Jumping the Portage Ship

No...I'm not leaving, but others are. During our weekly staff meeting last Friday, two of the senior policy advisors (well, the only two senior policy advisors in our team) announced that they were leaving for other positions within the public service. One is leaving for NRCan on May 2 and the other, which was my co-op supervisor is leaving for CIC on May 9. I knew something like this was going to happen (more on this later), but I didn't know it would be this soon! To top off the news, our director left for a 4-week vacation starting today, and (yes...there's another and) another policy advisor is dividing her time between our team and another team. Basically, this leaves my team with 2 junior analysts, 1 analyst, 1/2 policy advisor, and 1 director. Riiigghhhttt.....(and why is it so hard to staff people?)

So now, me and the other junior analyst will be taking on the two senior policy advisors' files. And they are not just any ordinary files. They are like major files with major impacts on the lives of Canadians. We'll definitely be doing a lot of learning this summer. I'm a little freaked out about what I will have to be doing. Although I will appreciate this grand learning opportunity, it's definitely going to a lot of weight on my shoulders. I do hope they will be able to staff those two positions rather quickly. But I doubt it since there are a couple of other competitions waiting to be completed. Alas, I'm definitely going to miss those two. We get along very well and they make work so much more enjoyable. Hmm...maybe I'll be able to get a stint with CIC in the future. Hahaha. But I will jump the Portage Ship in about 2 years. My plan is to stay with the same team for at least 2 years -- to show some commitment and to prove myself as a policy analyst/project advisor -- before looking for other opportunities.

Back to why I think the two decided to leave. During my time at Service Canada as a student, we had an awesome director. She was very nice and calm about everything, even when we missed deadlines or didn't complete something on time. She was very approachable and encouraged her staff to do their best. Anyway, when she accepted a job with TBS in September, we were all very sad and disappointed. Then, for two months, we had no actual director, but an acting director in my co-op (but then FSWEP) supervisor. Everything was fine and dandy. Then we hired the new director. Although I did not get a chance to work with him that much, because I was only working part-time then and he was always at meetings, we rarely had a chance to talk. But I could sense something was differently because the two seniors were a little flustered with some of the stuff he requested them to do and the approach to our projects were just completely different. On top of that, they would come in at 9 and leave at 5. Before, they would come in a little early and leave a little later. Odd right? Then, when I returned in March, the same feelings were exhibited and I could tell that they were even more unhappy with him.

Well, that was just my opinion and my observations, but I do know that when a director isn't the best director, it does affect your team's attitude and work ethics. I do wish the two all the best in their new positions. I now need to find new people to talk about hockey and football (soccer). Darn.