This past weekend and this week has been the most action in my professional career.  Actually more like an ordeal. We are a vendor for legal services who constantly face deadlines that keeps us on edge. Our clients, mostly attorneys and paralegals are usually up our asses on when it comes getting their projects completed on time. They lack the technical understanding of the processes it takes to get their projects completed on-time with little or zero errors.  Unfortunately, projects don’t run as smooth as we anticipated.

For this reason, they brought me in as an E-Discovery (Electronic Discovery) Specialist to handle complex technical support for data processing.  All my colleagues call me “Digitals” due to the nature of the position.

When I walked into my office this past Tuesday morning my Project Manager walked out with his belongings into his SUV. He saw me and said “Hey Ray, did you hear.” – “Hear what? I just got here.” – “Well… their letting me go.” – “Are you serious?” – “It is what it is” – “I’m very sorry to hear that and its been a pleasure knowing you.” – “Same here brother.” The morning turned out as a surprise and I barely knew him less than two months.

As soon as I checked in my office the Managing Partner invited for some coffee. I hopped into his ride and he drove off to grab coffee. He personally discussed the reasons why they had to let Project Manager. They previously wanted to terminate him two weeks ago because he keeps dropping the ball failing to meet deadlines on large scale projects. In addition, he was not performing to his duties relative to his $100K/year salary and made changes that caused a good employee to resign. Most importantly failure to keep his word and didn’t accomplish the task as he says including the lack of organization.  A dark cloud for the company. This is where I lost a weekend to coordinate and supervise a team for the completion of a large scale project.

He was also concern about my well being and being freaked out due to the ordeal of terminating. Primary concerned if I plan on leaving the company. This position involves a unique and complex skill set that heavily involves technical knowledge. One newbie who they hired didn’t last a single day. Nevertheless, I continue to press on and earned the respect of my colleagues and executives based on performance.

In light of the ordeal and barely two months into my new position, they gave me a raise and by default, assumed command of our small department under directions from my director in the East Coast. New challenges and responsibilities like maintaining vital infrastructures, data management, project coordination, and other critical tasks. While moving forward and doing damage control, the owners already feel things are operating much more smoothly and organized.

Ultimately with great power comes great responsibility.