-Ascent-

It is evaluation time at work. We all needed to answer a questionnaire, detailing our activities over the past academic/fiscal year. I had self-assessor's block until I got the bright idea of opening the sent mail folder in my work email application. It formed a chronological calendar of my own activities, useful or not, over the past year.

Snapping through all the work e-mails I'd sent since this time last year only took a few hours, and I'd garnered enough material to need extra space for the survey. That feels good, even though I suspect no one will read it but me. My coworker indignantly complained that she regularly performed all the duties in her job description. What more was there?

What more, indeed. I thought. Perhaps you should invent another fake title for yourself. (For some reason, she began calling herself an evening supervisor, even though she is all the staff there is in the PM)

My director dropped my survey in the file and told me that she planned to recommend me to "run" the department after she retired, and until a successor could be found by the search committee. I doubt whoever takes over will truly run the place, in light of the restructuring. But I felt buoyed and depressed by her confidence. It's nice to hear of a promotion, even with caveats. But I'm also hoping to leave soon, and really don't want to go much deeper.

Also, I doubt the other employees - who have been here longer, are older, and very set in their ways - would ever take orders from me. And it's probably not a good idea to try to force them.