lilliebet

Four years ago the HR & Payroll department I work in went through a restructure. At the same time, we bought the Oracle HR Management System (nightmare!) and a new SysAdmin team was set up. I applied for, and got, the job of Systems Administrator, there were seven of us. All good so far. Unfortunately, Oracle HRMS wasn't quite what it was cracked up to be. When it was introduced, it was expected that many payroll jobs would be lost because Oracle was all-singing all-dancing. I dunno, maybe we bought our copy from the weasel faced guy at the Computer Fair??

So anyway, I was asked to stay in payroll until such time as Oracle was running full throttle and I could be spared. I agreed, no problem, happy to help. I'm still here! I didn't mind too much, I loved my team and was very proud of what we'd been achieving over the last few years so, for the greater good, I soldiered on but I was always concerned that I was missing out.

Just recently though, the threatened job cuts have reared their ugly heads again. Only they're not in payroll as expected.... they're in SysAdmin. The team is being reduced by two and the duties of those two posts are transferring to payroll.

It was at the point of hearing this I threw my dummy out of the pram! I'm the only SysAdmin who never physically took up the role and the others have all the experience. It was obvious to me that when it came down to interviews I'd be on a hiding to nothing and it just seemed so unfair. I'd sacrificed my opportunity for the sake of others and it had come back and bitten me on the arse. So I sulked, stamped my feet and was pretty bloody childish about the whole thing. In short, I was a cow! Luckily Bill was there to slap my arse and tell me to behave myself.

So OK I stopped pouting and, when our Senior Manager asked for expressions of interest in transferring to payroll, I volunteered. I can't say I was ecstatic about it but at least I'd have a job .....

.... and then I stumbled on something that Bill had written. It wasn't an article - it was more like class notes - but I read it a couple of times and it really hit home with me. It was about selfishness... not the miserly, miserable form of selfishness but about doing things, living your life, for your self. At least that's what it said to me.

So I thought again about taking up a new job; learning new tasks and skills; starting over; and I made a decision. If I have to put myself through all that, I'll do it my way, for me. So I'm applying for this job. It's a totally new direction for me and I'm definitely not qualified or experienced in this area. In fact the chances are I won't even get an interview but that isn't actually important and I certainly won't lose sleep over it. What's important is that I'm taking positive steps to change (improve) my life and I'm doing it for me.

This is only the first step....