Hello everyone,

Phew, things have been going very fast this week at work!

On thursday, my boss announced to a co-worker and I that he had accepted another job and would be leaving very shortly. Yesterday, his boss came to see me and asked me if I was interesting in taking the job temporarily until they find someone fit to do the work. I'm still young and I never really took the time to think about my career in the medium term... Wether I would be interested in perhaps working my way up in the management levels... or simply become a great experienced employee, scoring bonuses from time to time.

I decided to accept the job, knowing that it will be temporary : anywhere from a few months to maybe a year, max.

To problem is, I don't have much time to think about all this and since I don't have that much experience managing people, I would appreciate any advice, website or book recommendations, or any other resources that some of you that went the same path found unvaluable.

Things that I intend to do :

1) Maintain the boat afloat... keep everyone happy as much as I can, encourage efforts and just try to keep things running smoothly;

2) Stop going out for lunch with "co-workers" and chit chat about work. I think they will understand, but I expect to be up-front with it and just tell them that for the time being, I can't really continue going out with them

3) Not hesitate to meet with the other boss to discuss personnel issues (problematic issues, etc.)


Things that I intend *NOT* to do :

1) Become an arrogant boss, because one day these people will become my co-workers again

2) Organize a kick-off meeting, and give a lame speech... people know what they have to do (in my line of work) and I think it would just be awkward;



I expect the announcement to be made on tuesday or wednesday...

Any help would be appreciated. What tips have been the most valuable to those of you who experienced this? What were the most important things you learned in the process?

Thank you for everything!


SARbound