Mood:  bright

That's my new title.  

It is now official. I am now a Natural Resource Specialist. It has been a long time coming.

Most of you who read my blog regularly have heard me mention sometime back that I applied for a new position with the Corps. I am currently what is called an Admin Ranger, meaning that not only do I do normal ranger activities but I also handle all the office admin stuff like time keeping and purchasing. Lately I have grown tired of my job. It has become more Admin related than I was comfortable with. Back in September they gave me the budget to manage and I hated it. So when this new job opened I put it for it and was interviewed in February along with 2 others. After the interview the talk of the job had grown quiet. Normally once they select a person it takes about 2 wks to do all the background and reference checks before the job is offered. I waited 2 wks but still heard nothing. Every time I tried to talk about it to my boss I always got the same answer…”I would love to be able to talk about it but I can’t. We should hear something soon.”

There were some rumors last month that I had been selected but once again I never heard anything official. Then a few weeks ago I got a call from personnel asking me for my driver’s license and a copy of my transcripts. They then called to ask me to sign a mobility agreement. But still nothing official had ever been offered.

Last week two managers for other projects congratulated me on getting the new job. I looked at them puzzled and said I haven't gotten the job...yet. They both got red in the face and totally had that "Whoops we shouldn't have said anything" look.

This morning I sat down with my boss and stated that we need a schedule for the month of May. No one has a clue when they are suppose to work. He stated that he was working on that. After lunch he called me into his office and closed the door. He asked me how I was doing and said, "If this is another drug test I am going to walk out right now." He laughed and said no that he in fact wanted to offer me the job. Of course I said yes...after about a minute or two of looking completely confused. He then stated that because of the multitude of critical tasks that I do in my current position, transitioning me completely out of those responsibilities immediately is not feasible. So I will remain where I am until they can find a suitable replacement. I am anxious to take over my new duties so I have asked to see if they can offer my old job as a temporary assignment to someone.

My new job will consists of tasks that I have been helping with for the last year since we lost our co-op position. But instead of just doing them once every other month I will be doing them full time which means I will be out of the office more. This improves my moral greatly. I have asked to take over the Bald Eagle program as well as our Hydrilla and Zebra Mussel surveys. I will also be doing some hydrology work, checking and reading dam instrumentation, and my favorite…controlled burns. I will also get to use the boat more (which I can really use the practice) and I will hopefully get my own patrol vehicle.

Now I just need to start packing up my desk and move it all to my new cubicle