Meeting with My Senior VP

Had my first one-on-one meeting with my boss's boss today - the Senior VP of Network Operations. It was a pretty good meeting. He was quite happy with the changes I have made since becoming his financial analyst. We talked about some areas still needing change and improvement throughout the organization and what I plan to do to assist in that effort. I showed him a new materiality variance for the organization and he really liked it. It really points out the areas needing attention on the P&L.

I was mostly pleased with the meeting. I was surprised when he asked me how I was holding up. I wish I could have told him how I really feel, but that would have been a career nightmare. I don't mind working all the long hours, but I really feel I should be at least another paygrade or two higher considering what I do is for all of Network Operations, not just my boss's area anymore. It's an incredible amount of additional work and interaction with the Directors and VPs and I don't feel I receive a comparable amount of pay for it...especially in today's economy. I'm essentially doing the work of three people for the price of one and a half. The other feeling I have is that I see other people who are one or two paygrades higher and they don't work anything close to the hours I do. They come in, work their 8 hours and leave. Delegate more is what people say, but I often look at the things I do and a lot of them can't be delegated because of the sensitivity of the information, the lack of skill on my employees' parts (and the lack of time to train them), or the fact that sometimes it's just easier and faster to hurry and do it rather than take the time to explain everything to someone for them to do it. I've decided to let the whole thing be for now and a little bit before my review, I'll approach the subject with my boss.

Overall though, the day was pretty good and I was amazed at how I didn't have butterflies while talking to Paul. Maybe it was because Steve was in there with us or maybe it was just because I KNEW what I was talking about and felt good while doing it.