Hi, everyone. Sorry it’s taken me so long to write. I’d like to say that I’ve just been too busy, but the real reason is that, while I’ve had a pretty good summer overall, every time I come to the point in the letter where I describe the news from my job situation in detail, it comes across as too much of a downer, and I stop writing.
I’ve had a lot of good times this summer. My parents came to visit, I went home for a great family reunion, my neighbor here has organized weekly ultimate Frisbee games, I climbed the
13,000+ foot Centennial peak nearby, I went caving in New Mexico, I’ve been to lots of parties and movie/game-nights, and I’ve made friends with some really cool people. I’ve gotten a bunch of good job experiences, and I’ve made piles of overtime money helping the Fire Management division here with fuels reduction and other projects (and got to help suppress two wildfires, which was really cool). Mesa Verde is truly an amazing park, and there are all kinds of interesting things to see and do nearby.
That being said, my job itself has kind of sucked.
First, my boss, who sounded so terrific over the phone, essentially dropped off the face of the planet right after we got here, and no one’s heard anything from her in the last three months. The crew-leader who she left in charge did some things that crew-leaders really aren’t supposed to do, and he was pressured to resign. The head of our department, who was forced to take charge of us
after everyone else left, is a decent guy, but he has very different ideas of what our job duties should be than our original boss had had. That wouldn’t have been so much of a problem, except that the two other guys on our crew, both of whom have strong tempers, didn’t like the new direction the season was taking, and they spent most of the summer spiraling further out of control, to the point where they both almost got fired on at least two occasions, and one of them is now in a state of total warfare with one of the girls on our crew.
I’ve had a lot of good times this summer. My parents came to visit, I went home for a great family reunion, my neighbor here has organized weekly ultimate Frisbee games, I climbed the
13,000+ foot Centennial peak nearby, I went caving in New Mexico, I’ve been to lots of parties and movie/game-nights, and I’ve made friends with some really cool people. I’ve gotten a bunch of good job experiences, and I’ve made piles of overtime money helping the Fire Management division here with fuels reduction and other projects (and got to help suppress two wildfires, which was really cool). Mesa Verde is truly an amazing park, and there are all kinds of interesting things to see and do nearby.That being said, my job itself has kind of sucked.
First, my boss, who sounded so terrific over the phone, essentially dropped off the face of the planet right after we got here, and no one’s heard anything from her in the last three months. The crew-leader who she left in charge did some things that crew-leaders really aren’t supposed to do, and he was pressured to resign. The head of our department, who was forced to take charge of us
after everyone else left, is a decent guy, but he has very different ideas of what our job duties should be than our original boss had had. That wouldn’t have been so much of a problem, except that the two other guys on our crew, both of whom have strong tempers, didn’t like the new direction the season was taking, and they spent most of the summer spiraling further out of control, to the point where they both almost got fired on at least two occasions, and one of them is now in a state of total warfare with one of the girls on our crew.Fun, fun, fun!
Anyway, that’s the bad news. The good news is that I’ve got a new job now. A couple of months ago, when things were looking particularly bad here, I saw a job posting for another position at Mesa Verde, as a GS-5 Cartographic Technician (using GPS/GIS to make maps for various purposes within the park). I applied, and last week was offered the job, starting next week. So, now I get to stay here through December (it really is a cool park), I should get plenty of good work experience as a cartographic technician, and with any luck I’ll avoid whatever new catastrophes my coworkers have planned for their last month here.
Wish me luck!
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