I've been back at work for over a week now and it really does feel like I never left. I was so busy in that 'insanely busy chasing down problems that seemed to have evaded everyone's radar screen' kind of way that I only called home twice to check on Houdini. Oh well, it's not like he knows I am calling to ask about him.
Today Boss#2 (who used to be my direct manager and therefore Boss#1 in the previous organization) came back from being on vacation, so it was the first time he was seeing me since I'd been back. I think he was very happy to see me back; no, I know he was very happy to see me back because he said so. I think it eased his mind as to what frame of mind I was in (that is, whether I was pleased to be back or pining to be at home) when my first work communication with him in over 12 weeks was an instant message saying hello, immediately followed up with some problem I had uncovered in a project that had been running in my absence. I am pretty sure he was relieved to see that I was still the same Ribbit and still with that infallible knack for finding out gaps and trying to fill them.
I am very, very good at being an fixer overseer, which is the best way I can describe it. I can step back and look at the 'big picture', then step close and look at all the smaller details, and see what's missing and who needs to talk to whom and what needs to get done and who's on first and what's on second. And I can get it fixed, whether by sweet-talking, coaxing or sometimes plain (but always polite) bullying. It's the kind of talent that not only gets you noticed, it gets your boss noticed, too, in a very positive way, and for that they've always loved me. I used to be modest about my particular knack of stepping in and being this fixer overseer, but not anymore. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't go blowing my own horn all the time in everyone's ear, but I don't mute it with a stopper, either. Yes, good things do come to those who wait, but better things come to those who don't do so in self-righteous silence (let's face it, that's ultimately what's at the core of being modest, false or not!).
