La Esquina del Movimiento

For the past six months, I've been living through some stressful times. I've worked as staff in the Office of Information Technology Services (OITS) for the past five years in the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (GS/OAS). The OAS has been squeezed by a fixed budget and is now undergoing service and staff cutbacks. I could see the writing on the wall -- downsizing was coming.

Since March, I've been trying to find another area in the GS/OAS to take me on. At a time of institutional crisis, it's hard to get managers to pull the trigger on bringing in new personnel -- they're concerned about protecting the staff and budget that they already have. This past week, I started work in the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), a policy area within the GS/OAS. I will be the resident writer-editor working directly with the executive secretary and also supporting the communications director.

At one suspenseful moment this past month, I gave up hope and began sending out resumes to other places. But the exercise made me realized that my best fit was CICAD -- my first-hand experience in Latin America, my combined skills of researcher, writer and editor in English and Spanish, my penchant for web technology, all meld together to contribute to making CICAD more efficient and productive. CICAD could also maximize my own potential if the management knows how to get the most out of me. In OITS, I've been glaringly underutilized for the past year, especially after my mentor retired.

The OAS has been the longest stretch of continuous employment in my life. Only during my four years in the Peruvian Times, almost 30 years ago, did I stick with a job this long. I'm not counting my years of "self-employment," freelancing in Peru. Of course, within the OAS I've worn multiple hats (user support, web development, project management, technology pathfinder). Now I've come back to writer.