POOOOOOOOOO!!!

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

It was Corrie's birthday today. Can you tell? 

The matching Teams backgrounds was my idea. This is the sort of sh*t I pull these days. It makes me happy*.

Today was very much about CST. I didn't really work on Project Laura at all. I will do some of her stuff tonight I reckon. 

But I don't mind. I love spending time with my CST family. So much so that I've decided to apply for a permanent job after all. Not as a BA though - that would be too much of a wage drop. So I'm going to apply for "Lead BA".

"Is that like what June does?" asked Caro. 

"No, she's a BA Lead," I replied. "I would be a Lead BA."

She just rolled her eyes. I don't blame her. 

Corrie helped me out today by looking at my cover letter for the job. It is purposefully very informal and very me. It is also very much inspired by Shenée's work-philosophy of kindness, respect and friendship over all else. These are theoretically Kāinga Ora's values, but then again they did bin her so really who knows.

Even so, I put this into my cover letter because I want to be honest. I just don't see the point of getting a job if I need to be a different person. So this is not so much of a serious application as a "punt".

Ellie also offered to help me out. We are going to go for lunch next week to discuss things and stuff because she knows everything there is to know about office politics and other things that might be helpful. But when she called me, she was stressed. 

"IT'S POOOOOOO SYMON! IT'S ALL POOOOOO!!" she told me. 

She was laughing, but she looked WILD.

"It's ALL KINDS OF POO! IT'S BABY POO! IT'S BIRD POO! IT'S DOG POO! IT IS UNEXPECTED POO!!"

I sympathised. "No-one wants UNEXPECTED poo," I said.

"It is a SHIT STORM!" she reemphasised. 

Her department has been thrown into disarray by the very politics I was just describing. 

This is the sort of thing that makes Caro nervous about my applying for a permanent role. It is true that Kāinga Ora HR does seem to make a habit of taking a mild controversy and turning it into the aforementioned shitstorm.

I am not worried. If I did get the job and it turns to POOOOOO I would just return to contracting.

But on the other hand, all this drama in Ellie's department means that she is now de facto leading it. After only just moving into it 3 months ago.

"Just THINK," I said. "You could end up LEADING that team. And I could end up as LEAD BA and we could TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"

"Yeah!" she said.

"And we could HIRE SHENÉE!!!" I suggested.

"YEAH!!!!" she replied. 

So she was fully on board. 

To be honest, I don't hold out much hope of any of the above happening. I suspect they will go for a safe option for Lead BA as opposed to me. But it is hard to say. Sometimes Kāinga Ora surprises me. Sometimes they actually live up to the values they espouse as if they suddenly realise that they actually ought to.

It is worth a punt.

S.

* The bird is a pōpokotea, which is also Shenée's nickname for Corrie.