Whew...that was fun

The past two weeks have been wild!!! Last week was e-week at work and I spent a ton of time doing that. The kids really enjoyed the competition, but man it was stressful. We had to constantly look at the rules and make sure it was as fair as possible. In the end, the competition was fierce, but one of the underdogs pulled out and won the thing. Good times! I spent soooo much time that week and the week before getting ready, on top of supporting the production line and learning as much as I could. It was a long, tough week but I really enjoyed all the planning and power. At one point the plant manager even asked me and another guy to make the decision and go with it. Pretty awesome!

Then this week came along. My boss was out most of the week and stuff just seemed to keep going awry. I worked with my QE and we took care of the issues on our end and I think we took care of it in a very professional manner. I stayed late every day to help clean up the mess and get stuff running smooth again. I didn't mind it, but I was being pulled in so many directions and that got frustrating. So this whole time, my boss is gone and yet the ME group is pulling it together and making things run. Boss shows up today and things are pretty good, except I find out one of my projects has hit a major hurdle that could put us behind a week or two. I tell my boss and he flips. Goes into this "do whatever it takes to get this done" mode. Typically, I would probably roll with it, but this time I was already stressed and super tired. I start telling him how stretched thin I am (we are missing at least three MEs right now) and how I can't get the priorities of stuff straight. He basically tells me I need to both support the floor (by being out there) and get this project done (which involved very little true work on my part, mostly just bugging people). I go into his office to discuss this project further and the conversation ends (as I am telling him how busy I have been) with him telling me that I need to be careful how I use my time at work and not to use it for personal stuff too much (instant messenger, browsing the web, etc). I instantly take this to mean he's accusing me of being so busy because I'm goofy off at work. So, needless to say, I've been upset this evening. Here I am working my butt off as a level 1 (when I will be eligible for level 3 in just a few months) and getting talked to about doing personal stuff at work. I couldn't believe it.

I thought moving to this new program would help me stay around a little longer, but I am just about done dealing with it here. I rode my bike through town and there are a ton of abandoned houses and houses for sale around here. It is kinda scary.

I feel much better now that I blogged about it. I will keep working hard, and if I don't get recognition, I know that my recognition is somewhere else (up high). It's really frustrating and I will probably discuss it with my boss tomorrow. In the meantime, I think I'll start job hunting again. Any of you want to hire an over-achieving mechanical engineer?