Good things about today: I'm feeling better, I accomplished a lot at work and got major props from a senior managing director, Gemini called to say he's coming home tonight, and J and I went to Cat's house to eat dinner and see the newly-finished kitchen.

Less-than-good things about today: I did not win the $5.5 million lottery. I overdrew my checking account and got charged huge fees. And my boss threw a tantrum when it was suggested to her that, in the new office space, I shouldn't be sitting so damn far from the person with whom I work most closely.

A senior vp and a senior managing director called me in to ask me how I felt about sitting so far away from the senior vp I work with all the time, and I said, yeah, it looks like quite a hike, judging from the floor plan. It would be great to sit closer to his office, on the research side of the floor. So they presented this idea to my boss, and she flipped out. She accused them of trying to take me away from her and kept repeating, "But she works for me. She works for me. She works for me." (Never mind that there are many days when I barely have any contact with her at all, and that really I'm the bridge between operations and research.) I heard the whole discussion from my desk. She was pretty nasty, I thought.

She is really, really sensitive and territorial because she knows that the senior vp wants me to report to him. From the moment he arrived, he has wanted my position to report to him. He told me as much, and he also told me that he envisions eventually having a small department of people who do what I do. If I reported to him, I would very likely have a chance to move into a more senior position.

I'm coming up on two years in my job, and my department is growing like mad. But no matter how much we grow, there is virtually no chance of expanding my role as long as I report to my current supervisor. She prefers to keep people right where they are. She laughs when job candidates inquire about opportunities for advancement, and tries not to hire anyone who expresses a desire to move up. There was a time when I didn't care about moving up, but now I'm starting to. I'm going to need more money and more responsibility. Eventually I'll need to move up or move on. Either way, I'm going to need some credentials and training, and I need someone to help me figure out the best way of getting them. I think I need to talk to someone about this.

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