wheelin' and dealin'

Woke up at an unreasonably early hour again this morning to trudge into the office for yet another call from Sweden. The nine hour time difference between there and here will be the death of me!

Basically, this call was a follow-up from the billion back-and-forth e-mails and other telephone calls that have zipped back and forth from them to me (and vice-versa) for the past two-and-a-half months. There's no job offer at this point. The original position has been split into two functions now - one strategic, the other, operational. The operational role needed to be filled asap, so they pulled someone from another division within the project to ease the pressure. He's only been in the role for five days, but it sounds like he's going to be responsible for the day-today running of the website, updating content, editing, and putting together the monthly newsletter.

The strategic role is a little more up in the air right now, partially because the role calls for fewer tangible deliverables than the direct operative role. It's more of a long-range planning and development role, at least from what I understand, which means more planning and follow-through and less actual doing. It's something that they intuitively feel a need for, but want to be fair to the project and to the person they eventually recruit, so after a long vacation (apparently the tradition in Sweden is for everyone to take long summer holidays to be with family and enjoy the nice weather), they will put together a new job description and pick up the recruiting where it has left off.

I guess I was hoping for more concrete answers as to where this leaves me, but I really have no complaints. She was quite honest and frank with me about where the project is at this stage and how the roles (even hers) are eveolving on a daily basis. They seem keen to have me on board, but don't want to string me along until the fall (when they'll finalize the revised job description) unless I'm okay with it. I'm certainly up for a change, and if it means having to wait a few more months to see what will come of it, I think I can hold on...just...a...little...longer.

To be perfectly honest, at this point, I'm just glad to have made some contacts out there in the montherland. Although it all sounds positive, I'm not absolutely certain that this thing will pan out even in the fall (I would be stupid to bet on it). However, the fact that I'm starting to develop international contacts within the organization will hopefully make it easier for me to remain mobile should I choose to do so in the future. Look-at-me, the wheeler & dealer and master schemer!

Meanwhile, my manager is still oblivious to all of that's transpired thus far. I still haven't decided if I'm going to tell him about any of these goings-on during my upcoming performance evaluation. Part of me wants to keep it under wraps and spring it on him at the last posisble minute so that they're left scrambling when the time comes to evntually find a replacement for me. However, the other part of me wants to see him squirm uncomfortably in reaction to hearing about how I've managed to get these wheels in motion without him being aware. Delayed or instant gratification...which would be sweeter, I wonder?