Friday, January 27, 2012

Parental Professionalism

As my career advances (yay!), I now find myself essentially in the same "industry" as my father - politics.  After resigning from my year and half in Low-Income Housing, I worked for my local county's Democratic Party.  My Dad, a long time liberal and Democrat, was elated!  Finally, the progeny has stopped resisting her fate and has acquiesced to her birthright! 

Okay, so it's not like there were trumpeting cherubim and singing seraphim, but officially getting into politics was a BFD for my Dad. 

I accepted that position knowing that it was temporary.  I was Interim Office Head Honcho for the remainder of the (elected) Party Chair's term, and he resigned in December (planned).  Basically, I was office manager for the HQ office. 

Now, I am working for a long time friend and newly elected official.  Those of you who know me will know who that is, but since he's 1) elected, 2) a dear friend, and 3) my brother from another mother, I won't list his name or seat here in this blog.  So you won't see me dishing any dirt here.

The funniest thing about my new job is that Dad was here.  Dad worked for an elected official who was term limited (same level of gov't, different seat than my boss).  So on Dec 29th, Dad moved out of his office, and on Dec 30th, I moved into my office - same building, same floor, just a different spot.  Many of my new colleagues are Dad's old colleague.  So we are now colleagues.  Weird.  At least Dad was well liked and respected, and thanks to his good reputation, I essentially have some built-in allies and friends already.  He loves to call us up, give us "grief", and generally tease us.  He loves his new job (in the private sector, but still heavily involved in politics though he vows he's not going to do any campaign work this year), but I think he misses the hubbub of government. 

So it's good to be my Dad's daughter and his colleague.  Now, why did I spend so long resisting this????