The faint breeze of change.

We had a big meeting today. Each team had their chance to go to the conference room and hear the new Service Delivery Manager give us the rundown on the changes he's going to be bringing to the Help Desk.

He talked about a new focus on communications but considering it took his being here three weeks before I even learned his name and another month on top of that before he sent out an e-mail introducing himself and his business being here I am not overwhelmed with his commitment to communication. A newsletter, bulletin board and daily stat reports from the Site Manager (now demoted to a so-called "tactical" position) is not communications.

He talked about new incentive programs, apparently to replace the incentive program we had up until last year that was secretly done away with (again, that communications thing). This will include some sort of career development. I've heard that noise before and nothing came of it. And I haven't received a raise in four years. How's that for development?

He's ordered a suggestion box that should arrive tomorrow. Oh, boy. We used to have a suggestion box. In fact, my cubicle now occupies the space where the suggestion box sat ignored. If I've got a suggestion, you'll hear about it in an e-mail.

And what did we get for all this hot air? A donut and my lunch time delayed for 2 hours while everyone else cycled into their own meeting with the new boss.

I've heard these winds of change speeches before with the arrival of each new manager. None of those introductions ever amounted to anything either as the real power isn't on site, it's held by the Corporate Overlords who are more interested in lining their own pockets. At least in the past, they had the courtesy of introducing themselves in the first few days instead of waiting a month and a half to let us know what the hell he has in mind.

The Great Communicator.