Best as I could find out, they fired the sales director 'cuz he wasn't cutting the mustard in the "sales" bit. Which, really, is true... but it was still awfully abrupt.

On top of which, his responsibilites, at least for the time being, are now going to... the marketing director. Who also happens to be the CEO's son.

In other news, I went to work today and they offered me a job.

...Yeah, it's kinda fucked up.

The controller saw me in the hallway and told me to stop in and see her before I left. Great, I thought. Maybe they're going to try to fire me, while they're at it, from my current consultant duties. Or maybe it's something to do with benefits, my 401k or something. Or maybe it's something pretty frivolous (I overheard something about how they've got an office weight-losing competition going on, the men vs. the women). But no, she actually asked me if I'd be interested in a 6-month job.

It would be in Computer Support, "probably" (almost certainly) help desk -- the same thing they'd been "offering" before, but never followed through on.

Also, it wouldn't start until this fall, and it wouldn't be permanent.

I said I'd consider it. The operations director is out today, so he couldn't give me more details on what they thought they were looking for from me.

My boss and I talked about it in low voices afterwards. They'd evidently asked her if she thought I'd be interested in the position in the first place; she'd said probably not, if only because of the pay. "And consider who you'd be working with," she warned me.

This is actually presenting quite a dilemma in my head.

Okay. So. I know this company is not very loyal to its employees. I also know all of the people in the entire building, with the exception of one new hire and one intern. I actually don't have that many problems with the computer guys; most of them are a bit gruff at times, but I get along with them just fine (even the director of CS, who evidently likes me a lot, and who a lot of people have problems with).

She did say it would only be 6 months, but admitted that this might change. And I happen to know that the current guy doing help desk at least *was* looking for other work, as of a year ago. He's still there, but might leave, and thus leave me a more permanent opening.

There will likely be some office-politics, especially when/if I first start; they've very strictly divided internal and external computer people, but it's hard to get the internal computer guy to do much unless it's an emergency... a lot of people *were* coming to me for simple things when I was there because they didn't want to deal with him... and that would likely start again if I went back, and I'd have to tell people, "sorry, I have the time and ability to help you with that, but I'm not allowed to". I've always hated that. Then again, maybe they'd let me do some of that. I know the internal guy would appreciate some of that; he's had to take back some of the tasks that *had* gotten slipped to me, which he seems to consider a waste of his time, but are important to the senior managers.

The reasons I quit in the first place were many. I didn't want to be stuck in a dead-end position forever; they kept promising changes but nothing happened; working with people old enough to be my grandparents was weird, there was definitely a big generation gap there; the office politics bugged me; the pace of the work often sucked -- sometimes really heavy, sometimes dead; I needed a break. The biggest reason of all was one particular individual I just couldn't take working for anymore.

Well, I've had my break. This would definitely give me some new experience that could be more marketable in the long run; I'm actually somewhat concerned that I really don't have enough knowledge to do the job, but I'm reasonably sure I could learn. The pace would still be a little wonky, but probably more on the busy side than dead; and I would still probably be doing the stuff that I'm doing now, which I could help use to fill in the gaps. I think I'd get along with the people, most of whom are my parents' age or younger. And I would probably not have to deal with the asshole much at all, other than being civil to him in the hallways, which I manage okay at now (though I still hear things about him from the other women in the office that rile me up).

But, again, I come back to the issue that it wouldn't start until September or October, and, of course, it could be yet another empty deal -- next they'll push it back 'til January, and back again, and...

So basically, I shouldn't count on it. If it happens, great... but I should probably still continue to look for work (though that would make me feel guilty, starting a job only to leave it after a couple of months... though if I'm working with temp agencies, that could work out fine) in case it doesn't. Also, the other big factor is how much they'd pay me. This company is not known for paying well; if they're only going to give me as much as I'm getting now, well, screw that. But I don't know how much is acceptable. According to monster.com, the average wage for such a position is almost twice what I'm making now. If they offer *that*, I'd take it for sure. But I'm sure they won't.