Thursday, August 24, 2006
Please pray hard
Friends - I just had a second meeting with my manager prior to the formal submission of my leave of absence request. He has had some initial meetings with the head of our organization as well as our HR manager. Their initial thoughts are that the business can't afford me being away from my position for more than a month. Needless to say, this was not the response I was praying for and am now a bit discouraged.
The good news is that this is only the beginning of negotiations. Tonight my manager will be submitting my formal request for the full 3 months with information about Double Harvest and the work I would be doing in Haiti. As I mentioned in my initial post, the head of my organization has a heart for humanitarian efforts. In fact, she is in India for work right now! Please pray that the poverty she witnesses in India will soften her heart toward my request.
If her initial thoughts on the request are not changed based on my request letter (and even if they are changed), there are other options that will need to be explored within my organization. Please pray that the functional managers within my program are flexible in allowing their team members to be temporarily utilized in other functional capacities. Specifically, pray that a business analyst is allowed to cover many of my project management duties while I am away.
A final option that I am afforded as an employee of this company is to take a leave of absence without job protection. This would likely require that I informally leave my current organization and upon my return can return to my previous organization if a position is open or perform an internal job search. I really don't want to utilize this option so please pray that if God wants me to do this trip, that he "make it work"!
Lastly, please pray that I keep a good attitude and avoid being discouraged in the face of challenges. Thanks, Friends!
# posted by A*Dub @ 4:55 PM 
