u/Juniperandrose

Folks I am just throwing this into the ether to try to manifest these things in order of my interest in them:

-business owner should convert one of the Wyndhams behind the heights into an upscale gym facility with pool, shuttle, kids creche and bathhouse (steam/sauna/etc.) function.

-a shuttle service should be sponsored by the city/our wards between Secaucus junction and the heights JFK, Central Ave and possibly Palisades and Paterson Plank corridor. There is already good connectivity to Jsq and Hoboken but this would be an immediate value add for cross regional commuters. This would be a 200-400k investment which is completely doable for the city, esp if riders paid. It would support property values too and offset some of the anger about the taxes. https://ezride.org/transportation/shuttles/

-sustainability- JC Heights should create more community food solutions (vertical gardens), provide innovative green energy programs (solar fencing for homes). More Citi bike stations too.

-beautification credits: give blocks which self-organize and create HOAs across the blocks that invest in city aligned beautification goals a tax credit. Engage service providers in ensuring their poles and wires are better maintained and upgraded.

I was promoted not too long ago to be a peer to my previous boss. The previous boss was another incredible leader in a line of supportive leaders— I’ve never before stayed with someone who didn’t develop and celebrate me and I’ve always become close friends with my leaders. My loyalty lies in the quality of the person not the seniority of their influence.

With that being said, I’m able to see the good in everyone, to a fault. My current leader has some flaws. He has a vision, but doesn’t communicate it clearly. He has a capable team, but doesn’t feel supported because his goal posts surround visibility and transformation projects not the core work of our area. He’s very happy with me just now, but won’t say it much, but does when I ask directly and it’s visible in the value of the work he’s giving me and some that I’m taking proactively. His orientation is to reward good work with more work and over simplifying the level of work done, and he is constantly concerned that the team is not doing enough.

I have openly addressed his concerns highlighting to him that some of his “easy side projects” are really different work streams that require different types of staffing, roadmaps, tooling and timelines than our current structure represents. Additionally, I’ve mentioned to him that the team is supportive and we need to create more systems manage and make visible the workload. I’ve scaffolded some of this showing him how I do it with my sub team and giving him hints on JDs or contract SOWs that could help him scale his vision across the division. I’ve given him ideas about how to use new training programs offered to him to engage and motivate the team towards what seems to be a shifting vision for our industry.

He always seems to shut down at some point of these conversations and pivots back to speculation that people are not busy enough or that we are not supporting him enough, notes that we have to get to a point where we have something worth showing before we can level up. I’ve been doing these high visibility things by driving alignment across teams for months now. It’s not my work alone AT ALL. It’s the whole team who has just needed a leader who values them and wants to highlight and activate their work meaningfully. My current leader recognized me for this stuff I’ve been doing after I got insecure about some weird commentary/behaviors from him that after talking to him I realized were in my head— but he then started saying my prior leader who is now my peer doesn’t have enough work which is CRAZY. I shut it down quick and said that he has helped me more than I can ever express but it’s left such a bad taste in my mouth.

I can’t find a new job easily just now and I do care about my current leader without being happy with his behaviors and seemingly— values? I love my work and I want to do good work irrespective of my leadership. I am also torn between feeling like I can see a lot of myself in the new leader as well as the previous, so I feel so much empathy, like I see this pathway to thriving for all of us. But I’m at an impasse of how to move forward here with him and how to get out of my head about what I feel like is a mercurial personality that could turn on anyone at any time.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? What happened? How did you cope while it was happening?

Wishlist for the Heights

Unsure of my new leader