Murf gets hoodwinked

During my years with the same employer, I work hard and follow the rules and generally try to stay out of office politics (but who doesn't enjoy a good gossip session over a half price margarita after work sometime?) but recently, I was surprisingly dragged into some.

As an unpaid content manager for our department's section of the website, I was able to still use what I had learned in web design class (which kept my skills from going rusty as I still continue to look for jobs in that field) by being in charge of keeping our section updated.  This included things such as placing updated files on the website for our customers to download and use, placing the twice a year training class schedule on there (as well as originally writing the synopsis of the classes being offered), updating our contact page, etc.  In honesty, it was the little pearl of wonderfulness that probably added to my complacency in a job that is well under my education and skills...but I digress.

Our website is run off of a software program called Drupal.  Our Communications department has actually contracted out the design and some of the programming part of the website but each department was responsible for adding things to their section of the website.  While there was nothing 'behind the scenes' that we could touch, there were some 'Drupal'-y things that this entailed such as knowing that adding a story or a calendar item were called 'nodes'.  Seeing other job postings that mention knowing Drupal listed as a requirement, I started to look around to see where I could learn more about this program.  I did learn some extracurricular items from a coworker named Doug who was involved a bit with the Communications teams and the original merging of our Drupalized department website with the newly Drupaled  main website (did you catch all that?) but I wanted something more hands on.

I happened to see that our local community college was offering a non-credit Drupal class that was one night a week for 4 weeks so I decided to take it.  Just in case the answer was yes, I decided to pass the information on to my supervisor to see if the department (which is keen on professional development enough that this actually is a section on our quarterly work plan review and annual overall review) would pay for it.  I explained that our website was run on Drupal and that I would like to learn more about it and possibly it would lead to me being able to do more with our section.  She approved it and it was also approved by our department manager.  Outstanding!  I emailed our secretary to see how to go about registering for it - do they pay it or do I get reimbursed?  She forwarded the information to her counterpart who works more with that stuff...and then I heard nothing more about it.  I then emailed the HR person who the two work for and who handles that...still nothing.  The days to the start of class are not only creeping up but the seats available are dropping. 

Finally I get a forwarded email from my boss with an apology saying that it was decided that it would not be paid for.  As I read the email chain, I discovered that the HR person had taken it to the big boss who asked that she interview Doug and Valerie (who works in the Communications department) to see if this was necessary.  Valerie said that the Drupal work on the website was contracted out.  She's probably skating on the thin line between employed and unemployed so I'm not surprised that she's trying to hold on to as much as she can of her job.  Doug's response is a completely different story.

A few years ago, Doug was my supervisor for about a year.  During that time, he was pro-education, pro-"follow your dream" and had still been that way even when he returned to the non-supervisory role that he had afterwards.  So it was to my great surprise that I read in that email chain that he didn't think it was necessary.  Even though my boss and supervisor approved it, it was declined by 2 people who do not rank as high and especially surprising, by the one that was big on never stop learning.

Looking back, I knew he and the HR person and the controller are all a trifecta of buddy buddy but I never thought it would be this bad.   I emailed Doug and in a lovely passive aggressive way thanked him for his support.  I also mentioned about his past behavior of being supportive and questioned his definition of 'friend' to which his retort was to point out two things he had done for me such as offering me some award money he had received to renew my membership in a technical communication group.  I then pointed out that since it's obvious that he is only supportive when he is the one that initiates learning opportunities that I have duly filed that tidbit of knowledge away for future reference (and then I ran to Facebook and deleted him and his wife).  That was the last I've talked to him.

A few days later, I was again called into my boss's office and told that my website responsibilities will now be moved to the un-educated in websites and HTML secretary who works for this same HR person.  It didn't really hit me until a few minutes later when I asked her if this request came after I had asked if the Drupal class could be paid for.  She said yes and we both looked at each other thinking the same thing:  what interesting timing.  She also said that Doug had gone to his HR buddy and complained about me having seen the original message with included his name.  I guess he prefers to stab people in the back anonymously.  All of this just because I innocently asked if a class could be paid for.  It feels like they were just waiting for me to screw up and this was the first opportunity that came along.

As of February 1, I have been happily sending the secretary the files to update on the website and eagerly look forward to when our manager sees that our Contact Us page needs to be updated (which does require HTML knowledge).  Sorry...love to help but I can't. 

Since the start of the Drupal class (tonight's class is #3 of 4), I've started to jot down things I have learned and had already used on our website (such as 'nodes' and putting 'weights' on articles so that they appear in the order you want on the website).  I'm not sure what I can do about it but since my boss (who has since been moved to a different section within our department - not because of this but because they are keen on something called 'crosstraining') also mentioned that I should do this, I figure it might be worth something.  If nothing else, it's my own vindication (as well as getting the heck out of dodge ASAP) that I will succeed even without their help.  And to know who my real friends are.  The main one, as I was happily reminded, is Big A.  When I told him what happened, he just looked at me.  He knew how much I was holding on to these little activities which involve what I want to do as a job.  My "I don't care.  Whatever" attitude broke a bit when I saw the look on his face and that's when I got a bit teary eyed about the whole thing.  And then it really started to feel better once he began letting the expletives fly.