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Hi Sue,
I'm going to offer a slightly different take from Andrew on this
subject.
If your immediate manager had a legitimate problem with your work, why
did the higher-up get you 24-hour turnaround on your check? Surely if
there had been a real problem, the higher-up would've known? He sounds
like a professional. I'm guessing he did some inquiry into the matter.
You may have been dealing with a bad apple, perhaps a bully. If he was
talking you up some at the end, his superior may have put him on the
spot. Bullies hate that.
It is entirely possible that, while it was fun for the manager to cause
you problems while he had to deal with you directly, ruining your entire
life may not have been his sole focus. Consider the possibility that he
had other things on his mind as he was transitioning to his new group,
and he overlooked the to-do item that said "Make sure Sue NEVER works in
this town again!" This is why you should absolutely not give away
anything as you explore the possibility of future work with the new
manager. See if she says anything. If the new manager is professional,
then she probably knows that there's always more than one side to a
story (if there was any story at all).
While you should always have very good lines of communication going with
your customers, it is also good to not personalize too much. I recently
submitted a resume for a contract. Had a very good conversation with the
marketing director. Did some inquiry here as I formulated what my
strategy would be. But I never heard from her, even after I made a
follow-up call! I frantically reviewed our three interactions, picking
at every detail to see what I possibly could have done wrong, how I'd
blown the gig before I even got it. Turns out that she left her job
shortly after I sent my resume. Probably (though this is yet to be
confirmed and I'm leaving plenty of room for self-chastising if I did
screw up!) I did absolutely nothing wrong, and she just wasn't the
person who ended up doing the hiring for the gig.
Lisa
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