Hello, folks! We are drawing towards the end of the performance year in my office. It’s a time when folks reflect back on the work they did for the past year and think about how they want their career to continue into the future. I’m not sure how much longer I will have a career, given that the entire Federal government is being scrapped for parts; however, I am choosing radical optimism. I will plan for the best possible future. If that turns out not to be a continued career in public service, I will adjust my plans. For now, let’s go through the five bullets, then talk about planning and feelings.
Bullets
- Provided timely, policy compliant, and technically sound technical assistance to field staff on multiple active construction projects.
- Project 1 – Rock slope construction, regular blasting, inspection, and reinforcement
- Project 2 – GRS-IBS submittal reviews, discussion of construction methods
- Provided timely, policy compliant, and technically sound review of design deliverables.
- Project 3 – Retaining wall repair
- Project 4 – Debris flow repairs
- Performed COR responsibilities for multiple contracts.
- Project 5 and 6 – Logistics and coordination with contractors for geophysical and geotechnical investigations
- Developed standard report language for Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls
- Sumarized performance year accomplishments
Reflections
Departures
Let’s start with the sad stuff first. Several folks who I look up to a lot or have really enjoyed working with had their last days in office this week. I don’t want to embarrass them, so won’t call them out by name. One was a senior geotechnical engineer, a great technical resource. I took a leadership course with him back when I first started at FHWA, and have looked up to him as a technical resource and leader. Another was a team lead who worked with his office leadership to demonstrate the value of a widely skilled team and then worked tirelessly to build that team. The last was a project manager who was thrown into the deep end with several large emergency repair projects with a challenging partner agency. She excelled in these early projects and continued to build her management skills. I’m going to miss all of them so much.
In the normal course of the world we see these sorts of partings: folks take on new roles within an organization, move to a new organization, or retire. But having so many losses in such a short period is having a detrimental effect on morale. Folks are worried about continuing to fulfill our mission at the same time they worry whether they will have a job in the near future.
Planning
In contrast to these departures, I’m looking forward to the end of the performance year. For our office, this is the time of year that we all look back at our achievements and look forward to where we want to go in the future. For me, it is too sad to question my future with FHWA. I could likely find other employment, but the mission, the projects, and the people all give me more fulfillment than I could expect at a private company.
I have a lot to think about. Every year I have a conversation with myself about whether to continue on a path towards technical excellence or to turn myself towards the management path. Part of this consideration is that there is very little advancement available beyond where I am on a purely technical path, especially if I want to continue working on design and construction projects. However, any move towards management is also likely to take me a step away from my projects as well.
For now, I think I will continue sharpening my technical skills, while picking up a little bit of leadership and management training when possible. If nothing else, those types of trainings deal mainly with working with others, and that is useful regardless of where you sit in an organization.
I’ve gone and written a lot more than I had planned this week, and this post will end up being late again. Best wishes to you all.
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