QUALITY OF LIFE

There are big changes afoot in the Fairy household- aside from the pending baby even.

On July 1, the husband and I are both starting new jobs and both of us are starting jobs outside of the respective personal professions we have both been in since college.

We are both staying within our current companies. The husband took a fantastic opportunity in global sourcing. He's working in a newly created small group with a ton of work that reaches all aspects of the business and each and every site world-wide. For someone who likes to learn/do something new and needs a challenge this is going to be perfect for him. Also, he's moving in the direction of managing people and this is going to give him an opportunity to do that.

I am moving from QA Validation to Process Engineering. I couldn't be happier. I will be involved in current manufacturing operations and in the technology transfer to new products from R&D to commercial manufacturing. This is the stuff that I just love. I have been involved in it through my current role over the years a little bit, but now I am going to the other side to drive it.

In the last few years, I realized my current capacity was starting to slowly rot my soul. It's a really tough and thankless job, you have no option other than being the asshole and it sucks. The longer you do it, the better you are, but it never ever gets easier. It's always a battle.

Being in quality means your are target and you are going to have to fight for every little thing. Some people think you are pushing for something because you are an asshole and you just want it that way. Some people recognize that what you are doing it something that is driven by quality. And to most people, it doesn't matter they will do anything and everything to make it difficult for you. People love to try to bully people in my position... this shit doesn't work with me, but what it does do is piss me off and make me more jaded. There's nothing left for me to learn and hasn't been for years.. and at this particular facility there are no opportunities for me other than to keep shoveling the shit I have been shoveling (even my director recognizes that).

For years now I have been explaining basic concepts to people too stupid to grasp them. Everything I do is to 1) make the product safe/safer, and 2) try to prevent the company from ended up in a nasty position with the FDA.

My signature has always carried the weight of quality. I can't sign bullshit, I can't sign omissions or truth spinning, I can't sign incomplete or half assed work. Because if I do, it's me who has to explain it to the FDA, not the other people who signed it and not the person to did/wrote the shit.

I have been continuously surprised by the lack of personal professionalism over the years. That whole throw shit to the wall and see what sticks and the put your name on it thing absolutely mystifies me. As does the generation of documents that make no sense and look like they were formatted by a drunk monkey.. I mean come on.

So since my first day on the job out of school, I have done this work, and my signature has carried the burden of quality. As of July 1, for the first time in my professional life, it will no longer.

I am so freaking happy, I can barely explain it. Let someone else take the burden. I am going to have the opportunity to develop more in the technological/engineering and problem solving direction without it!

It's going to be a different way of thinking, a different end goal, and I am going to have a lot to learn.. I cannot wait. I don't want to manage people, I want to solve tech problems, make things work, and make big projects happen. This is perfect for me.

Not only that, the person I will report to in this position is someone I have worked with for consistently for a couple years now who is seriously in my top three favorite people in the facility. It's been a while since I got to work for someone I actually like. Bonus, the director of the new department I am also a big fan of- take care of his people, brilliant, and makes decisions/makes things happen (you would think this was baseline, but trust me there it is not).

I have also talked a little about in the past how odd the politics are at this facility. At lot of discussions that should be low level are generally high level. It's usually pretty ridiculous and can be absolutely maddening until you have your numbing. Once you figure out the ins and outs it can be very useful or depending on the director, constantly frustrating.

When I put in for this job, I told my boss and my director. I told my boss because he's going to find out and anything I can do to make him be less of an asshole is worth it to me in the long run. I told my director because I genuinely like her as a person and I didn't want to catch her off guard or put her in a position where she felt betrayed.

It sounds like when things started happening with this job it all happened between the directors (even I was in the dark about most of it) and this has been going on since like early April when it opened. When it all settled out and the offer was about to be given that all that went through the directors too. I didn't know the position was mine until my director pulled me in last week to tell me and ask me if there was anything she could do to convince me to stay (very nice gesture, but even she admits the department has nothing to offer me).

Even the start date had been negotiated between the directors. Honestly, I was floored- it was about 3 weeks. I absolutely thought I would need to stay around and finish up some of the really big projects I am working on- within my department, I have no backup.

It took me a minute when all this was going on to realize that my boss had no idea. It was all happening over his head! There are reasons for this I am sure, but from my point of view it was hilarious.. and it put me in a really sweet position.

It just so happened he decided to be an asshole to me again on Wednesday afternoon.. just for kicks I am sure and treat me like his fucking monkey again (he does this to everyone who works for him- he's a new manager, moved up to manager about 3 months before I was hired to work for him and a horrible manager. The company recognizes it but does nothing. He has very seasoned people working for him which is the only reason I think no one has taken a swing at him yet).

Wednesday was just it for me. I already knew I was going to sign the offer, I'd already seen it. I knew he didn't know about it. That was just the final push I needed to drop the bomb on him. So 5 min later, I sighed the offer and dropped the: "I thought you would like to know I accepted that process engineer position. (Then because I absolutely knew what his response would be, I added:) My start date is July 1."

Blink. Blink. Once he pulled his shit together, he said: "Well. Typically, the hiring manager and the current manager will get together and decide on a start date, so that may not be the case."

To which I responded, "I am pretty sure all that was worked out previously between the directors, that is where the July 1 date came from. But if that doesn't work for you, I am sure you can feed back with them and maybe they can work something out."

And left. It was as beautiful.

I couldn't have asked for a better exit. The director had her reasons I am sure, but the end result was a parting gift to me.

In the meantime, he's got a shit ton of my work he just inherited (I doubt they will be able to back fill me anytime soon just based on current company policies). Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

It's nice when your hard work finally comes back around to you.

The new chapter begins July 1.