Category → Work
Smart Phone a Necessity
If you are like me the Internet has become a large part of my life where I learn and express myself among other things. I have several computers in my home and my children have grown up with computers available to them. I have been on the Internet since it was nothing more than a black screen with links on the screen navigated by arrow keys. I remember a day when there were no such things as search engines as we know them today. We used tools like Gopher, Archie, and Veronica. I remember when Usenet was a major breakthrough in technology. I remember the excitement of this new invention called Mosaic, the first World Wide Web browser.
Being connected has always been important to me as a ham radio operator. Since I work at a government agency, it is expected that freedoms would be limited. Over the years they have become computer oriented and forced the work force to become computer literate or lose out on their benefits. People use to hate the computers but our employer pushed it upon us. I had no problem with it but I clearly remember others fighting it with all they had. Now they have eliminated personnel offices and now you must go online to be able to edit your retirement, medical, and insurance benefits. If you do not get online, you will not be able to get to your benefits.
Through the passage of time, the same people that have pushed this upon all employees, are now restricting access to virtually everything. One by one they have eliminated access to web mail, social networking, and plenty of other sites. Just this morning I noticed that my own site is now blocked from viewing from work. I am not sure if the reason my site was blocked was because it is a blog, or if it is because I have visited it too many times. I do understand there are reasons for these restrictions because many people do not want their tax dollars to be used for paying employees’ a salary while posting on Myspace. There are other reasons such as the malware that has become prevalent online. What ever the reason, it has made it virtually impossible to check your email or do anything online from work, even on an official lunch break. My work has even banned the use of flash drives, a tool that we used every day for official business. I understand their are threats out there but the government always goes to the extreme on everything. I know it is only a matter of time that we will not be able to go to any web site that is not a .mil, or a .gov domain. They have already made it where you have to digitally sign every email you send if it has an attachment or a URL in it.
For this reason, I am determined that when my cell phone contract expires, I am going to get a smart phone. For financial reasons I have delayed going to this because I have too many expenses to deal with going to college again. As a ham radio operator, I run two repeaters while connected to the Internet allowing world wide communication over a small radio. With this license, also comes responsibility to patrol the frequencies and make sure that our station operates within the guidelines of the laws that govern their operation. I control the operation of these systems over the Internet. Also I just like being able to use the Internet when I am not home and when I am not on work time, I would like to research. I am so tired of not being able to even check my email from work. It looks like the time has finally come to get a smart phone with Internet. My biggest challenge will be waiting for my contract to expire in June so I can change my plan and still get a discount on a new phone.
To many people it seems foolish to even consider staying connected while mobile. I have met some people that complain that they want to leave their cell phones at home when they go on vacation. Not me! I like being connected where ever I am. If I am not in the mood to talk to someone, I can just send them to voice mail. With that said, I believe I will just have to adjust and make this finally happen. No more having my employer preventing me from checking my own email while on my break time. It is important enough to me that I am finally willing to break down and purchase a smart phone and actually pay for the service. Many times I get phone calls telling me about someone misbehaving on our repeaters and I need to turn it off remotely. Without this ability, I lose control of a system that I am responsible for. So again, I guess it is finally time.
Happy Spring
In life it is difficult to find anything that has universal appeal the way the arrival of Spring does. There is just some sort of psychological effect that Spring time brings on people. Every year there is something in the air when the trees start to bloom, the birds are singing and it is warm outside. Even the air smells fresh to breathe and I want to go out as much as possible. This fresh air does not really apply at my house since an oil company has been drilling for oil less than a half mile from my house. Now when I go outside, I can smell oil any time the wind comes from the South.
Since my vacation time has reached the use or lose point, I took off today on this first day of Spring. The world is a better place today or at least I can pretend. I sure wish my advisor would write me back and tell me that my paper is great as is and that no other work is needed. I know… I can dream on this first day of Spring. As I am watching television posting this message, Little House on the Prairie is coming on. Now this is not a program that I would typically watch but it does have a strange nostalgia attached to it. I remember going to visit my grandparents in New Mexico as a kid and my tough Grandpa Taylor would be watching this show. It was so ironic that he would be watching this because I saw him as such a tough, strong guy. He died in 1980 and I still miss him today.
Also my mom was always into Westerns and so seeing one reminds me of her. My mom’s favorite place in the world was Tucson, Arizona. She would love to go see “Old Tucson Studios” where many cowboy shows were made including several from John Wayne. Since we always went there as a child, that was my first choice in bases when I joined the Air Force. I filled out my “dream sheet” and selected Davis-Monthan AFB as my first choice and they gave it to me. That was where my wife and I had our first home and where my oldest son was born. The only negative thing about living in Arizona was that it was way too hot in the summer time. I distinctively remember the absence of this euphoric Spring time feeling when I was there. Spring was not distinctive because it never got cold. Spring was almost a downer because it was a reminder of the 150+ days over 100 degrees that was coming. When I was there, it was fall that I really loved because I knew cooler days were on the way.
Despite the heat, I have great memories of the desert Southwest from living there as well as childhood memories. I still have many family members that live in Southern New Mexico in Deming, and Las Cruces. It is rare that we have Springtime, a day off, and nothing pressing to do. I may just go out and take some Springtime pictures today. But first my wife and I are going to go to the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) for breakfast in Bricktown OKC. We are going to spend time together and be thankful to God for making this such a wonderful day and blessing us so much. My son is back home and life is great. It would not do God justice to fail to give him credit for the blessings that we have been fortunate to enjoy.
As I post this, my television is being covered by the rumbling sound of jet engines from nearby Tinker AFB. Even on my day off I can hear my work. The Air Force has been part of my life for more than 20 years. Actually if you count the time my dad worked at Tinker AFB as a child, I have been around the Air Force my entire life. Our home is just about a mile and a half off the end of their northwest runway so we often have airplanes flying over our house that are so loud that we cannot even hear the television. To many people that would be something to complain about. To us it is just another blessing to see how God has blessed us with a stable job that we can live a decent life. The Air Force has been and will continue to be a part of our lives.
Back on Schedule
Today marks the end of our long Holiday weekend and months. We, just like most have been in sort of a holiday mode since Thanksgiving back in November. I have been off work for the last five days celebrating the New Year holiday and tomorrow it is back to work. Back to a normal schedule. I have eaten so much over the last month or so that I am too scared to stand on the scale. I have really enjoyed being off work and dread going back tomorrow. Nevertheless it is time. This period of time has been filled with ups and downs. We posted of our car accident earlier in December. Hopefully we will get the car back in the next week or so. This will no doubt be a tough financial year for us as our insurance will likely increase. I also begin paying back my student loan this year. We did get to see Jordan on Christmas Eve and half the day on Christmas Day so that was a good point.
It is time to get back to school soon as well. School does not start back until January 20th but this is my final semester and I have to do a long thesis paper. This semester I have to turn in a 15 page proposal before class even begins. This means that starting next weekend I will have to get busy and start on my proposal pretty heavily. This semester will last until May and then I am done. What a moment that will be. We are going to celebrate as a family and go somewhere and have a great time. This will be followed up by our 20th anniversary in September.
This long weekend had some wonderful weather as well with temperatures reaching the mid 70’s on the second of January. Last night Sunday and I decided we would go to Bricktown and take some pictures. We only stayed about ten minutes as a cold front arived and the North wind was blowing garbage down the street. The 70’s had given way to 30’s and with wind blowing 20 to 30 MPH it was very cold. I was left asking myself why we did not do this on Friday night. As soon as we arrived last night and parked the car we saw people running for their cars.
I did manage to get this lone picture of the Coca Cola Bricktown Event Center. It was hard trying to take a night time picture leaving the shutter open for many seconds while the powerful wind was blowing the tripod around. This may explain the lack of crispness of this photo. As I said, I gave up on this within minutes because it was just too cold and windy. I could have tolerated the cold but it is hard taking night shots when the wind is blowing the tripod around.
As we return to work tomorrow we begin the busiest time of year for our office. I will have to learn the process of what we are doing during this busy time of year. This worries me a little bit because although I have been in this office for ten months, I have been met with people that will not show you anything. I am sure you have dealt with these types of people. They want to feel needed in the office so they hoard all the knowledge so everyone will have to come to them when they have a question. Then when they get another job or retire the whole office suffers because the only one that knows how to do certain tasks is gone. This is what I have been battling for many months. Tomorrow it is time to get serious and force some information out of these people.
My wife is moving to another office next week and so she will be training her replacement this week. She is a little happy and sad about it. She has worked in this office for several years and loves the supervisor. That is a rare thing to have where we work. My wife is a good person and goes the extra mile for people and I hope things work out for her. My son’s cell phone has been ringing for ever and he is sleeping right through it. It is so loud that I can hear it loudly in my bedroom with the door closed. I just went to wake him and give him his cell phone. Sometimes when everyone is asleep I post on this blog from the laptop in the bedroom so I do not wake anyone else up. I better get this posted since everyone is up and around now.
Another Three Day Work Week
As the weekend and year comes to a close I find myself sick with a cold for only the second time in 2008. It is ironic that after the sickly year of 2007 where I was off work sick all the time I have only missed two days of work for being sick this entire year. That being the case, I am debating whether I want to take off tomorrow if I am not feeling any better. This weekend though it has been very nice in more ways than one has ended with being sick. If I am able to make it to work tomorrow it will be another short week anyway since we are off both Thursday and Friday again. It is really nice being able to have these free days at the end of the year although it is difficult to get back into the working mode after being off so much.
Most of the people at work are scheduled to be off this week anyway so it should be quiet until January 5th. I am so blessed to have such a nice job along with a nice family. There are many people that really hate their jobs and I am fortunate to have one that I like. On January 20, 2009 I begin my last semester at the University of Oklahoma (OU). This will be a tough semester though it will be just as rewarding. My days as a Sooner are coming to a close though they say once you are a Sooner, you are always a Sooner. I am very proud to be connected to OU though it will be done in a few months. On the bright side, it will be very nice to have some free time again.
I was given some interesting news yesterday that surprised me about Google Earth and Google Maps. My dad was born in the town of Wynnewood, Oklahoma as was my brother. This is a town of about 2500 around 65 miles South of Oklahoma City. It appears that Google Maps has added their street views feature to Wynnewood. This is pretty neat as my grandmother still lives there. I can see her house from the street level. I had to check Google Earth and found that it was also on there. This was a pleasant surprise. I also noticed that Deming, New Mexico has street views. This is where many of my relatives live. I have many things I have to do before getting ready for work so I better get this posted.
Restrictions at Work
As many of you may know I have posted about how the government does everything the hard way. Everything we do is usually impacted by a new rule or policy that makes our jobs harder. Over the last two days at work we have received this message or some rendition of it on our computers. This is basically telling us that we cannot use any removable media on our computers at work any more. This is going to virtually shut our office down in the short term. My office produces Power Point presentations daily. We take engineering photographs to display issues that are coming up. With this new policy we cannot unload our work related photographs or reports. Sometimes we deal with Excel spreadsheets that are so large that the government email will not allow it to go through. This leaves us with our memory stick to move files from one computer to another. We do this every day many times a day.
Although they did not post the reason for this policy, it is quite clear why they did this. It is my opinion that their reasoning is two fold and that is to prevent the spread of virus’ to government computers. The other reason is to keep people from taking restricted information outside of the government. I took this screen shot this morning because I was just amazed at these ridiculous blanket policies. We have the capability to scan these forms of removable media to check for virus and worms. There is technology that is available that can encrypt this media that must be authenticated by our government common access cards (CAC). This really should not amaze me at all because this is typical of the government to create these blanket policies to cripple everyone to punish a couple. Instead of dealing with the trouble makers they shut everyone down from doing their assigned duties.
To give you an idea of the waste that goes on in the government. If a person works in maintenance they are required to get their technical manuals or Technical Orders (TO) online. They must print them out each time they want to work on a piece of equipment. These printouts are only good for one day so they must be shredded and then reprinted the next day. This means that litterally thousands of sheets of paper are printed and shreded every day at my work. This is mandated by law. If a person is caught using a printout from yesterday then they are subject to disciplinary actions. This is typical for the government and keeps most people worked up over it all the time. I am curious how this new policy of no removable media is going to play out as I have already heard that our colenel was even complaining about it and if it is true, he has every reason.
There is not a day that goes by that almost everyone in our office is required to create an electronic report of some kind. These reports or presentations are almost always presented in a conference room on an overhead projector via PowerPoint or some other software. I am curious how this will work out since no one will be able to get their files from their computers to the conference room. One might think that we could just email it to ourselves on the other computer. That is virtually impossible since to set up our Outlook Exchange server requires administrative privilages. We would have to call the IT help desk for each person that wants to do a presentation on every computer. Web base email is out of the question because they have blocked access to all web mail accounts including Cox.net or SBCglobal. No Yahoo, No Google, No Hotmail. No social networking sites. They have even blocked access to even use CD-R’s. To the average citizen this may seem a little over kill but the the government worker this is an average day. You can add to this frustration that I received a delinquent travel voucher notice this afternoon for a temporary duty (TDY) that I took three weeks ago. By law we are required to submit our travel voucher within five working days of return. Our second level supervisor just signed it yesterday even though I submitted it the day I returned. I fulfilled my duties immediately and my second level supervisor sits on it for weeks and then I get a delinquent notice. This is typical of an average day. I think I have beat a dead horse long enough. I just had to share this information to get it off my chest. 
UPDATE: 21 Nov 2008
Thanks to KC5FM for pointing out the US-CERT web site’s warning about a malicious code being spread through USB Flash drives. I certainly hope that a fix is discovered soon as work has really been hampered. You can read the article here…
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#malicious_code_spreading_through_usb
Back From San Antonio
We arrived back home on Thursday evening from our short trip to San Antonio. In the above photo you can see my wife and I in front of the Alamo. Between my son and I we took nearly 400 pictures. Below is a picture of my son standing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. I think he had a good time as well and we were glad he was able to come with us.
We went on a temporary duty (TDY) for my work to work out some wrinkles with a contractor down there. We had a good time but it was a bit warm. We stayed in a hotel downtown so virtually everything was walking distance. It was a pretty good trip and not likely to be the last.
This evening my wife and I went for a three and a half mile walk and it was nice to enjoy the evening air. I love the cool air in the fall. It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with my wife. I have had a lot of people giving me advice on how to handle the family issues and I appreciate it. I think everyone is right about spending more time in prayer. I think that is good advice to follow so thank you all for.
This weekend I downloaded the new Windows Live Messenger Beta and I have really been impressed with the performance. This new version has some amazing video and audio quality. I am just amazed at how good it works. It is every bit as good as Skype and that is really saying something. I was able to do video conferencing on a full screen for more than two hours and it was incredibly clear and real time. I think I found a new toy to play with. This is great news because many of my friends and family refuse to use anything else. I think Microsoft has really come a long way with voice over internet protocol (VoIP).
Enjoying San Antonion Trip
I had another business trip to San Antonio this week so I have been busy down here. I finished up early so I will be heading home tomorrow. We just returned from the Riverwalk area downtown. I took nearly 300 pictures while being here. It was a bit warm waiting for the buses so I am glad to be back in my hotel room.
Thank God for Skype as I can video conference back home from my hotel room. I know I have gained 40-50 pounds since I have been here . It sure is nice having Twitter so I can update my status from here while wandering around town. It would be nice if Twitter would let you post pictures. This time we are staying downtown in Market Square. If you have ever had Rico brand nachos, you may be interested to know that their factory is right behind our hotel. A while back my wife was watching a show called Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network when they featured a restaurant here in San Antonio called De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe. That is where we went for lunch today.
One thing that is very noticeable is the grafiti that is all over San Antonio. I mean it is on telephone poles, trash cans, bus stops, and everything in between. This grafiti may give the impression that it is not a very friendly city but we have found that people are very friendly here. I have not heard a cross word from anyone. These people have been very friendly to us so my impression has been very positive. I found that Shipley Donuts are here in this city so I will have to stop by there tomorrow morning on my way back to Oklahoma City. The last time I ate there was in the 1970’s when my parents took me to our friend’s house in Houston, Texas. They truly have the best donuts in the world. It has been a nice trip so far. You can follow my Twitter page if you want real time updates.
This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard a news broadcast speaking of the undecided voters and how to reach them. They were asking the question of how a person could still be undecided at this date. This brought to memory of a poll question that I had received on my home phone a couple days before I left. This automated system asked me who I was going to vote for in the congressional opening, then a senatorial openiing. This it asked me if I was going to vote for Obama, McCain, or undecided. It did not have the option I was waiting for so I never answered that question. I am not undecided because I know my feelings. I absolutely oppose both of them and will not vote for either of them. This is not the same as being undecided. I believe that if I voted for either of them I would be a hypocrite as I am strongly opposed to both candidates. I will not go into the reasoning behind my feelings because you can read many of my previous posts to see my position on this. My point in this is that these polls are not accurate because they are posting people like me as undecided and that is not the truth.
Again, I am having a good time here in San Antonio. I should be back in OKC on Thursday, October 23 in the afternoon. Hopefully everything goes smoth on the way home.
Personality Test
At work we were given several tests to evaluate our personality so we will know how to approach coworkers. These tests were very long and asked questions how you would answer them. This test was the Meyers & Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I must say after getting my results that I completely agree with mine. I was listed as an ISTJ that stands for Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging. The results showed both the positive and negative aspects of my personality. I copied and pasted the personality description of an ISTJ below from the Personality Page. I think I may add this to my bio page as well so it will be easy to refer to when needed 
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The Duty Fulfiller
As an ISTJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things rationally and logically.
ISTJs are quiet and reserved individuals who are interested in security and peaceful living. They have a strongly-felt internal sense of duty, which lends them a serious air and the motivation to follow through on tasks. Organized and methodical in their approach, they can generally succeed at any task which they undertake.
ISTJs are very loyal, faithful, and dependable. They place great importance on honesty and integrity. They are “good citizens” who can be depended on to do the right thing for their families and communities. While they generally take things very seriously, they also usually have an offbeat sense of humor and can be a lot of fun – especially at family or work-related gatherings.
ISTJs tend to believe in laws and traditions, and expect the same from others. They’re not comfortable with breaking laws or going against the rules. If they are able to see a good reason for stepping outside of the established mode of doing things, the ISTJ will support that effort. However, ISTJs more often tend to believe that things should be done according to procedures and plans. If an ISTJ has not developed their Intuitive side sufficiently, they may become overly obsessed with structure, and insist on doing everything “by the book”.
The ISTJ is extremely dependable on following through with things which he or she has promised. For this reason, they sometimes get more and more work piled on them. Because the ISTJ has such a strong sense of duty, they may have a difficult time saying “no” when they are given more work than they can reasonably handle. For this reason, the ISTJ often works long hours, and may be unwittingly taken advantage of.
The ISTJ will work for long periods of time and put tremendous amounts of energy into doing any task which they see as important to fulfilling a goal. However, they will resist putting energy into things which don’t make sense to them, or for which they can’t see a practical application. They prefer to work alone, but work well in teams when the situation demands it. They like to be accountable for their actions, and enjoy being in positions of authority. The ISTJ has little use for theory or abstract thinking, unless the practical application is clear.
ISTJs have tremendous respect for facts. They hold a tremendous store of facts within themselves, which they have gathered through their Sensing preference. They may have difficulty understanding a theory or idea which is different from their own perspective. However, if they are shown the importance or relevance of the idea to someone who they respect or care about, the idea becomes a fact, which the ISTJ will internalize and support. Once the ISTJ supports a cause or idea, he or she will stop at no lengths to ensure that they are doing their duty of giving support where support is needed.
The ISTJ is not naturally in tune with their own feelings and the feelings of others. They may have difficulty picking up on emotional needs immediately, as they are presented. Being perfectionists themselves, they have a tendency to take other people’s efforts for granted, like they take their own efforts for granted. They need to remember to pat people on the back once in a while.
ISTJs are likely to be uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others. However, their strong sense of duty and the ability to see what needs to be done in any situation usually allows them to overcome their natural reservations, and they are usually quite supporting and caring individuals with the people that they love. Once the ISTJ realizes the emotional needs of those who are close to them, they put forth effort to meet those needs.
The ISTJ is extremely faithful and loyal. Traditional and family-minded, they will put forth great amounts of effort at making their homes and families running smoothly. They are responsible parents, taking their parenting roles seriously. They are usually good and generous providers to their families. They care deeply about those close to them, although they usually are not comfortable with expressing their love. The ISTJ is likely to express their affection through actions, rather than through words.
ISTJs have an excellent ability to take any task and define it, organize it, plan it, and implement it through to completion. They are very hard workers, who do not allow obstacles to get in the way of performing their duties. They do not usually give themselves enough credit for their achievements, seeing their accomplishments simply as the natural fulfillment of their obligations.
ISTJs usually have a great sense of space and function, and artistic appreciation. Their homes are likely to be tastefully furnished and immaculately maintained. They are acutely aware of their senses, and want to be in surroundings which fit their need for structure, order, and beauty.
Under stress, ISTJs may fall into “catastrophe mode”, where they see nothing but all of the possibilities of what could go wrong. They will berate themselves for things which they should have done differently, or duties which they failed to perform. They will lose their ability to see things calmly and reasonably, and will depress themselves with their visions of doom.
In general, the ISTJ has a tremendous amount of potential. Capable, logical, reasonable, and effective individuals with a deeply driven desire to promote security and peaceful living, the ISTJ has what it takes to be highly effective at achieving their chosen goals – whatever they may be.
I went ahead and re-opened my Facebook account as it gives me more control over the content unlike Friendfeed. I left all the other social networking sites closed. Of all the sites that I really do love to use, I would say Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. The rain is moving back in today and I love it. I should have been raised in Seattle because it can never rain too much for me. I just found that many of my church members including the Pastor is on Twitter as well. I already had them on Facebook and they use it pretty heavily.
Looks like Obama made a comment yesterday that said something about you being able to put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig. Everyone is saying it was aimed at Sarah Palin and I do believe it was though you could make the argument that since he paused before saying it, that it was a spontaneous thought with no calculation behind it. They fired back and said that McCain had made a similar statement in 2007 when referencing Mrs. Clinton. And the drama continues. There is a reason that I usually turn the TV volume down the moment theys begin discussing politics. Oh well, it is the same thing over and over again. I will certainly be glad when it is over as you know that it will continue after the election regardless of who wins.
I have been attending a class at work and it has two more days. It is called Item Unique Identification (IUID). This is an initiative to assign a unique identification number to every piece of equipment that is either $5,000 or more. Other items can be added if the program manager deems it necessary to keep track of them. They used our government identification cards called the common access cards (CAC) as an example of how each of us has an unique number and no other person has this number. This is reminiscent of Revelation chapter 13, versus 15-18. I know this is not what it is but sure does give you the creeps. The government has put this program into place that all items acquired by the government will have these scannable marks beginning 1 Jaunuary 2004. What gives me the creeps is that never before in history has there been the technology for Revelation 13:15-18 to make sense. The point being is that the technology is here. The next two days of this class we will be doing practical application. I must say this overview class that I went to was easily the most boring class I have ever been to. Razor blades should be issued upon entry for those that just want to end the pain . Other than this and school there has not been too much going on.
Awkward yet Thankful
I love my work though I find myself in an awkward spot. I was hired into this position as a trainee so that I can be fully trained to replace some of the retirees. My second level supervisor, or Squadron Director saw that I not only have a degree but also have a Six Sigma certification. He appointed me over the Group AFSO21 program. If you are familiar with the Air Force hierarchy you know there is the Flight, Squadron, Group, Wing, etc. AFSO21 is the shortened name of Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st century. It is basically the Air Force’s attempt at borrowing many quality initiatives and combining them into one and renaming it AFSO21. It is mostly comprised of “Lean” but can involve other tools such as Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints (TOC), Total Quality Management (TQM), among others. It is designed to identify, and eliminate waste in key processes throughout the Air Force. The former Air Force Chief of Staff suggested this program and required buy-in from all levels across the Air Force.
Included in the implementation of this program came a measuring tool called the AFSO21 maturity assessment geared toward measuring the Air Force buy-in and implementation. Each organization is given points for training, process improvement projects, and letters of commitment from senior leaders among other things. This tool ensures that all levels of Air Force management are actively participating in projects to eliminate waste. This sounds very good and I agree completely that we need to eliminate as much waste in the government as we can. The government has a bad reputation for not being good stewards of their resources.
What makes it awkward for me is being over the “Group” program, I am over several squadrons as well as a few organizations that report directly to the Group. I was appointed this position as an “extra duty” in addition to my normal job as a trainee. This extra duty is taking up 75 to 80 percent of my time and I have no time for learning my actual job that I was hired for. In addition to this there are many people that out rank me that are very vocal in their dislike for this program even though they have no choice. My duties among others are to train others and get them to participate in these activities they clearly do not like. These are the same people that I depend on to train me in the job I was hired for. Since I am over the Group level program, despite my lower grade, I have the potential to cause them great distress.
This puts me in a very uncomfortable position because these people are very good at what they do and I need their expertise to teach me. When I report to the Wing, I have to coordinate through my chain of command before the Wing commander buys off on my reports. This is a very high profile position where I report to colonels and my much higher ranking coworkers are being forced to perform duties they dislike because of me. So far my coworkers seem to understand that this is way over my head, and theirs, but I wonder at what point I am seen as the bad guy in all this. To a point, I like the high profile aspect of being seen in a positive way by very high ranking people. On the other hand you never know when you are going to be moved to another office and be expected to know your job. Admittedly I know very little of my job right now with very little prospect of learning it in the near future. I have heard rumors that my position is suppose to be a much higher grade than I am so I may be removed from this position at some point. I am not complaining but concerned that I may never learn the job that I was hired to do.
I try to put this in God’s hands and just try to do my best and hopefully this will turn out fine in the end. I have a knack for being put into high profile jobs when I am not seeking them. It just amazes me how some people crave to be in the limelight and I fear it. I genuinely avoid being seen and somehow I keep finding myself in these positions. Maybe at some point I will overcome my fear of being in the public and embrace it but so far it stresses me out. I am thankful for the opportunities but very uncomfortable, or insecure to be in them. Again, I leave it to God to handle and help me make the right decisions. I supposed there are certainly worse positions to be in.