Hey colleague.  Where did it all go wrong?  You did what they asked (packs, minutes, meeting set up), you showed up every day and put your hours in, yet suddenly you got discarded.  The programme is still running.  The project managers are still there.  The BAs are still busy.  Your PMO peers are still on their programmes.  But you’re gone.
And not that anybody will notice because you were silent during the whole of your time with us!

Enough people in the change community think that the PMO is just an admin function, so it doesn’t really help your profession when you go along with this misconception and fail to add any extra value.  Did you really think they were going to keep paying this rate for an admin function when they could go to an office temp agency and get the same for so much less?

I know the old adage about not saying anything unless you have something worth saying.  But you are sitting on a goldmine of information and lots of it is worth saying.  You can see when plans start to go off track.  You can see when quality starts to slip.  You can see your colleagues working around the clock and reaching breaking point.  But you seem determined to take this information to the grave.  Why?  Because you think you may look bad?  Because you may get something wrong and look foolish?  Did you see “omniscient” listed on your job spec?  No?  Well it didn’t list shyness or submissiveness either so speak up!

Now more than ever your PMO Managers are looking for people in their team that are ready to challenge programme managers.  They need people they can trust in the programmes.  Even though it can sometimes be challenging, more often than not the programme manager will respect and value you so much more for calling out when they stray off course.  The attendees at the programme board meetings you pull together will benefit from hearing your views on how the project is going – good and bad points.  Your fellow PMO’s will love to hear from you in their team meetings, and not just the usual two or three big mouths (yes, hands up, that’s me…big mouth…).

Everyone will say that you were very nice and that you worked all day long, but when they try to place a true value on your worth to the business this won’t actually add up to much.

So speak up, or get used to interviews.