I suppose it could be worse.

The melodramatic part of me would start this blog entry by saying, "I lost my job today." But that's not fact. It's kind of how I feel, but it's not what actually happened since I'm still thankfully employed.

Instead, I'm the lucky one who is getting forcibly relocated to a different group in my department, complete with an entirely different set of responsibilities. I haven't hidden the fact that I've really enjoyed the position I've worked in since being hired--I owned a product that appealed to my sociological background and was exposed to a revolving wheel of new and different(!) research projects. Exposure to these new and different(!) things kept things interesting. Perhaps more importantly, however, was that I was good at what I did... good to the point where my (now former) manager told me today that I'm getting an 'exceeds expectations' on my yearly review. (I guess that deserves a "Yay!").

Rationally, it's most likely that my relocation isn't because of a lack of performance but because I have performed. It's also because I'm one of the very few in our department that has any amount of personal skills--not just the analytic mindset (basically I was compared against the stereotypical idea of a statistician, which is thought to be prominent in our department). However, the irrational side of me sees this as a demotion to more of a glorified babysitter role.

Time will tell if this move is as good to my career development as it's being spun by management. But today's a day I'm just overly frustrated and grumpy with the situation.

I still have a job, however. If anything, this move makes me feel like I have more job security than I did previously... they're not going to move a guy to this role (which is considered pretty damned important by the company), spend the time getting him up to speed to satisfy the client and keep them satisfied, only to let him go.

One would hope.

-KP