This blog entry is the first of two parts. Imagine going to work and being told not to do your job.
Believe it or not, this actually happened to someone I know very well. My good friend once worked for a large, unnamed public agency and he had what was considered the most enviable job in the whole organization.
He described it as theater. You are sitting in the audience waiting for the curtain to open. The waiting. The anticipation. You have been told the show will be spectacular.
The curtain opens. The drama is amazing. The orchestra is amazing. The costumes are amazing. Everyone’s singing voice is amazing. Everyone smiles. Everyone is on cue. No one forgets their lines.
It is pure amazement.
The show ends, the audience claps, and roses are thrown onstage. The cast and orchestra receive a standing ovation.
But that is only what you see.
What you don’t see is what is going on behind the scenes.
Frenetic activity… cursing… hand wringing… no one is smiling…
That is how my good friend described his three year stint as Wellness Program Coordinator for a large, unnamed public agency. You only see the spectacle and it was amazing. But you didn’t see what happened behind the curtains.
The Wellness Program sponsored the blood drive, brought in high profile speakers of wellness topics, offered health classes, and managed on onsite gym.
My friend was told not to do his job!
A brief road map on how my good friend ended up in the most enviable job in the organization – a job he didn’t actually want in the first place!
He started as a corporate trainer and loved it. Unfortunately, his boss wouldn’t promote him. He was being paid less than his colleagues but doing more work.
Then came a promotional opportunity. Two positions opened: a trainer in another office and the Wellness Program Coordinator position. My friend applied for both.
He did this to send a message to his boss: promote me or I’ll take my talent and experience someplace else that will pay me what I’m worth. He actually did not want to leave the training office – he loved what he did. My friend just wanted to be recognized for the value he brought to the training office.
My friend was interviewed for the training position in the other office and without intending for it to happen, he was offered the job. He did not want to accept the new position, but his current boss had no intention of promoting him; she could have done so on the spot. He felt stuck as you can imagine.
The Wellness Program Coordinator position had closed six months prior, but unbeknownst to my friend, no one was ever interviewed for it. The office manager in the Wellness Program had not gotten around to filling the vacant position.
My friend’s current boss asked him not to accept the new training position yet. Imagine his surprise when he was unexpectedly invited to an interview for the Wellness Program Coordinator, a job he didn’t really want; a job for which he had no experience, but for which he was qualified on paper.
Some supervisors really know how to make their staff feel guilty and my good friend’s boss was no exception. If my friend accepted the Wellness Coordinator Position, which he did, he would still be available to help in out the training office with his expertise, which in fact he did. It was as if he never left the training office. It was as if he was actually doing two jobs…
This brings us to his new job: Wellness Program Coordinator.
The large, unnamed public agency’s onsite Fitness Center (gym) was managed by the Wellness Program. A student assistant named Kay did most of the work, but was soon leaving to further her education. My friend became her immediate supervisor.
As he took charge of the Wellness Program, my friend knew he should learn all he could. Since the gym had paying customers and paid fitness instructors, it made sense to start there.
My friend decided to write a desk manual on all aspects of the new job, starting with the Fitness Center. He told his new supervisor.
Expecting his supervisor to be enthusiastic about his plan, my friend was caught off-guard by her reaction.
She told him that Kay, the student assistant would write the desk manual and the my friend should not concern himself with learning anything about the Fitness Center. My friend then pulled out his job description and pointed out the managing the Fitness Center was his first priority.
He told his new boss he would “pick Kay’s brain” and use his new found knowledge to write the desk manual. This exchange had been taking place in a closed-door meeting.
My friend’s boss became very serious and ordered him not to learn how to manage the Fitness Center!
That put my friend between the proverbial rock and a hard place, and because he was on probation, he chose to heed his boss’s direct order.
He was told not to do his job!
Kay continued to manage the Fitness Center and my friend was kept busy teaching for the training office – his old job, because they never got around to replacing him. He did Wellness Program things in his spare time, which I’m sure makes very little sense to the reader of this blog entry.
But our story doesn’t end here.
My friend’s probationary period ended six months later. He was never debriefed and never given any indication whether he passed probation or not.
According to the rules, passing probation is automatic, unless the powers-that-be decide otherwise.
My friend passed probation by default, and unbeknownst to his Wellness Program boss, he was very busy. He had been disobeying her direct order all along.
He picked Kay’s brain and learned to manage the Fitness Center.
He wrote an incredible desk manual. It became the model of what a desk manual should look like throughout the entire organization.
My good friend was not going to let his boss tell him not to do his job. He was going to do it to the best of his ability and he did.
Two and a half years later my friend left the Wellness Program for another training position within the large, unnamed public agency.
When the replacement Wellness Program Coordinator was hired, my friend introduced himself to her. He told her to call him anytime she had questions. She thanked him for writing an amazing desk manual.
She also lamented that after his three years of doing an incredible job coordinating the Wellness Program, his ghost just wouldn’t go away and all future Wellness Program Coordinators would have to measure up to him…
