Promotion in Transition

I want to write about something good, it’s about time I had a bit of good news as I’ve had enough bad things happen to last me a lifetime. Most of you already know this from Facebook but it needs to be blogged as well.

A couple of promotions came up at work, there were seven of us going for two jobs, we had the interviews last week and I’ve been offered one of them! It’s a 20% pay rise, new challenges and responsibilities. I’m so excited. I’ve never been promoted before. I was disappointed when I didn’t get the team leader position a few months ago, but it’s worked out for the best as the pay rise for this one is even bigger and I don’t even have to manage anyone. I’m glad all my hard work has paid off as well. There are certain people on my team who do the absolute bare minimum they can get away with, whereas I always do all of my own work and then see if anyone needs any help with theirs. I’m also the only person who does all the regular admin that everyone on the team should be picking up. But I made a rod for my own back as they all came to learn that I would do it, so none of them even bothered trying. Annoyingly, it’s the woman who does the least work who is the most annoyed that she didn’t get the job. She was asking what I answered to certain questions in the interview and getting angry when her answers were similar, and yet she didn’t get the job. Sorry love, but they didn’t make their decision based entirely on a 15 minute chat, they’ve been watching us and taking everything into account, be aware of that! Every month, I always log at least twice as many jobs as the next person and everyone else on the team. I was getting pissed off with everyone, wondering how they were getting away with it for so long (I’ve worked here 18 months) but it obviously hasn’t gone unnoticed, as my manager said he’s impressed with my work ethic, my volume of work, my knowledge and attention to detail. FINALLY all my slaving away has paid off, so it was definitely worth it.

Just in case I haven’t explained what I do, I work in facilities management. At the moment I’m on the helpdesk; I take calls from customers who have blocked toilets, broken door handles, lights gone out etc. and log the jobs. I then pass these jobs onto our resource planners who arrange for them to be completed. So they’re in charge of the engineers’ diaries, both static on site engineers, and mobile ones who drive around the country. If engineers can’t attend, we have sub-contractors. Subbies are used either if our engineers are too busy or too far away, or if it’s a specialist job that our engineers can’t do such as lift (elevator) repairs, CCTV issues etc. so they raise purchase orders for subbies and for parts and supplies for our engineers. Our clients a hugely varied: we have Waterstones stores, Cineworld cinemas, Apple stores, schools, hospitals, police stations, shopping centres including One New Change in London and Princesshay in Exeter, offices, fire stations; the list goes on. My new job is going to be the resource planning, which is a lot more responsibility as they’re the people who are responsible for making sure that jobs are completed on time, including emergencies like gas leaks, floods etc. and also making sure we aren’t spending too much money getting them completed by trying to save time and money on travel expenses, avoiding subbies where possible as they cost more. Exciting things, I can’t wait to get my teeth into it!

The good news was tainted was sadness, though, as one of my first thoughts was that I couldn’t wait to tell Jay. It only lasted a split second, but it was painful nonetheless.

I know I was talking about moving up north, but I’ve been thinking about what I would be moving away from, with the friends I’ve made, my roller derby team, and now I’ve got this promotion I’m erring back on the side of staying here. Once the house is sold, I could rent somewhere a bit closer to work for six or 12 months and see how things go, no need to jump straight into buying somewhere right away.
Mam and dad are pleased for me, but they still seem to think I’ll be moving back up north immediately. I said I would take the job, and they thought I meant I would take it FOR NOW just while things are being sorted, and then move back up as soon as I could. I had to explain that this is a large salary and I don’t think I could get something of the same salary up there. Mam came back saying “But you wouldn’t need to earn as much.” I don’t know why she thinks that, houses cost a lot more up there so I would need to be earning MORE in order to get a decent mortgage. I do feel bad for getting their hopes up of me moving back, I guess I shouldn’t have listened to my knee jerk quite so readily.

2016, what a year, it’s going to stay etched in my mind for the rest of my life. I’ve had more happen to me than a lot of people have in a decade. My year in review is going to make very interesting reading.

Last updated December 02, 2016