Whither, change?

Things are going on at work. Which I suppose is like saying “water is wet” or “the sky is blue”. Things are always going on at work. And elsewhere. But changes seem to be afoot. Our recently graduated apprentice meat cutter quit and took another job. So that position is open again. It was posted on the jobs board yesterday. On the listing it says “Lead Candidate Identified“ meaning management has already got a pretty good idea who is going to get the position.

During the course of the day, I’d heard the same name keep coming up, so I went to the person and asked him directly if he was interested in the job. Turns out not only was he, but he also said that the store manager had approached him to ask if he was interested. Which I have to admit has never happened to me, at least in this company. But the fact that this person is an assistant manager in his own department has me thinking about the future. Should he get the job, his position will be posted. And of all the people in my store, I would far and away be the most qualified to post for the job. I have the seniority, experience, all the factors that would make me a decent choice, the only flies in the ointment would be my age, and physical abilities. Also, I might be interested in retiring in a year or so, therefore that might not make me the best candidate if they’re looking long term.

I’m not trying to talk myself out of the position, just trying to get a line on the mental gymnastics before I put in an application. This isn’t the first time I’ve been in this situation. There have been other positions open before where I was eminently qualified, but at that time my department manager was basically the reason why I didn’t jump ship. I liked working for him, and as he got older, I felt that he would be better off if I stayed in the department to help. We never had that conversation where it was expressed, and soon after he died anyway, so that sort of left me in the lurch. Definitely not something you can plan for, and for the past two years, I’ve been sort of looking for an escape hatch. The current department manager is someone I like, we get along, but the department itself hasn’t significantly improved, because of factors that are beyond anyone’s control. I’m not going to get into the nuts and bolts of what’s happening, simply because it’s not anyone’s business here, and no one can really do anything about it anyway.

At any rate, a decision doesn’t have to made for at least a couple of weeks. The position will be posted until next Friday, and then who knows how long it will take before any applicants will be interviewed. Once that happens, the job I might be interested in will be posted (if the person above gets it), and supposedly that will be a two week period of interest, followed by interviews, dithering and so on before that decison is made.

So, changes may be afoot. Stay tuned…