with a nanny cam manned by Atilla the Hun. You get two managers at this place: your reporting manager (More senior Contract Manager) and your project manager (A person who is the ring master in a circus as far as I can tell).
So far at this job I've been told... "this is not the place for independant thinking, when I say Jump, Jump as high as you can" by my project manager (AKA Atilla the Hun) and "You are it, the last bastion of sanity on the project I absolutely NEED you to think outside the box and be vigilant about everything" by my reporting manager.
And MY two managers can't stand each other. Neither really trumps the other though when it comes to assigning me work. And both of them tell me to prioritize their projects over the other (which basically means-- just get it all done, don't ask what's a priority it all is), then get mad when I tell them what the other told me.
It's insane. Just take sanity and chuck it out the door.
And then there is the CEO of the project (Circus Owner)
On my first day the CEO of the project walks into the conference room where we are ALL gathered pissed of as all heck, slams everything around looking for a marker for the whiteboard. Finds one then writes in HUGE writing "THERE IS NO 'Z' JUAREZ" ( Juarez is just a stand in for the project name which is confidential).
Yes, you read that right. No Z in JUAREZ.
Everyone in the room nods as if God has spoken and is silent while writing that down in their note pads.
I snorted once when I read it. THE ONLY SOUND IN THE ROOM. The CEO looks death daggers at me. Then you can SEE the light go on in her head. So WITHOUT A WORD, she turns around and changes it to say: "THERE IS NO "Z" <in the middle of> JUAREZ." and SLAMS out of the conference room.
That's what what my new job is about. C Level Executives that started at COMPANY right out of school, went through 'trial by fire' and have now been 'forged' and are treated like Divine Right of Kings exists in their little project fiefdoms. No one thinks independantly. And it is MY JOB (as a person who is SEVEN levels below this woman) to tell her when she is wrong so she can fix it before the client finds out. People were typing the project name wrong (by adding a letter in the middle) and that's how she chose to handle it.
I'm Quality Assurance and Contract Compliance to a God.
(and remember a lot of the companies operating here in OZ also have operations in the US so if you do come over for a few years it would be easy enough to get a transfer back to the US later on if you wanted it).
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