Frontiers, well Frontiers is a bit different. Let me paint you a picture... You've met all your immediate colleagues (virtually, of course) , the training wheels have come off, and you finally feel like you (sort of) know what you're talking about in meetings. Then, you're asked to join a project group - hurrah, your day of recognition has come! The project group starts off well. You meet and greet, you start talking about your objectives, people throw around ideas, and you feel like your actually contributing to something bigger and more exciting than your day to day. You crack on with doing the thing the project set out to do. Yeah perhaps it’s quite ambitious, but you know what, the group is going give it a damn good crack anyway. A month passes by, and you hear something odd. The project lead drops into conversation that 'senior leadership would like…', and you're left a bit puzzled. Hang on, what do they know about [insert your specific field of expertise]? And why are they taking an interest in this pretty mundane thing? Next thing you know the project lead is talking about 'the next steps' which you could have sworn you've never seen before. The project scope and objectives have been completely redefined, your work scrapped. Nobody can explain why, and perhaps more worryingly, nobody questions it. And you're left thinking, wait a minute, what just happened? Am I imagining things? Sadly, this is not a one off occurrence. Senior leadership have developed a culture of followership which does not question and does not challenge. It is a one way street. There is much talk about listening to your feedback. But it is, in the most part, not genuine. While there are clearly some areas that have middle management worth their salt, I was unfortunate to experience that unsavoury flavour of kick-down and kiss-up boss. A person like this can disempower a whole department, sow chaos and confusion, leaving you desperately treading water to stay afloat, meanwhile waiting for the next bomb to drop. Yes, the paycheck is shiny. And yes, you can get to work from the comfort of your own home, with your best furry friend to keep you company. But seriously, save yourself the pain. Your blood-pressure and therapist will thank you for it.
