my life

I become a Jack of all trades, and master of one.

I just thought I'd drop a line so y'all don't get all worried. I'm fine. I'm working a lot, and in several different jobs, since my group doesn't have enough Company Grade Officers to go around. I'm making up my official job as I go along (indeed, my primary job at this moment is to create my job with nothing to work with except the Air Force's ultimate goal in this area). That's frustrating enough. But we have two other captains in my section who are outbound and we don't exactly have replacements coming in, so I'll be taking over their duties, as well. (We have civilian personnel who are assuming some of them, so I won't exactly be doing the job of three captains when all is said and done. I will, however, be quite eclectic in my duties and spread very thin, I have no doubt.) Then, my chain of command has agreed to "loan" me back to my original job as crew commander as necessary, because those guys are short-manned. This is shift work, normally, but my effective boss put her foot down and said I can't be working shifts but they can have me occasionally to cover day shift during the week, just in case she needed me to do something in my normal job, as well. Also, I'll be pulling a day (hopefully no more than that) as the colonel's executive officer in a couple of weeks, a job I know nothing about how to do and don't want to. All I know about execs is that they routinely work 12+ hour days, and I haven't the time for that and school both. I already told the colonel in question that I'll be doing a day as his exec soon, and that's all I plan to do, and if he falls in love with me and decides he needs me full time based on that one day, we'll have to talk.

Oh...this is Colonel Quin I speak of, by the way. At the time we had that brief discussion, I'd just completed giving him the morning stand-up briefing. On my way in to do it, I'd been warned by my crew commander boss (Capt Joe Thomas) that Col Quin "likes to tell stories." I already knew this, but it appears that I was being warned to not expect to be in and out in five minutes. Fair enough.

I walked on down to Col Quin's office and there encountered Lt Col McGinnis. She also mentioned to me that Col Quin likes to pontificate. I nodded. She took a copy of my briefing slides and left with Lt Col Hennigan, who also would normally attend the briefing but had something else that demanded attention. Joe hadn't caught up yet, so when Col Quin walked by and said good morning to me, I told him I was ready to give him this morning's standup, if he was ready. He asked me to come in and sit down.

I gave him the brief as I would anyone else, answered all his questions, then he said, "How are you?" I said I was fine, but staying busy (doing and learning the jobs listed above). We had the exec discussion, and I left. I was in and out in three minutes, if that.

On my way down the hall, I passed Lt Col McGinnis who said, "Are you finished with the briefing already?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"It was Lt Col Hennigan, wasn't it?" (He normally takes the briefings when Col Quin is out.)

"No, Ma'am. Col Quin."

She looked shocked. "How did you do that?"

I just smiled and said, "I'm just that good, Ma'am."

Back at the crew commander's desk two minutes later, I had the exact same exchange with Joe (except I usually don't call him "Ma'am").

If Col Quin is looking for an exec who will keep him on schedule, I may have a problem on my hands here. My best bet is to deliver mediocre work the day I exec for him so he's singularly unimpressed, but don't think I'm capable of intentionally sabotaging myself like that.

And as Joe has made quite clear to me, he couldn't be happier with my performance as crew commander. Given half a chance, I'm sure he'd snatch me up. This is a job I did for about six months before I managed to get "loaned" to a regular day-time job for three months (a job I'm still in, because that boss refused to let me go once she had me, thank Karen's political savvy). I was good at the crew commander thing before, but thanks to my having spent so long working for Karen, which provides an invaluable intimate knowledge of almost everything else in the organization that crew commanders need to know but don't actually get trained on as crew commanders, I absolutely rock at it now.*

* It just occurred to me that the occasional person who doesn't know me reads this blog and probably thinks I couldn't be more full of myself. Oddly enough, quite the opposite is true. I rarely feel as though I understand organizational structure and processes while everyone around me appears to understand, meaning I spend a great deal of time feeling like a dufus. My superiors tend to be pleased with my performance, so that means I either DO understand these things after all or I have them all snowed. Rarely indeed to I feel like I'm on top of my game. It's a nice feeling, though.

So the good news is, I'm doing well at work. It's nice to go to work and know everyone you work for is pleased with you and fighting over you. The bad news is...well, no bad news yet, unless Col Quin decides he wants me as his exec. If he does, he will win automatically because RHIP.

Allow me to point out, for those of youse what don't know, that being an exec is an honor and a privilege for whoever is selected, but it's more than a full time job. The current exec, who is looking for his replacement, asked if I was interested. A few days later, Lt Col Hennigan (deputy director to Col Quin) talked with me about it. Then two weeks later, Lt Col McGinnis asked if I was interested, as she felt I'd make an outstanding exec. I explained to all that I'm halfway through my second attempt at a master's degree and intend to finish this one before I PCS again. All understood and agreed to not recommend me at my request. Seems the only person I haven't had this conversation with yet is Col Quin himself.

Something tells me that time is coming. He recently had an officer's call in which he stressed to us that, while the AF has decided that master's degrees on an officer's own time will no longer be a "discriminator" for promotion up to colonel (it has been since time immemorial), he urged us to pursue off-duty education, anyway, because...well, for two reasons. One, the AF can say it won't be a discriminator, which only means it won't officially be one; much of the promotion process, though, is subjective and in the hands of the board, which is composed of ranking officers who had to spend much of their off-duty time pursuing higher degrees, and you do the math. Two, graduate degrees do matter for promotion beyond colonel; if I don't make time when I'm a junior officer, how on earth am I expect to find time as I'm promoted and my responsibilities increase?

Anyhow. I'm done rambling. That appears to be all it was tonight, anyway. Not even particularly interesting rambling, I think. My apologies if I've bored you. I'll do better next time. Promise.

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