I’ve been in the office since midday and in an hour and half I have managed to do more than I have done all week. It takes forfeiting my weekend to come and work to get me to actually do some work, in a way it is quite sad, in another, well at least work has been done. This week, my body has phyically been in the office, well in the vicinity anyway, my brain has been away with the fairies. The job I am doing is so mundane, it is basically data entry. When my predecessor handed this process over to me two years ago, she made it sound like I had the power in my hands, even though she had whinged about how much work it is, she soon ran off and left me to it. She also told me to stop complaining when I said that it was too time consuming. How selective ones memory can be.

I don’t even mind if it takes up my time, it’s just that it is so boring. It doesn’t require a brain, it just requires patience, I have created the environment in such a way that most of it is copy paste, but even at that, I find my head drooping as I press ctrl, c then ctrl, p. If I want to create exitement for myself then i right click and copy, paste, just for the change. I asked if I could pass this onto another colleague in the same way it was shoved onto me, my boss tells me that I have an expertise in this and it would take time to pass the knoweledge on, but he will give me a back-up for when I go on leave so that I am not inundated with requests when I get back as I have done (hence the reason I have come in on a Saturday, because I have rested enough and free of interuptions from my normal daily tasks). What friggin expertise do you need to transfer data from a form to the computer system. I mean, my 18 month old nephew could do it. I said I hear, what else can I say.

This brings me to my dilemma. The innovations and rennovations manager for one of the categories has resigned and I have been asked if I would be interested. At first I was like yeah, but upon secon thoughts, I am not too sure as there are benefits to me going, but something is telling me to hold on in case a better opportunity comes my way.

The cons
– For two years running my category has exceeded targets, and I have managed to acheive my own personal targets. Where I would be going to, they have not hit it once, so I could kiss any bonus’ goodbye
– they are one crazy category, from what I can see they are disorganized and always chasing their tails. They have 100 different projects going on and not one has seen the light of day, do I really need the additional chaos in my life
– It has taken me 2 years to manage my current bosses, the head of this category, although I haven’t dealt with him personally, I have seen how he is in meetings and he is the kind of person that would easily drop you in the shit to save his own neck, now while he may serve great material for my blog, not sure if I really want the stress
– It’s a sideways move and not an upward move
– It’s still the same old crappy company

The pros are:
– My current job is a bit dead man’s shoes. Unfortunately, we are all the same age or even youngerr, so probabilities are that I would die before them, so progression is slow and frustrating unless you have a fairy God father.
– I’ll be learning something new. It will be a fresh challenge.
– It’s a step into Marketing. Having marketing skills is a benefit in Ghana as a whole. The consumer is sold on a brand more than the product in this country and they most well paid people in the private sector.
– The job is a mixture of project management with a bit of marketing so I get two skills for the price of one
– I’m not your typical Ghanaian employee so maybe I would have a better relationship the boss

My current Category head called me into his office yesterday and told me that there are some opportunities which may be coming up in the next 6 months, but he doesn’t want to go into too much details but I am under consideration. I asked him whether it was within this category or another and he said he wouldn’t say, so I too didn’t tell him about what I had been approached for. He advised me that I need to be a bit less emotional, he didn’t say it in so many words, in fact he is the type of guy who goes around the castle about 100 times before coming to a point and that I need to be a bit more fast to react and a better seller of what he didn’t actually say. On the fast to react, he is waiting on information for which I am waiting on the Ghana office to give to me. I am not the kind of person to put the whole world on copy so they know that I am working but I have been chasing this information since before christmas. Unfortunately I can’t go to the guys boss because she is a nasty piece of work who feels that she should be treated like the queen and has the habit of sending some really shitty responses when you ask her for information. Therefore what can I do but send reminders.

I have taken his words into consideration. I know that my downfall is, I can’t abide by stupid people, and I hate people who like to push the blame on others or jobs that by rights they should do but because they feel it is inferior they put it on somebody else. The way I react to this kind of bullshit is by voicing my opinion very loudly, and well people don’t like that especially when they have fancy titles like Category Business Manager or Business Executive Manager. But we all have our faults. This guy giving me advice is the same joker that brough the Senegal office to it’s knees. He basically left there in disgrace as well in the three years he was there the only thing he managed to do was make them practically bankrupt. He is now here in the Region so that the boss can keep an eye on him. It is so funny to see a big arse grown man in our monthly meeting looking at his boss like a puppy dog begging for approval for a good job well done. Our category was seen as the bad child of the bunch, it had a bad reputation because of our former boss who basically cut corners and did things his own way, but he got the job done and when he left the Category was doing well, it was a bad year, the year before I arrived but for 2010 and 2011, we hit all our targets. This boss came in when we were already riding on a high, but he thinks it is too good to be true and panics over the slightest problem like his life depends on it. As I said everybody and their faults.

So this is my dilemma, do I stay or do I go. Do I just stay in my present role, or maybe another position may come up in marketing which would be more interesting. Either way, my plan is to get out of here by the end of this year. Otherwise it will be 20 years before I see anything near head of department here. People are chopping money, riding company cars and all the perks for being in the same position that I am in now, so I can’t waste away just because I am working in one of the so called ‘top multinational’ in Ghana. I have things to do in my house and would like just one holiday out of Africa at some point before I start turning grey but right now all I have got is a fancy title. Nope even if the position is the same that is a Demand and Supply Manager or Category Manager but with a great package, I am out of here and it will be by the end of this year.

Until then, I will continue with this data entry, contrary to the saying, you cannot actually die from boredom, as I would have gone a long time ago…
Until then, I