Marginalized.....right out the door!

So wow! I feel strange today after hearing the words from my boss that I should give up my office and just work from home all the time.

I know, you are probably thinking 'how cool' and 'how do I get that deal?', and you are probably right. It is sweet. It is a pure indication of the fact that I am trusted as a self-motivator and producer in my position, without the need for any direct management, but.....

I have been here for 3.5 years now. Coming into Seattle everyday last year and 3 days a week this year, to the same office with the same folks. It is (as offices become) a second home of sorts and I certainly have invested a huge amount of time between these walls over my term with the company. And so, I am somewhat melancholy.

If you have read any of my stuff, you know that I have been working on marginalizing myself for quite a while now, with every intention of moving on to a new job (new company) as soon as I wrap up my current infrastructure projects. In doing so, I have moved to a quiet office in a back hall, I only come to the office 3 days/week, and I speak in the background, using 'public' managers to express my needs/views and concerns. It is a powerfully quiet position, and very few people even understand what I do. I like that. I like it so much that I am proud to be the only person in an office without a title on the door. Just my name. I like that part because I have never been all that good at being a title, and there are really no labels within the company that I care to apply.

I like to call myself Special Ops.

The transition to full time remote is simply another step in a path that I have purposefully laid out (with my manager's full awareness and cooperation). He is at the point now where he is actually more concerned with my next career move than anything I am currently doing at work. He knows my projects are near completion and that come sometime between the end of July and the beginning of September, I will have to move on. If I don't, I would not be at all suprised to see him let me go at that point (honestly, for my own good).

Having said all of that, it isn't just that they are hiring new people like crazy and really do need the office space, but he is trying to help me move on by kicking me one step further out of the fold.

And so, easy to remember, Independence Day in more ways than one. What I am really going to have to do now is listen to myself and my manager and take this opportunity to truly work the process of moving on to the next thing.

Later-E