For the last 8 months I've been pouring myself into a new role at my company. Exciting, challenging, demanding, rewarding, and building to a head when I reported out to the Board of Directors in May on my progress. All went well until...
The CEO retired, a new one got hired, and 7 of the most senior officers of the company got summarily replaced! Only 5 existing executives (VP & up) are still there and only one of them is reporting to the new CEO. The six of us AVPs are all still on the payroll (so far). The CEO is female, and two other females in the AVP/director ranks got immediate promotions to higher officer titles. None of the males did; plus, all the officers who got replaced were male; one of those men was replaced by a woman as well. Maybe there's a message there, maybe not, but it does seem like women came out particularly well in this transition. We went from 2 women in the officer ranks to five (including the top spot) within the space of two weeks! Remarkable.
The new CEO is a complete whirlwind. She makes decisions even faster than I do, and I thought I had a tendency to shoot from the hip! This woman is a gunslinger par excellence. She initially said she might need 30-45 days to put an org chart together, and she published one in 3 weeks. It was comforting to see a box on the chart that described my current role, even though my name wasn't on it. There were lots of those nameless functional boxes, though, and the explanation given was that whoever the person was at the top of any particular column of boxes would have the right to name his/her own team beneath.
Yesterday I found out who the person above me in the food chain will be. He's not showing up for another 10 days, but when he does, the process of vetting me for continuing employment commences. Just when I thought that I cleared the biggest hurdle facing me - the Board - it turns out there's one more that still remains. I'm strangely calm about it; I feel confident that God has all things under control, including my welfare. So, I can relax and be myself, knowing that whatever comes, God will be in it. :)
It also helps to be turning 62 this Fall. Not that I want to take retirement... I prefer to work another 4 years. But if push came to shove... I think we could make it.
So, it's kind of a week-to-week gig while the ground continues to pitch and yaw under my feet; I just widen my stance, bend my knees a bit, put my hands out for balance, and roll with it!
