Yesterday I met with our manager to ask him what my path/timeline might be to move from "Greeter/Qualifier" to Designer at Home Depot. He proposed that I take over Nabeena's work as an Expediter in order to learn all the things about kitchen specification and installation that might go wrong, so that I would be better prepared to be a designer. He mentioned a year from my hire date as a possible timeframe.
Now, I think Nabeena has a really unpleasant job, and that I would dislike it (and be worse at it) than she is. From what I can tell, Nabeena cleans up other people's mistakes and problems. She spends half her time on the phone, often with unhappy customers. And she seems to juggle about 20 tasks at one time.
And, one of my Greeter co-workers mentioned to me a while ago that Bob was trying to get her to take Nabeena's job. So I have a feeling this is just the manager blowing smoke, trying to get someone into this job which he needs to fill because Nabeena really wants out.
On the other hand, it might give me a chance to visit job sites and get a first-hand view of all the different construction elements that go into a kitchen -- which I've been wanting to do anyway.
I mentioned it to two of the designers later, and they both thought it was a bad idea. One of them volunteered to speak with the manager and tell him I should be a designer instead of an expediter, which was really nice of him.
I guess I'll start asking Nabeena more about what she does and see what develops.
