Why I am Changing Jobs

It was the 8th of January and my boss, a retired USAF Brigadier General, came by and counseled me on my performance. Apparently my name had come up before my SES boss as, "Not being at my desk" as much as I should be and that he was there to let me know that senior management had been made aware of this issue.

It was at that moment that I decided I needed a new job.

If you don't know me you should be aware of the following facts:

1. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. My brother once asked me if math always came easy to me: hell no. I had to work my butt off to get through the calculus and physics at Auburn. It did not come easy and I envied those to whom the hard classes came easily. Throughout my professional career I have had to work harder precisely because I was not innately gifted. That has created a very strong work ethic to which I hold.

2. I take my professional reputation seriously. It had been over 25 years since a manager had questioned my performance and I am still pissed about that episode.

What galled me was that my performance was not the issue. The issue was that I was not warming my seat as much as one Division Director thought that I should. That manager's metric was not performance, production or quality: it was that I wasn't in my seat.

It is impossible to buy-in to an organization in which the time one spends in their seat is more important that the product which is delivered.

Luckily for me there were other opportunities and I'll be heading back to the Navy working Test and Evaluation on a number of interesting programs. I have worked for this organization before as a contractor and look forward to being productively engaged and not just warming a seat.