Time to leave?

I am not doing well on the boss man's project. The users of the first phase are not happy although I have elevated the issues to the manager who seem to be more reasonable. My former supervisor has managed to rope himself in and create divisions. There are a lot of tensions now and I am not helping out by not communicating more. I now feel that I have stuck myself into a hole. In fact, I have been assigned another project and I am fully exhausted with no time to focus on all the projects. Maybe it is time to go.

Last week, I received a mail from a former colleague who invited me to apply to another position. It is a well know drug company and I am starting to think that my time has now come to leave. I will leave a lot of projects in mid stream if I do leave. I got a mail from the HR in the drug company asking some specific questions. The position offered is lower than my current position but if the pay is better I am willing to go for it. I think I should plan some sort of transition plan or at least to off load some of my current work so I can focus on the main items in case I remain.

I have always thought that I will eventual retire in my present company. But I now feel that it may not be worth it. As my former colleague mentioned, the culture is like the survival of the fittest, where everyone if out to kill the other guy by severe criticism, spreading false rumours and being unhelpful to the others. There is no atmosphere of support and nurturing but more of a brutal and vicious cycle of betrayal and recrimination. Perhaps I am being too harsh but maybe be an after effect of the recent retrenchments.

I sent my reply to the HR of the other company yesterday. Let's see how it will turn out. It will be a welcome change if I do move and will allow me to grow to a better mental state. I guess it's time to be wise and not be the last man standing like in the movies. I have the resilience and the patience but now it is no longer fun. Nevertheless, I still have to move forward and continue to work on my projects with the mind set of continuing survival. Whew sometimes I write like I was working in a combat zone ...

Kuala Lumpur Training

I spent 3 weeks in Malaysia for training on ERP. The training was done by instructors from Mumbai, India. The last instructor on General Accounting was a big 62 year old consultant. He was very good. During the training, I spent some time answering e-mails and attending tele- conferences. So I had o leave the training for a few minutes to attend to work. But is was a good 3 weeks although it was not as fun as in Bangkok. I went back to Singapore for the weekend as my brother and his wife was visiting from Manila. We went for the usual river cruise and dinner in China town. We also had a good dinner of chili crab at Vivo City.

I went back to the training, travelling by bus. The training was a good break and allowed me to re-think about the work with the boss man. The boss was not pleased about my attention to other tasks and brought this displeasure to the head of our department - CIO of the Asia region. I had a chance to speak to the CIO this week after I gave him a briefing on the ERP training yesterday. He said not to worry as he understood the situation. He said he will protect me. He laughed when I said the the boss man is high maintenance - someone whose feelings are hurt if attention is not placed towards him.

But the rules of the game will be changing. I am working on a new project and I cannot devote the same amount of time to the boss man. So we discussed with my boss and the other management people about the possible changes. Some proposals will be raised with the intention of adding other resources to the work with the boss man. I think I am finally leaving his shadow after enjoying working with him. I still like working for him and I hope to play some role in the future arrangement. I still feel indebted to him for his recommendation which resulted in my becoming a variable pay employee. I think with the recent retrenchment, being involved in the boss man's company maybe a wise move in case I need help in the future.