Trees on the Beach, a Blog

So I've moved on after 13 years.  I'm still in the same, very large, organization, but I manage IT again.  This time it's a little scary, as the stuff I now manage is very sensitive and politically-charged, and I've got the disadvantage of not knowing the place and people I now manage.  But it was a necessary move.  I was sitting in a cube with no assignment and no respect for my management.  My ex-peers are still in that situation and they are miserable.  We still communicate. This is the problem with state government.  Appointees come in like super-heroes, but they don't know anything.  They sort-of manage for 4 years, then they're all terminated, replaced by new appointees that the new governor appointed, and they don't usually know anything, either.  Meanwhile, the people who hold the place together are forgotten and dismissed, and talked about by the governor in the press as if they are burdens on the state.  You get shit on by po...

So tomorrow I put in my two-week notice for my current agency.  I work next week, which will be short due to the Labor Day holiday, and then the week after that I take my vacation. After 13 years, I will be leaving my current job.  I worked myself up into a management position and did a good job, I think.  I saved the agency money several times, implemented a couple of money-saving programs that are still used today.  I completed my master's degree at this institution.  Got a promotion here.  Introduced modern smartphones into the environment and did away with the old Blackberry devices.  I managed a massive upgrade of server technology, .NET Framework technology, and SQL Server.  I made a lot of friends and then saw some of them terminated, many moved on, and some are still stuck in what has become a terrible place to work.   I work in government.  An election, especially a party change, means everything changes for you on the ...