u/CableBrilliant8388

Permanent OPSer here. I’ve always had a good reputation and felt respected for my work and knowledge. But At this point I hit a rock bottom in my career . Actually the past year has been extremely difficult personally with family change, kids and my personal health. Long story short - I was given just a few days notice ending my touchdown flexibility ( this happened back in March) and had to come to downtown office 5 days. Commute for me is about 3 hrs a day, and I couldn’t handle anymore and ended up taking a leave to get things sorted out.

Since coming back in full compliance with RTO ( over a month now) , things feel different. My work responsibilities have been reassigned and no sign of coming back; my manager has become cold and I felt coworkers stay a distance from me … 😭 and I’m starting to worry about where this is heading. I don’t have anything concrete enough to call retaliation, but I can definitely feel a shift. Perhaps because i involved the union before my leave? ( did not file a grievance ) I absolutely don’t want to go down a confrontational path anymore. My goal is really to protect my job and stay professional, and feel can contribute again in an inclusive environment. Another goal is to find an opportunity elsewhere within OPS.

I’d appreciate your advice on what I could do to improve my situation. Manager perspective is welcome, how would you feel about an employee who has involved union help and does that mean career suicide? How do I know if they are indeed on a path to surplus my position? Also I felt at this point I need to join new ops communities and be involved in something new , please DM me if you know something /someone , I really appreciate all the advice here.

Permanent AMAPCEO here, been with the OPS for 10+ years. I’ve done a few secondments over the years and I’m currently back in my home position.

At this point, I’d really like to move to a different role permanently. Nothing dramatic , I’ve just realized that I don’t really enjoy the culture/environment in my home area anymore, and I’d rather find a permanent position somewhere else instead of continuing to bounce around on secondments.

Over the last year or so I’ve been applying on and off to permanent positions on the intranet. I’ve gotten interviews, so I know I’m at least getting screened in, but I haven’t been successful in landing one.

It’s starting to make me wonder: how many of these permanent postings are realistically open competitions, versus being posted because someone has already been doing the job on secondment/acting and management wants to make them permanent?

I know competitions have to be run fairly and obviously nobody is guaranteed a job, but tailoring a resume and cover letter for every posting takes a lot of time.
So I’m curious, especially from OPS managers/hiring managers or people who’ve been on the other side of competitions:
Is it still worth putting serious effort into permanent postings when you’re an external candidate to that specific team?
Would also love to hear from anyone who successfully moved from their home position directly into a permanent role elsewhere in the OPS .