Well, a little progress (or, Catch-22 me if you can)
Well, it's been a few months since I've updated those interested about my efforts to get myself relocated, employment-wise, to a location closer to Tawana. Recently (a couple of months ago) a new complication entered the picture. The service organization I work for establishes contracts with its clients (mostly government IS departments) that outline everything the organization provides; type of service, employees qualified to perform service, types of devices serviced, etc... everything that needs spelling out. If it's not specifically spelled out in the contract, it may or may not be a big deal. If it IS specifically spelled out in the contract, it IS a big deal. Most everyone can figure out this type of situation without too much trouble. In this regard, my organization can be thought of as a managing liason between a prospective client and myself, though I wouldn't have imagined things ever becoming that formal or weighed down with that much legal exactitude.
Until the aforementioned couple of months ago.
In my younger days, I worked at one of those kinda high-tech companies. You've probably heard of them - it was called International Business Machines, or "IBM" for short. During that time, I provided much the same type of service I do now for the company I work for (STG) at many different sites and for many different clients, and in fact from time to time I return to some of those accounts under the auspices of my new employer. Gov't sites tend to change very little, and many personnel remember me from my days with Big Blue. One of these sites was the United States Mint in San Francisco. Though it no longer mints large runs of coins, it is a processing site for the new coins that come to the West Coast from the Denver Mint, as well as a general distribution site for currency. There are specialized devices used in the handling and processing of currency (actually, it's more the routing documents than the currency itself) and during my Big Blue days I was trained and became proficient in servicing those devices. It wasn't an account I visited all the time (most of my latter career was spent on second shift and I had no fixed accounts) but I got to where I could fix those boxes very quickly. Being on shift hones your diagnostic skills... when there's few others to back you up, you have to either be good or get good. I got good, and the account personnel appreciated that and had confidence in me.
Okay, that was then - fast forward to now. I'm working for STG, a smaller, hungrier service organization, subsidized by a worldwide service network. One day my manager asks me, out of the clear blue sky, about the US Mint in San Francisco. I rattle off a few things from memory, tick off the names of some of the people that I could recall, and went back to what I was doing. In almost no time my manager reaches me again. STG, it was revealed, was in negotiation with the US Mint to establish a new service contract on a number of its devices. My manager had dropped my name at the meeting and got an instantly positive reaction. Government accounts tend to keep personnel for a long time and a lot of them remembered me from my IBM years. The negotiations took on, therefore, a very promising atmosphere for STG. They could bring to the table an employee the customer already liked and was familiar with, and whose skills were a known quality - an important point for gov't accounts. They tend to have large amounts of "legacy" (translation = "old") equipment, and a service provider for such accounts will be contractually obligated to provide trained technicians for such equipment. No trained techs = no contract. Which was definitely an issue in the negotiation, and which was why my manager called me in the first place.
So. Hmm. My new employers already smell success, and why shouldn't they? A lucrative new contract, a customer already satisfied that their equipment will receive great service? A tech they already trust, one they know can keep them up and running, just waiting to be dropped into the slot? A win-win situation, right?
Well, yeah... except for one tiny, infintesimal, almost parenthetic detail:
The tech in question doesn't want it.
The tech in question joined his new employers with the plainly and clearly stated intent of working toward eventually relocating to the parent company's facilities elsewhere, and is not interested in being contractually obligated to any local account.
Are we, as the saying goes, having fun yet? O_O
I never in my wildest imaginings (and I've had some decidedly wild ones, trust me) would have thought that doing a good job would one day work AGAINST me! My new employer cannot of course feign ignorance... just last October I specifically traveled to Los Angeles for an evaluation (which you all can read about in my LJ) so they know I'm serious... but the desirabiliy of winning this contract still prompted them to try to change my mind. And on the one hand, I can't blame them... I'd hate to commute to SF every day, but to take the position would make me a Specialized Technical Representative of STG, and that means in addition to a VERY nice salary (which, if I were an evil person and decided to get an 'attitude' about all this, I could push it to an even better amount) I'd have my own office onsite - no chintzy cubicle! - my own expense account, and that every time I got in my car to do anything for the company they pay for every single mile. Commute miles to an assigned site aren't normally reimbursed, but when a Specialist drives, STG pays, period. Which (with gas as high as it is) would take a lot of the sting out of a commute that, after I got the account up to specs, I wouldn't need to do every day anyway.
On the other hand... *sigh* -_-
Well... the situation was such that, eventually, the CEO of the company got involved. He's a pretty cool guy, level headed and easy to talk to. Once, after hours at the company HQ in Phoenix, a bunch of us went out for pizza with him (think I could've done that at IBM? ^_^) and he does know what he wants out of his employees. After we pored over all the details and all the choices, we worked this agreement out: I'll get another chance at my evaluation, and having explained why I want it the CEO will back me up if I qualify. But... if I don't, and the contract with the US Mint is still under negotiation, he's going to have to tip the scales in favor of assigning it to me. He knows what my goals are, but he has an obligation to run his company as well and he can't waste employee ability when a contract may hang in the balance. What may happen (and this would be a "best of both worlds" scenario) is that they will make an exception in my case - my having joined STG with the stated intent of relocation - and assign the account to me with the provision that I train my replacement at the same time. And when my replacement is proficient enough to take my place, my assignment under the contract will end. That is far from perfect - any customer would prefer to have and keep a known quantity rather than introduce an unknown - but it hasn't been rejected by anyone in the decision-making process so far.
It does make me feel quite honored, to have my past work count so highly. :)
And what about "the object of my affections", as the song goes? Well, at the moment, making sure her parents are sufficiently cared for and free from the grasping ways of those not-really-evil-but-incompetant relatives who beg her parents for everything (and her parents, being who they are, help them even when they shouldn't) is Tawana's chief concern. There is a chance that she might be able to get her brother and some other close friends of the family to take over her position - in which case, if she's confident enough... and my new job is lucrative enough... might enable us to do a 180 in our plans and have her return to the US! ^____^ But that's all pure speculation at the moment, so.. the original plan is in effect for the time being.
Last Friday, I went for my initial reevaluation. I didn't have to deal with the person whose toes I unintentionally stepped on back in October. I didn't specifically find out what happened to him, but the impression I got was that he wasn't just unpleasant to me but to almost everyone, and that he perhaps had been let go/promoted/transferred/etc.. the shuttling of an employee to a position where "personality issues" don't matter so much. But, since last October, a few things have changed... the economic status of the location to which I wish to relocate, most of all. (Travel revenue is a big factor in the Caribbean, and with fuel prices changing all over the world, they get a 'double whammy', so to speak.) The positions that were open last year have changed a great deal - some new ones are open, others are gone. Which changes things even more for me. Sigh... -_-
I was supposed to have my follow-up session on Tuesday... some corporate issues of some kind have delayed it. Maybe today, or by the end of the week, I'll get the word.
Oh well, just think. I could have had a boring life...