JOB

People always ask me about my job. I've been denied the transfer-after-6-to-8-months I was promised when interviewed. Outside of that, my job is the same with 3 changes. First my sub-team of 4 people who do global education work has dwindled down to just me. So out of my entire larger team of 20 people around the world, I am the only education person now. This has opened up a few things. In short it means I have to act like a programme manager. I really don’t like being a programme manager. But there is no one else in my sub-team. So I now have to represent the programme and meet with people to explain the programme or give success metrics on the programme to people or talk to people in general. It’s really interesting but not the on-the-ground implementation and educational work I like. The nice thing is that my manager believes I have some kind of educational expertise so he actually tells people they can work on a particular project as long as they consult with me or follow my guidance. That is completely new here and feels strange.

Secondly, I’m working on my own fun 20%-time project in which I’m designing a curriculum on how to use ICT in post-disaster emergency response situations. And I’m going to do a workshop with the Philippines government. Next in line are Thailand and Indonesia. And I’ve received a request to help out in India as well. It’s a fun project but wish I could make it the full-time work.

Lastly, with everyone gone and the programme in disarray (trust me, it is) I’ve been asked to help out on various other projects. In one of them I was asked to produce a weekly live-streaming show for businesses and single entrepreneurs in emerging countries. This is kinda cool and it was amazing that the person who asked me had faith in me to do such a thing. So I’m in production mode. We were about to start but my director dislocated her kneecap so I’m in a holding mode until I can find a replacement.

While my programme is directionless, I have some smaller projects on which I help other people (I’m the only instructional designer and training development specialist in my org who works where I work), but in the meantime my main project is floating around somewhere while my manager decides what he wants to do with it. I have no idea what will happen but I try to give out the curriculum to schools and NGOs and governments in the mean time to use.