Friday, June 16, 2006

One down, one to go

I had the meeting with my boss today. She started by asking if I am interested in the position.

I told her that I had made some decisions over the last few weeks and I've decided that I need to look for another job. I explained how financially it would behoove me to look elsewhere. She thanked me for my honesty and asked me some questions about what I am looking for, and again agreeing with me that in order to live that "traditional" family life you need to leave LA. She understands my desires and was very supportive.

She then asked what would it take money wise to keep me. I told her I would want the top tier of my pay scale. That would mean an increase above the standard 6%; in order to get more, the job has to go before a review committee and since I do not have a clinical background they'd never approve me. She knows that they can't pay me what I'd like to be making.

I then said I wish that I could tell you that my only reason for wanting to leave is money based. I feel that I have been set up to fail in this position from the beginning. Not all of the information that I needed to do my job was given to me. It was held under lock and key by the woman before me, we'll call her B for short. Frequently, I would come into emails from her where she will have me do the admin steps of a project that I knew nothing about; like fax this mail this copy this. I felt like I was her assistant.

The other problem is that the hospital administrator is very fond of B and frequently choose to communicate with her rather than with me. Granted she did ask when I could come back after 5:30 to meet with her and B. I was also offered an additional 40 hours of training which would have to take place after 5:30 M-F or on the weekends. Um, its freaking summer f. that.

I also mentioned to my boss that it is incredibly insulting for another manager, my former boss, to come to me in the middle of the morning and ask me if I have B's phone number, she needed to ask her a question. I looked at her like she was crazy and said no. How on earth can I be successful at a job when I'm not even the person that people will come to for questions related to the job. Granted, I may not know the answer; but you have to give me the opportunity to figure it out, use my resources and get an answer. Don't call B and ask her. Not everyone was like that, many people preferred dealing with me because I treated them nicely. But those key people the administrative end of the hospital had no faith in me.

So now I have a stack of resumes on my desk and I get to rank them according to greatness.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not in any jeopardy of loosing my job. They can't fire me for a job that I was never hired for; I can just go back to my old job. And hopefully I'll have a job within 2 weeks!

1 comment:

Joanne S said...

Wow! That was a wonderful response at your meeting. Not negative. Good input (which they will ignore) and when they asked what your price was---you had them. I was holding my breath as I read the next lines--I SO did not want you to stay there.

B sounds likes she may be playing around with the administration--trying to get more money or more adulation. Seems to be working.