c9 | Meeting with the supervisor

...to steal a subject line from Tobin. :)

I had a meeting this morning with my boss regarding my goals for the next six months. My company is finally getting around to implementing a performance management and review structure, after years of doing just about nothing. This is quite encouraging to me, but a little scary too: it's easier to get away with shit when there's no structure like this. :)

Some of you know that I've been promoted (which is to say given far more responsibilities and no new money) a couple times recently, and I have been starting to worry that I'm getting away from the stuff I actually enjoy. Lately, my time at work has been stressful (which it always was), busy (which it always was), but also focused on areas that just weren't exciting me. I was starting to worry that I was getting stuck in a management role that didn't allow me to have fun and work with technology anymore, and I realized that I missed it already.

So I talked to him about that, and how I feel like I have about 2% of my time available for stuff that I want to spend 30% of my time on. So my role has been defined a bit more specifically to give almost 50% of my time to stuff that keeps me more amused and engaged, and 50% of my time to the major accountabilities that the company needs out of me. It's hard to explain without a huge post, but they interrelate quite a bit, so the company is still getting what they want, and I'm getting reassurance that I can spend time on the stuff I love too.

I have been toying with the idea of going back into contract teaching a lot lately. Mostly, it comes from looking at our bills, and the fact that I could charge like $600/day for teaching instead. But since my first experience as a contract trainer was not so positive, there's a lot of fear there that's holding me back. I have a huge need for caution and control too, so that comes into play. Maybe someday. I did register a company and get a GST number yesterday, so I've dipped my toe in the water. :)