RE: Do you voluntarily develop long-term projects on the job?

[John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>]

It has nothing to do with "it feels good to you to secretly sit back and
work on a project 
and then pull it out of your hat like a magician."  They already know I'm a
magician. :-)

Some of it has to do with the definition of a camel, some has to do with the
fact that as long as you are getting done more than 100% of what they
expect, these above-and-beyond projects give you and the department the
ability to grow in directions not mandated and to try things that if they
fail, well, they fail with no damage to anyone, and some, maybe because
everything we do here in Special Projects is more entrepreneurial than
policy/program mandated.

I'm not saying every environment would allow this type of independence, nor
that every boss wants it, nor that every writer can pull it off. Just that
where I am, for whom I'm working, as I said in the original message "This is
the third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it."

John Posada
Information Hunter-Gatherer
Special Projects; Information Technology
Barnes&Noble.com
NY: 212-414-6656 


>I prefer to keep my supervisor/his supervisors informed of exactly 
what I am working on. I work on a lot of things at one time, and I 
think they are impressed when they take the time to ask. Our group 
recently went to lunch to celebrate the release of a product. The 
President and my boss's boss came along. It felt good to sit at the 
table and reel off a list of the projects I'm currently working on, any 
hurdles I have with those, upcoming projects, and future things that I 
see coming down the road.


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