So in ten years of QA management, I've continued to fight for and usually fail at getting what I have now come to see as "the holy grail:" promotions for my employees, complete with pay rises. It's the longest game to play, years of setting people up, getting them the right opportunities and building the right skills, and then BANG the budget won't allow it or worse, you have layoffs. I've actually never had anyone leave that I was trying to set up for promotion (due to frustration, but thus meaning that I'd invested in someone for nothing), but ... well, I've left because I felt like I couldn't accomplish anything.

And, well, at Il Postino, after 1 1/2 years of maneuvering, I had THREE out of my 14 people move up, and another moved up after I left, with the momentum from the work I'd done for her.

And now, well, I think I hear the mermaids singing, and I see a golden cup, and I have a feeling I'm just about to have another success as a manager, and I am really, really pleased.

The funny thing is, I'm the only one who really sees this as a win for me. My salary doesn't go up and it doesn't go on my review and no one has ever asked at an interview if I've succeeded in getting employees promotions (only if I've ever had to fire someone). But this, this is a joy that I will be able to carry with me from job to job, and even after I leave working, that I really and actively helped make somebody's life better, and got them the recognition they really and truly deserved.

About the title: I tell people I can't do much about the company, but I can try to make sure that I'm the best manager they have ever had, and I do really hope people remember me that way, because I do really fucking try to be good at this job.