find out what exactly the company needs
likely if they are going to sponsor her masters AND she will be
bonded in the process
she would not be kept doing only unclassified work
she does realise however, that if they intend to sponsor her,
she is more or less at their beck and call once she is bonded
unless she is able to pay back.
i am quite amazed that they are going to sponsor her masters
when the boss is basically telling her her job is not required.
Precisely! My exact thoughts!
Could this be the boss' way of gradually introducing the concept
of a horizontal transfer to another dept or another job altogether
for her?
Her boss could also be challenging her to see how well she can
take initiative and define a role for herself. Could be a
test to see how she's going to justify their sponsorship for her
Masters cause to a company, it's not the paper qualifications that
matter as much as the value one employee contributes to the
job.
It's time for her to grab the reins and carve out a niche for
herself. Her boss has already told her explicitly that he
thinks she shouldn't remain in her current role and is indirectly
telling her that more is expected. It's hard to get out of a
comfort zone, but in this case, it's necessary if she wants to seal
the sponsorship. Like what ShroCat said, if you want the
company to sponsor you, you bo bian have to please them.
She has to balance her goals with the company's goals.
Don't look down on the Sales and Quotation tasks because they are
the vital arteries bringing in the cashflow for an organisation and
if she can get into it with a humble, keen-to-learn attitude, she
can establish herself firmly in the company. It's easy to
pigeonhole a certain job / task as menial and 'useless', can't
learn much, but really, it's what one makes out of it and you never
know where it can get you. For instance, if she does a
fantastic job and relates well to the clients with a resultant
increase in profit margins, I'm sure her boss will recognise
that.
Sometimes, we don't have the luxury of choosing which tasks we
want to do, and shove the more 'unpleasant and boring,
won't-learn-anything' tasks from it. We are afterall employed
by our employers for the value we can add to the organisation, and
for what we can contribute; we aren't paid to just sit there and
choose to do only tasks that we can benefit from. I've worked
in HR before, and we always ask, "How will it benefit the company
if we were to pay for this course for a particular employee?"
Corporations are afterall, not charities and they have to watch
their bottom-line.
