results reporting rigamarole

as i mentioned in my previous post, i went for a lateral transfer from my original work as systems bean counter to results bean counter. here's a description of the two:

• systems bean counter - deriving from the big jar of beans how many each beans are of what kind, whether they be garbanzos, mongo, peas. i have no immediate idea whether these beans are making money or not. and i work with IT primarily with these tasks
• results bean counter - reporting how much beans the overall company makes to the regional headquarters

yes, i know. i'm not good with folksy analogies.

this was one of the few times i went out, approached the bosses, and expressed my ambition to be a results bean counter. maybe it was the prospect of hitting 30 with still being unsatisfied with my career, or seeing a college classmate becoming the chief bean counter of the same company, or feeling the need to take charge of my career, so i asked.

fortunately, the office needed a results bean counter more urgently than a systems bean counter, so instead of hiring another bean counter to fill in the results position, i got the job. although it is a lateral position, the exposure to information and people would be more critical.

however, i'm still apprehensive of the distinction with the elite & not-so-elite officers status of this company. i'll regale my 2-3 readers on that on a subsequent post.

my rant right now is about turning over the new position. the results position was opened because the current one is resigning out of stress. her concerns are a very task-oriented demanding boss (which i faced to a greater degree in my old job) and a perceived-not-so-competent semi-boss (which i faced to a greater degree in my first job); so these are not really my problems.

my problem now is the way she was handing over the tasks. for her, there is no overriding concept that ties up all the tasks i've been taught. it's just a series of tasks that have to be done before the deadline, there is no chain, no reason, and no encouragement to seek out new ways of working (which i miss with my previous boss). i tried to inject some ways of doing stuff better, but she'd just wave me off as being too trivial, with the focus on submitting the work NOW, not learning how or why we have to submit it. (the fact that she's younger doesn't really help either, plus her self-acknowledged attitude of non-kindness.)

we have this comedian officemate who rewrites tasks using microsoft excel just so he has his own understanding on how this is done (he was assigned to catch some of my tasks and i like his approach on how he absorbs his work). i just wish more people would be that open.

then my not-so-considerate self says, she's leaving, so you can *own* the work, and it can be your diskarte, your own approach.

so by next April, it's my show now.