Last Friday was my boss’s last day on the job – he retired after 30+ years of service at the University.  We’ve known about this for a while and I’d already started taking over his responsibilities – and so on Monday, my promotion to Director of Web Services went into effect. 

There’s lots that’s good: bit more money, already familiar with the work, good rapport with my colleagues, new challenges.

There’s some not-great as well.  I’ll still be in charge of the switchboard and they aren’t going to back fill my current position.  So, I need to figure out how to do my old job and my new job in the same amount of hours.

What’s weird is that, more than once, I’ve gotten the thought in my head that I can’t possibly be in charge  – of anything, really. I’m still just a kid!

And then I remind myself that I’m actually a 46 year old adult and I’ve been working for the University of Akron for over 20 years.  So, I think I’ll be okay.

I’m aware, though, that just because I’m getting the nameplate on my door doesn’t mean that I’m suddenly the expert.  I’m taking a Supervision 101 course in the Fall and the changes I’m making are small to start off. We are getting rid of the Weekly Wednesday Webteam meetings for the time being, though.  Those were…not my favorite part of the week.

So, July 1, 2019 started a new era for our team.  And then on July 3rd, I inadvertently rerouted the entire UA website to an online archival collection of bags. For about 1 minute and 25 seconds.

It’s a long story and I got it fixed before anyone picked up the phone.  Still, not the greatest confidence booster.