OK, rationally, this was about number two thousand on the list of terrible things that could happen. Nonetheless…
I got named a project team lead.
Now, I recognize that, in the eyes of most, this is not a Terrible Thing. The average person (not to mention the average poster) is likely suffering under the combined business and social pressure of five or six layers of management, and would simply love the chance to give orders rather just take them. To them, this no doubt seems to be something between a totaly hypocritical pleading and a smarmy, backhanded attempt at self-congratulation.
Although this *isn’t>/i> the Pit, screw you anyway if you feel like that.
I have spent more than twenty years assiduously avoiding responsibility for other adults at work. I can and do, thank you very much, get more than enough of that elsewhere. I have previously declined to learn specific languages, applications, and hardware for my clients, going so far in one case as to tell a manager that it would be better to invest his resources in letting one of his staffers do the formal education instead of me.
I really don’t want to be heading up this project.
It is often said that “anything is possible”. In fact, very few things are possible, and most of them have already happened.
Well, on the bright side, you can make up a really cool name for your team! Might I suggest The Akatsukami Samurais. You could make up t-shirts and wear head bands and carry really long swords.
You’de be the scourge of your little cubicle plantation!
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Smilie and you smilie alone (with my contempt). – missdavis
Johnny, I feel your pain. Truly, I do. You can come here and be the project lead. Granted, you’ll have to relocate to Connecticut instead of Seattle… ChiefScott, I’ll have you know that I have a real office, with an actual door! Karmic compensation, perhaps, for once having spent 2 1/2 years sitting in a corridor next to a printer…
Quite seriously, thank you all for having a sense of proportion that I, momentarily, lost (there’s nothing like a double bourbon, a Guinness, and the last Redhook Doubleblack in the Greater Hartford area to restore a sense of proportion…or, at least, anesthetize one to the ill effects of not having one). By Monday, I’ll have setled into my new role, despite my personal distaste, and be making the pointy-haired manager in Dilbert look like a paragon of good taste and judgment (was it Lord Acton who said: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?)
It is often said that “anything is possible”. In fact, very few things are possible, and most of them have already happened.
No way in hell am I ever going to be asked to manage people. I’m a content provider, and that’s exactly what I aspire to be. Ambition is for the ambitious.
Sorry about the Red Hook there Akatsu – had I known someone else around here needed it I’d have saved ye a few.
Fret not about the leadership nonsense – I’ve never promoted anyone who wanted the job, but have always opted for the person I thought best for the job instead. Ye’ll settle into the role in no time.
I expect you’ll find that the best leaders aren’t usually the folks who know the most about the job, but rather the folks who take the most interest in getting it done. Ye need only be willing to lead and able to delegate – the rest follows naturally.
Dr. Watson
“Connecticut is nothing but a vast swamp that makes the trip from New York to Boston longer.” – Benjamin Franklin (paraphrased from memory)
