Job searching at work? That’s multitasking
By Beth Teitell
Thursday, May 11, 2006
I’ve never met Kathleen O’Toole, so Commissioner, if you’re reading this, nothing personal, but it really burns me up when elected or appointed officials spend their time in office looking for new work, even if they were never given the proper tools with which to lead in the first place.
And, of course, this being Massachusetts, you’re not the only VIP with a wandering eye. No sooner do we show someone the love - William Weld, Paul Cellucci, John Kerry, Mitt Romney - than word leaks out that he’s got one foot out the door, or, even more insulting, trying to get one foot out the door, even if it means heading to Canada.
But elected officials, they’re obviously better people than you and me, because unlike us, they apparently have no problem doing one job (and taking a salary) while conducting a nationwide or worldwide hunt for a second, apparently more desirable, position.
Yeah, right. We’ve all observed colleagues looking for new work. They miss half the staff meetings and don’t do their fair share of projects. They start dressing only for others, not unlike a cheating spouse. In fact, the only time you see their good clothes are when they forget to change before coming into the office, and then they have the gall to insult you with some transparent excuse: “Ah, dentist appointment today.”
Then there are the phone calls. You walk into the powder room for a quick break, and they’re hiding in a stall with their cellphone, whispering sweet nothings into a recruiter’s ear.
Sadly, such promiscuous employee behavior is on display more than ever. Pols aren’t the only ones looking for a Get Out of Town card. As we learned from U.S. Census data released earlier this year, Bostonians are leaving town at a rate of 27 a day. No wonder the outbound traffic on the Pike always feels so heavy - and the rest-stop bathroom stalls are always taken.
This trend makes a working girl feel like a loser for staying put. Hmm. “I get the sense that my boss would respect me more if he thought I was motivated to find a better job, which I’m not,” one saleswoman told me.
So maybe we should respect O’Toole for having the motivation to get out of what was reportedly a bad situation for her. If nothing else, you’ve got to admire someone with the motivation to update her resume after only 27 months in the job - all the while giving the job her all.
