I have, for the last 9 months, been employed by company "B". I am in a remote office far from the HQ and have the feeling that they will be shutting down my office once my final project is finished. I have been doing as little as possible to maintain my employed status and fill most of my days playing video games and writing blogs to fill my time. This blog will be a running daily diary of my life until I am fired. I refuse to quit. Let’s see how long I can go.
Well, yesterday i did alot of studying and reading about HTML and tried to apply some of the newly learned skills. I failed. If you tried to view this page in the last 24 hours you would have seen the original posts surrounded by garbled HTML code. I screwed the previous template up pretty good. So instead of just reposting the same template I've found a new one where I have a little bit more freedom to try new things out.
Hope you like it, it's still a work in progress and as you know from reading this ridiculous blog, I have all the time in the world to figure it all out.
In short, I'm teaching myself HTML by creating/updating this blog, my "My Space Page" and another blog I started a month ago. I screw up sometimes but I've got the nerve and time to try to figure out what I did wrong and then fix it.
For the past two days I've done nothing but surf and play games. All that "work" last week really must have taken it's toll. I've been researching stocks and other investment opportunities as the wife and I are looking into doing more with our money. So it's not a complete waste of time. I have another interview at the end of the week and have also been informed by a friend that he'll be starting up his own business in May and would like me to come work for him. We'll see.
I think after lunch I'll be playing some serious games.
Monday meetings with “The New Company B” were interesting due to the inability to convey my fears about the direction that they want to bring this meeting in. They want to bring contract issues up in the meeting with the west coast client that will make it seem that I have not explained things. Example, the “Net Sales” they see that line in the contract as a direct reflection of taking money out of their hands due to “third party” issues. This is simply a web portal cost and nothing that comes out of our pocket, it is the same thing as our other distribution channels and if they want to remove this line then THAT will take money out of our pocket because it will not allow our client to sell through other means, i.e. third parties. All in all “OAG” is still siding with them because after I explained how that all works she still mentioned the “Net Sales” being adjusted in 2 e-mails after I had explained all of this and also put it in my “Notes” for today’s meeting. She obviously does not care about what I say unless it is what she, or other HQ-Land people, wants to hear.
Yesterday was a travel day and I spent it with the two executives from “The New Company B” who I have just met. Conversation was light but at one point one of them asked me my thoughts on the future of our industry. I told him what has been in my mind, and slowly proving true, that companies like ours will be developing two kinds of product, one for customer purchase and one for marketing. Marketing products will garner a higher development cost and purchase products will be a lower development cost but with a return on revenue share. He looked at me and shook his head and said, “oh, well that will be bad for us.” How dickhead? He said this like I was telling him that we had to make marketing products. Ok so if you don’t want to make marketing products, don’t. It’s that simple. I was just telling him what my long term thoughts for this developing industry could potentially evolve into. I’ve seen the start of this process take place and I believe that a company with the capabilities of “The New Company B” would benefit by making money on both sides. By supplementing our income by taking advantage of the easy marketing money we would be able to leverage ourselves with the distribution channels.
They don’t want to hear it, yet another suggestion that will not even be considered because I’m just the silly fucking white guy. Yes, if you didn’t know, I am the lone white guy in this all HQ-Land organization. They hired me to help get them into the US based market but every time I make a suggestion like this or bring up an idea that is, dare I say, “Out-of-the-box”, I get shot down. Not even a little consideration is given, I am basically told at every turn to stick with the company line and not stray. Well, that kind of thinking has not worked for them thus far and is the reason I was hired in the first place. But I am now working for another company that will not learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and will again fail.
Well the flight here was ok. Lot’s of room due to no one on board, so I went to the back and stretched out on 3 seats while listening to the Sate of the Union address. Once we got to the hotel everyone wanted to eat, it was 1 in the morning, so like the useless little brother who’s always tagging along because mom told the older brother to take him I went. And once again I sat there listening to 3 old guys speak HQ-Land language to each other with no mention to me for at least an hour what they were talking about. This happens frequently and it’s beginning to annoy me. I am stuck in meetings, cabs, dinners, lunches, and so on where they speak their language and not even address me, this can go on for hours. I would be happy with just a quick mention of the topic, no details, just tell me what your discussing. I hear laughing, or I can tell by inflection of voices that it is serious, or angry, but I have no idea. I’m beginning to think about if the opposite were to happen, 3 Americans who are potentially doing business with the new HQ-Land guy, or just any foreigner, as politically correct, normally polite courteous Americans we would do all they could even with a language barrier to include this person into the discussion. So, I have been left to my own thoughts even though I’m in the company of 3 other people. I sit during meetings, or dinners, or in cabs while three men speak about who knows what and leave me hanging. Not a mention about what the conversation is even about, and I tend to get a little neurotic with my thoughts as they laugh, “They’re laughing about the stupid fat American” I tell my self, “How could we even allow this person into our business, what does he know about doing this?” These are some of the ideas of their conversation.
I am not so delusional that I let these things fester but can’t help but allow myself to wander in this direction of thought occasionally. I have been confined to small spaces with them at dinner, lunch, breakfast, in a waiting room before the client meeting, cabs, and board rooms for the last 48 hours. All the while listening to a conversation I can not understand so I would almost think it’s normal for my thoughts to ponder how many time’s I have been referred to during their conversations. Whatever, I got a free trip to the west coast and I’m soaking up the warm weather for as long as I can.
We got to the client offices about 30 minutes early. Passed the security check rather quickly and let into the office on the 10th floor without an escort. I then, with 3 HQ-Land speaking businessmen in tow, found our rep’s office but he was not there. We were shown into a waiting area where the head of the client group showed up and announced that we were early, to which I explained we didn’t know how traffic would be and did not want to show up late. I apologized to him for being to early and hoped that it was not an inconvenience. He had meetings until 11 and just made sure that we were fine with waiting. I told him that we were. To this, the 3 HQ-Land’ers left to smoke and walk around in the sun outside. I stayed there in the waiting area and began to document this account of my day, making it look as though I was sitting there preparing for our impending meeting. Our client Rep showed up 15 minutes later and introduced me to his assistant who I talk with frequently but have never met. We chatted for about 10 minutes when the HQ-Land’ers returned and soon thereafter we were all directed to the conference room. I had outlined my thoughts the night before on the plane about how I would direct the meeting and had a good idea of what I wanted to do; I had gone over the slides in my head so that I could refer to them by memory. Once the meeting started I skimmed the slides and then went right into it. I don’t consider myself a salesman by any means, quit frankly I don’t like the thought of having to sell anything; I want to just sit back and manage the project. But during this meeting I killed it. Everyone was very happy on both sides and I felt like a true snake oil salesman. I did this full well knowing that I have no intention of staying with this company, knowing that if I leave the company in the coming weeks this project will be scrapped by the client, knowing that I have no faith in the system of having “OAG” translate and dealing with the ”cultural” issues that go along with her and that “culture”. But I felt so confident and it must have been written all over my forehead because we walked out of there with a notion of getting the second project from the client starting in a few months. If they had no faith in us we’d be getting the old line, “Well, we’ll get in touch with you about that later” line.
After the meeting we met Mr. Director Of Operations two brother-in-laws for lunch in the city. Who knew he had relatives all the way out here? I got a great corn beef on sourdough sandwich….I know no one cares about my meal but I had to remind myself of how good it was. We left there, went back to the hotel to pick up the bags and the New CEO of the “New Company B” informs me about the stipulation in the buy out of the company contract with “Old Company B” and how, as long as this client meeting went well “The New Company B” would agree to the “Old Company B” purchase. He let me know that he was impressed with how I conducted myself during the meeting (to which I would think he had low expectations due to some previous prejudice) and that he’s also pleased with how the meeting went. He informs me that “OAG” and I are now part of the team. At least until I take the new job I ‘m interviewing at on. We left the hotel in a stretch Lincoln Town Car and now I’m at the airport waiting to get back to the wife.
The next day (Friday) “OAG” and I sit down with the VP of Operations from “New Company B” and go over contract points once again. He brings up the same exact points that we’ve discussed and tries to place stipulations into it that I know the client will have issues with! I again explain why this will be detrimental to our project with them but again, no one is taking my suggestions into consideration, and they refuse to learn from past mistakes. I NO LONGER CARE. I you thought I didn’t care last month, no I don’t give a shit and might push “OAG” to the point where she might want to fire me. I’ve had it.
Well so much for writing every day. At least the one thing I have been able to do is make time for conference calls to the East and West coast, so I’m up till 1 or 2 am t talk to the home office, crash for 4 or 5 hours and I’m up the next morning at 6 or 7 to talk to the west coast. I have been working non-stop from day one. At least I have not had to travel for the last month and I’ve been in one place long enough to adjust to the surroundings. But I’d trade that to be at home with my big ass TV, comfy bed, and of course the wife.
Not sure how long I’ll be working for this company now that the rumors are getting louder and louder. It is quite reminiscent of “Company A” a few months back when everyone was just waiting to find out when they were going to get shit canned. Well the same thing is going on here. People doing as little as possible while sending out resumes and making appointments for interviews. All the while I am stuck in the production office country not being able to do that. So I’ll get to walk back to the home office when I leave here and wonder if there will even be an office. If this is the case then I’m going to ask for this laptop. I’ve grown attached in some stupid way to it. Maybe because it has not left my side in the last month and prior to that I had it more than 70% of the time anyway. It comes with me everywhere. Every trip I’ve been on in the last 3 months it has been my trusty little friend. I even got it to talk to me. LOL that was a fun night, woo-hoo! Or should I say in l33t, w00t! Yeah I’m a geek. Fuck it, geeky me has done much better in life than the wanna-be-cool-rockstar-me ever did.
My iPod broke and that has sucked ass. I have slowly been transferring my music file folders from the external hard drive I brought with me to the hard drive on this Mac so I can just plug in the headphones into the side of the computer to listen to the tunes at work. But, this has left me without the ability of listening to my music when taking cabs all over the place. That has been a real let down but it’s also made me start listening to the cabbies so within a few days I should have a few more words to add to vocabulary, there is an upside to it. The plane ride back to the States is going to blow without it but from what I’ve heard it’s not going to be easy to travel into the States from other countries right now with electronics or liquids. This should be fun but it’s still a few weeks away.
There were some cool lightning storms a few nights ago, I sat in the hotel and watched as I learned a new application on this Mac. Reminded me of Alabama in the spring as it was hot and humid and the lightning seemed to arc across from cloud to cloud. That is my life wasting away in this fucking hotel room night after night. Trying to make the best of it but longing to return to my own bed, and pillow. Can’t wait to see what happens to the office when I get back.
I really am quite busy this week. I just got back from our west coast client trip and have a great deal to do regarding getting the new company up and running on the project. I am still going to interview with the other company but that is next week. Since i had some time to kill in airports and while in flight, i decided to go through a collection of thoughts from my trip overseas last Jul-to-Aug to the HQ-land and to our other production office country. while I was there I started writing about all of my travels last summer crossing the US many times and overseas 3 times. Most of this travel was for work but two other trips were for weddings. Anyway, i was going over some of the daily entries and since i don't have much time to write today and tomorrow I'm just going to post some of those entries to help describe what working for this place is like, when i was really TRYING to work and get things done.
Hope you like 'em:
Aug 8th 2006 (Day 14)
What a day. Today started last night at 2 am while calling back to the home office to have a quick conference with the folks there. Then I called a client to find out if they’re going to sue us for screwing up their project. Not a great call but it’s to be expected due to the bullshit these dumb-asses (my company) have been subjecting them to and, quite frankly, me. The only reason they have not gone through legal yet is because I have a personal relationship with some of the people in that office and they would like to see me finish up this project and get the credit I deserve, at least that’s what I’ve been told from those friends. After that call to the client I called my office back to inform them of what is needed to, hopefully get back on track with this. I had to make all of these plans and calls after the stupid laptop I brought with me on this trip crashed; well…honestly, that was my entire fault due to my changing the administrator access and name. Doing so completely reset all programs including my Outlook e-mail and I am still in the process of recovering all the mail from the exchange server. Now, during that process, I have to reconfigure the mail rules I had set up as well as all the folders that those rules were set for. What a fucking cluster fuck I created for myself on top of all this other bullshit I have to deal with. So, I had to hand write notes about all of the calls, plans, and e-mails that i had to follow up with once i got the computer back online and reconfigured. Then piled onto that, I don’t even get to sleep in my own bed. All I wanted to do last night was go home (to the shitty hotel) and read over some online tutorials, learn some new programs on this stupid Mac and go to bed. But, that won’t happen until I finish recovering all of this shit. So now I’m sitting in a Starbuck’s in *the production office country* writing yet another blog. I finally got up the nerve to walk over here after work, during daylight hours, so that I could get the address written down *in this language* so I can now show it to the cab drivers to take me here in the morning. This took about 20 minutes of hand signals, charades, and physically going behind the counter just to get a pen to get them to write down the address of the place. I thought I was going to get beat down for going behind the counter but caffeine is a dangerous drug and I need it. (that's really a whole other story) I hate being so confined that I can only go to the places I have addresses for written down on paper.
Tonight I will do some exploring. Once I leave Shitbucks, I’m going over to the little mall I can see from my hotel window. I swear, it’s like being around 10 to 12 years old and your parents take you on vacation but won’t let you play with the older kids on the beach at night – you can hear them having whatever kind of fun they’re having, but you just can’t go out to play with them because “Your too young” or “you have a bedtime”. That’s how I feel in my hotel on the 18th floor in this far-from-home-and-I-can’t-speak-the-language country, I can see shit loads of places I want to go but have been told not to walk around at night because it might be too dangerous. And I don’t know how to talk to the cab drivers to say “just take me somewhere for a cheap drink” which I have done in quite a few US cities before. And even though I have no problem walking around my home city late at night, I know where I can walk, I know what areas not to go into, you know? Here, shit is kinda crazy and I’m not really in the “touristy” parts of town and being the lonely white rich guy (everyone from the US is rich as far as they’re all concerned) walking around these parts of *this different country* is – maybe - not the smartest idea.
Aug 10th - Day 16
Well fuck that, I went for a walk…at night! It was ok. I did notice A LOT of people staring at me like I was painted green. Really, people just stopped what they were doing to watch me walk by. Like I said I am the only white guy in this part of town and it’s not the tourist section of the city. It was strange. But it was nighttime and I got to the hotel ok. Even though I got over that hurdle, of walking at night, I still feel kinda confined to my own little area. I need to find some kind of nightlife here. I keep hearing about “the expatriate bar district” and promised my self I’d go before I left. It’s supposed to be a great bar and nightlife area with a lot of foreigners from Europe and the US. We shall see. This trip is not over yet…by far.
It looks like I'll be earning my pay this week. The new owners from HQ-land arrived yesterday and then I had to pick up Mr. Director of Operations from the airport. We all had lunch and then meetings about the new company goals and the state of our contracts with the west coast client. I will be preparing a power point presentation while we fly to the west coast about what the new company feels is needed to finish the project. If the west coast client does not agree with these issues it'll be humorous to see what happens. Because o0f all this I was not able to post an entry yesterday. oopps.
I really don't care though. My phone interview went well last week and I have been given an offer to fly out to that company, on their dime, to meet face to face with the team there. I have a feeling that this is all just formality now and that the job is mine and they just want to give me an offer in person. All speculation on my part but iIam hopeful or optimistic, or both. Don't care. One way or another, this place will be history and I'll be doing what I love again with a competent group.
Last night during dinner I received a call from "OAG". She had just been on a conference call with the people from the new company, which I was unaware of, and she had some "News" for me. Apparently they want to go to the meeting next Tuesday on the west coast and discuss parts of the contract we're going to sign. All of this has been discussed between "OAG" and me many times and I have informed her that this might not be such a great idea due to the way we've handled production thus far and since we've already done work for them without a contract. There is no reason for me to believe that the client could decide that they no longer want to do business with us and just take the work we've already done and have it finished by someone else. Yes, i know that doing that would be unethical and that it is highly unlikely due to how high profile these people are; the last thing they want is a justified lawsuit from a pissant company like ours.
"OAG" goes on to tell me everything they discussed during her conference and it sounds to me like she has not explained the reasons why they would not want to do this. It also sounds to me like "OAG" has been lying to me again about conferences and about what exactly has been said in all of these conferences. I feel as though, once again because of the "culture", she is unable to say "No" to certain things that the people from the new company are requesting. The whole "cultural" thing is to much to get into but i have already seen this happen and it is the basis for my current assumptions. And it is not like it is her saying no to people it is ME saying no, then giving explanations as to why we can't do certain things, and THEN giving follow-up plans to try things a different way. This does not matter, because of the "Culture" and the way things are done in HQ-land, because she is A)subordinate B)younger and C) a woman she can not even translate my reasons for saying NO. This has been the biggest fucking waste of my time when I have to deal with shit like this. I have even gone to the point of setting up deals and making arrangements with other companies to do work for us and then, after I have made these deals "OAG" tells me that HQ will not go through with it. She then does not tell them that I have already made the deal and that it will look bad for the company (AND ME) if we back out for no reason. This does not matter. I have done this twice now and have had my name pulled through the mud because of it.
It even got so bad as "OAG" brow beating me, with the help of Mr Director Of Operations, into making a deal with one of those companies and then the rug gets pulled out from under me. I set up a deal with this company to do some work for us, she tells me that HQ thinks the price is too high so, can I get them to lower the price? I tell her that we have already had this company do exploratory work for us to make sure they were qualified to do it in the first place and we screwed them by A) not paying them for it and B) telling them if they did the work correctly (which they did) that they would get a butt load of future work. Now that the future work is here, I explain to the company that we have a payment coming to them (which is what I was told) and that we want to start sending them the future work that we promised. But now HQ expects the price they’ve quoted to do the work lowered dramatically and I'm the one who has to do the negotiating. So not only do i get the price lowered I get them to finish a week earlier than had been requested. All parties agree (at least I think) and we are to send over our production assets to them on the following Mon or Tues.
On Monday I ask "OAG" about sending the production assets, she says she'll talk to HQ that night and we'd have it in the morning. I ask in the morning, she says that they have a "snag" and the assets would be sent that night and we would have it first thing the next morning. So I send an e-mail and let the company know we're a day behind and the representative over there tells me that it's not a problem and that they would still be on schedule as long as they get it the next day. Next morning: "OAG" do we have the assets? To this she replies: "No, well..., I talked to Mr Director of Operations on Monday night and he said he didn't want to go with this company and that he wanted to find a different company. “I HAVE ALREADY AGREED TO THIS THOUGHT and we have this company waiting for us to deliver”, i reply.
And why didn't she tell me about this two days ago? Answer: Because she thought I'd be mad!
Well I was, and this is yet just another reason for me not to feel bad about this blog and my utter lack of work for the last 3 months.
Anyway, back to last night when “OAG” called during dinner. I begin to explain to her why I feel I can’t trust what is going on in HQ-land with any company because it seems like the same shit I have been dealing with while working with “Company B”. I feel as though that I say things and no one listens, I tell her that “Company B” tried to make a name for themselves in the US market and failed and I pointed out 3 instances where I made suggestions that were slapped down but it’s come to light that those suggestions would have been valuable. Now it seems that I’m making more suggestions to another company that wants to come over from HQ-land and make a name for them in the US market but will again fail if they do not learn from the mistakes made by “Company B”.
It is still to cold in here to be productive (productive in the sense of updating this blog!) but alas the heating crew is here to really fix the problem. That being said it'll still take about 3 hours for this place to really heat up once they've fixed it.
Over the course of the last 3 days I've really spent allot of time with both hands in my coat pockets and reading HTML tutorials. I have an idea for another blog so I'm going to adapt the knowledge I've been feeding myself and apply it to the new blog. Depending on how it goes I might just change the layout of this one too. We'll see.
That's it for now, typing hurts my fingers (insert Happy Gilmore quote: Elderly Woman: My fingers hurt. Nursing Home Orderly: Oh, well, now your back's gonna hurt, 'cause you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody else's fingers hurt?... I didn't think so.)
Well let’s just say that I am still freezing my ass off and my fingers are a little blue. I just got back from lunch and had purchased a large pastrami sub from "ToGo's" (chain sandwich shop like SubWay, i think it's better than SubWay but I digress). I'm reading an e-mail and eating when I look down at the paper wrapping the sandwich came in, that I'm using as a placemat, and noticed something, shall we say, a little unordinary. Now, pastrami is not the healthiest thing you can have but it is served hot and occasionally it can be a little greasy. Normally when I order this meal for lunch I notice small little "pools" of grease that have accumulated on the paper wrapper which is a result of the grease dripping off of the bread. So, to give you an idea of how cold it is in this office I have taken some pictures of the greasy stalagmite and stalactite formations that have formed on the paper wrapping and on the sandwich itself.
As you can see the bottom "stalagmite" would usually just spread out and create a little puddle but since it is refrigerator temperature inside the office the grease has cooled so rapidly that it has formed a mound.
I pulled back a little on this photo to give perspective with a bit of my thumb in the shot. Notice the grease cooling off before it even leaves the bread, just hanging there. I should quit this lame ass job to become a photo journalist, well, not really. This little blog just might make me change my diet. Blah.
Note: I took these shots with just my cell phone camera. Moto RAZR. Not bad for a cell phone, I think.
I am in the office today as I left early yesterday. I sent "OAG" home early yesterday too because of a heating problem with our building. They're trying to fix it as I type this but my fingers are literally blue and my W.P.M. speed has decreased significantly. It was asinine to even be in the office yesterday because it was so cold in here but they are here and should be done in an hour or so.
I am setting up appointments for meetings with the west coast client now and should be done with this in a little while but what I'm really working on today is research of a different companies product line and production models. Why you ask? I have an interview with them tomorrow. Yes I have had about enough of this crap. I'm hoping to finish out the deal with "Company B" and then slide into a new position with one of 3 companies I've been talking to about new jobs. I'm kinda hoping I finish out Jan. here at "Company B" and will be able to start fresh with a new company in Feb.
I had yesterday off as most of the US did for MLK day. But because the home office HQ is in another country they finalized the company take over last night. Now I have to set up a meeting between the new people that own me and the west coast client. There is a stipulation in the buy out contract that if the west coast client does not want to continue to do business with the new named company then the deal to buy "Company B" is off. So I have to set up the meeting for next week AND be the middle man to make this thing happen. If i do then I'll be able to continue this ride for a few more months, if not, I'll be fired, like I haven't been expecting that.
So, even though all this is happening I still really have nothing to do but set up a meeting date and once that's set I'll make some travel plans. Nothing that will take up too much of my time so screw it I'm still gonna play games and surf the net.
Hope you had a great weekend but it's back to the grind for most of you, for me...I'm playing games.
"O.A.G." took the day off to spend with a friend from out of town so I'm here all alone doing absolutely nothing. I wouldn't have even come in today but have to wait for the company accountant to drop off some tax stuff but once he comes in I'm out of here. This office has had problems with the heating for the last 3 months and I’m about 5 minutes away from putting gloves on to type. It's sooooo fucking cold in here! Just another reason I hate this place. Another reason is "OAG" is just a dumbass sometimes. Here is an example of an e-mail she sent me this morning:
"Mr. Director of Operations asked us to schedule the meeting with West Coast Client to be one day of next next week"
Right, not "...to be in two weeks" or "...to be scheduled for the week of 1-22 to 1-26" No she says "...to be one day of next next week." WTF!
I also had to hold back from yelling at her yesterday because I had told her the west coast client requested to see any information on the new company that was going to buy us out before they agreed to a meeting with them. To me that is understandable because if I was in their shoes I would not want to have a meeting with a group of people I knew NOTHING about. So after my meeting Tuesday with the client at the convention I called "OAG" and told her what went on AND that the client needed to see some general info about the new company before they could set a date for a meeting. I then reminded her about needing the info on Wed night when I knew she was talking to one of the employees at the new company.
So, after all that, she asks me last night to e-mail the client and set a date for the meeting between us, the new company and the client at the clients west coast office. I looked at her and said, "OK, do we have any of the info on the new company?" "OAG" said, "Well, no because they're not finished with the buy out we can't get any info" I then reminded her that I had told her for the last 2 days that we needed some kind of info on this new company before the meeting could be set. To which she then said AGAIN, "Well we can't get that because they're not finished with the buy out so we're not really the new company yet." This went on for 20 minutes to which I told her I did not care what she had to say, just get some info.
I got in this morning to 3 e-mails with info on it...all written in the HQ language that I can not either read or write. I really can not stand working in the same office as her sometimes.
Fuck it...I'm playing games, until the accountant shows up. Then I'm out of here!
Early day for me, have fun at work and have a great weekend. Back on Tuesday.
So I was just surfing the net when I came across this little blog. [Click Here]
It was posted by a doctor who listed out the top 10 things we all really hate about our own jobs. I can relate to a bunch of these, how many do you relate to?
1. Lack of Communication 2. Unfair Pay 3. No Job Security 4. Under Appreciation 5. Favoritism 6. Overworked 7. Micromanagement 8. Incompetent Managers 9. No Opportunity for Advancement 10. Overbearing Boss
To give up a small bit of personal information about myself, I was in the military for about 6 years. During that time I had a great deal of job satisfaction. But there were times when changes were made that seemed, not only to me, either detrimental or just plain useless. If you've ever been in the military you know sometime things change just because someone wants them to change and because they have the power to change it. (they also have tiny dicks but I digress) Well during my last 18 months too many of these useless changes occurred so much so that I had determined that if I was not under a contract to be in the military for another 18 months I would have quit on the spot. It was at that time I realized that I was going to get out of the military and put myself in control of my own employment situations. Now, there are circumstances where you have to stay put in your current job due to personal responsibilities, i.e. bills, kids, family, house, etc. and I've been in those situations but there is something so empowering and freeing when you walk into the office of a job you hate and say "I Quit!".
The job I had for 4 years after i got out of the military and before I got into my current industry was the worst. I was yelled at for questioning the safety of myself and fellow employees, I was looked down at for making suggestions to improve productivity, etc., etc. there were many other reasons this company sucked to work for. Bottom line was the boss wanted me to be like every other monkey he had working in his shop. So after 4 years I quit. With no other job lined up and only a few grand saved for living expenses. I cleaned out my work space on the Friday before and walked in first thing Monday morning and calmly said "I no longer work for you, I quit" and turned and walked out the door. When I got into my car i had this rush of adrenaline and literally felt a weight lift from my shoulders. I felt like i could look people in the eye when I talked to them again. This place made me miserable and my roommates and friends at the time noticed a few weeks later how much happier I was. People i knew told me they didn't realize how bad my situation was when I told them about it but could understand now that I had qui because of my physical and mental appearance, it was that noticeable!
So I guess what I’m getting at is, take a look at this top 10 list, go take a look at the original blog. [Click Here] If your unhappy about what you do or how your treated…QUIT! Of course quit if you can, think about it, can you live without certain things and struggle for a few weeks while getting by. If you can, they will be the best weeks of you life trust me.
Now the greatest thing about this whole miserable experience is that I took about 6 months off to “find myself” I didn’t go run out to find a full time job as I had some money saved to live off of. (I had been thinking about quitting for a few months) I did not have a girlfriend, wife, or kids, to support, and I took odd jobs around town when I wanted to for a little $uplement. When I did buckle down and decide I needed to get a new fulltime job I found a very bottom floor position at a company. But it was at a company where I knew no one and enjoyed the product they made. I used the product myself very often. I worked my way up the food chain to this industry to where I’m at now and, when I am actively engaged in doing my job, I love it. Absolutely love it. I get stressed; I get pissed when things go wrong, but overall my job rules! So the saying goes, If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I believe that and this is why sitting here doing nothing has been so hard on me. My year in 2007 will change, I will make it change and I’ll do it on my own terms. There’s a reason I’m still sitting at this desk but not for long.
Till then….I’m playin games!
(Quick side note: So, the day I quit that fucked up horrible job. The day I got into my car and felt the weight of the world lift off my shoulders. Yeah, on my drive home that morning I got pulled over for not having my car registered. It cost me about $150 to take care of it. As soon as I got pulled over I was still smiling because I finally quit after a full year of thinking about quitting and I thought “Oh shit, this is not a good start to the rest of my life” But, it all worked out in the end.)
Also thanks to Sunny for making me think about this. :)
Well, here I am sitting in front of this bullshit computer screen doing bullshit work and telling "OAG" that I'm busy working on business proposals, outlining design documents, and forecasting revenue shares for the latest client project. Whatever, I've been sitting here for the last 2 to 3 months doing nothing but surfing the net and playing online and PC based games. I am at a point now where doing nothing is getting on my nerves. So, i started sending out resumes again I figure it's a new year and company fiscal cycles will be ending soon so there may be some new budgets that allow for new positions to open up. I do have an interview with a company tomorrow but it's just a conference call interview. The company is out of state and I would be willing to relocate but have to go over the details of it with the wife tonight. We'll see how that works out.
As for Tuesdays meeting with our only client at the industry convention I drove 4 hours west to go meet him for lunch. I didn't have a pass to get into the convention as it was too expensive and the company would not pay for my pass so in my e-mail I told the client that I would meet him for lunch at one of the hotels. I get to the convention and give him a call, i get his voice mail but it is so full I can't even leave him a message. I call "OAG" and tell her to get on the phone to his office back on the west coast to try and get someone there to get a hold of him. An hour later he calls me and lets me know that he has 2 last minute meetings that he has to go to and could I meet him for drinks around 5:30. Shit! I drove 4 hours out there it's now noon and I have to sit around, with no convention pass, and bum around this crappy little city for 5 hours waiting for him. Then after that I'll have to drive 4 hours back home. This ends up being a 15 hour day and seems to me like the most work I've done for "Company B" in the last 3 weeks combined. Oh Well.
So I spend the next 5 hours at a local strip club. Hey what would you do! I meet the client at 5:30 in his hotel and we go out for dinner. I explain to him that "Company B" is being bought by another company and that as long as they're ok with it the new company will just pick up where we left off. It should be seamless. Now, that's the VERY short version of this dinner but you get the idea. So, the client says he's fine with what I've told him so far but wants to be sure that there will be no interruption in production and that we now have to finalize the contract with the newly named company, a.k.a. "Company B With A New Shiny Name". However you look at this I feel like I worked a miracle by keeping the client calm about our hostile takeover, or bankruptcy, or what ever you want to call it. I told him everything that I knew up to this point but assured him that I'd be in control of the project and that it would be finished without a hitch. BULLSHIT! I should be in sales. Anyway, we now have to get the new representatives of "Company B With A New Shiny Name" to come over here to the U.S. and meet with me and "OAG" to see if we will have a job. Then we need to put them on a plane to the west coast to meet with our ONLY client and sign the contract. Again, we'll see how this goes. Looks like I'll be flying to the west coast next week.
Not only am I bored but I am a cynical sadistic prick, and here's why.
The wife loves the american television show "Medium". Because I don't care much for any television I will sit aimlessly by and watch a few shows with her on occasion. One night while watching shows with her, this show "Medium" comes on and in one scene the middle daughter of the star of the show is at the breakfast table eating and talking. As I am watching I can not help but think this girl looks just like someone but because the scene was so quick I didn't get to notice. So I watch a little more and it becomes very apparent who this little girl looks like. She's about 8 or 9 years old and honestly I hope that she never sees this blog because i would not want to be the one to emotionaly scar her for life but, she looks just like a 9 year old Sam Kinison! I'm not joking. Everytime this show is on and she comes on screen I look at the wife and start screeming just like Kinison and it makes me laugh all night just thinking about it. If you don't know who Kinison is you have to watch this -
THAT - IS - vintage Sam Kinison.
Now how can i say that some little girl looks like Kinison? Trust me, it's Sam reincarnated in this little kid.
Here
OK Here's what to do. Play the bottom "You Tube" video of Maria Lark and pause it at :13 seconds then, play the Sam Kinison video and listen to the audio of it while looking at the paused Maria video. rofl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am just about pissing myself laughing putting this this blog post together, I am going right to hell...HAHAHAHAHAHA LOL!
This has been fun...back to doing nothing at work, later.
Well, after my extended trip yesterday, I finally got home at mid-night last night. So since i "worked" soooo hard yesterday i decided to come in today around 11 am. Had a quick conference call with the client and then left for lunch. I told "OAG" that I was going to lunch with an industry connection so I would not be back for a while.
Although it is actually an industry connection that I went to lunch with, this person is also a good friend so, I put lunch on the company card and got back to the office 3 hours later. I'm now just dickin' around on the net and playing some games.
To lazy to write about everything that's happened in the last 3 days here but will get into it at the end of the week.
Well, after a 2 hour conference call to the HQ it has been determined that I will be driving 4 hours west to an industry convention on Tuesday morning. I have to go meet our one and only client to explain to them that "Company B" is going to become the new and improved "Comapany B With A New Name", in other words, the rumors seem to be true that we're about to be bought by some stupid company that has no idea that we're all worthless! I now have the unfortunate duty to try and calm the nerves of our, again, ONLY client and explain the situation.
There is so much more to this but I'll get into it on Wed. I have to leave early in the morning drive 4 hours, have a 2 hour lunch at most and then get back in the car and drive back. 8 hours of driving for a crappy convention center fast food lunch and the possible response from the client Rep. saying, "Thanks for doing a shitty job so far but we'll have another company finsh the rest. Oh yeah, by the way, your stupid-as-shit former VP "Dickboy" never finished our contract so, we don't have to pay you shit either"
This is going to be fun...I wish I could just play games tomorrow.
Till then, have fun at work, and I'll update on Wed.
I just woke up from a 2 1/2 hour nap. I spent some time on the internet this morning then I went to lunch with "O.A.G.". When I got back from lunch I started playing my Tycoon game and fell asleep at my desk...over 2 hours ago. I'm yawning as I write this.
Whatever...going back to sleep..hope you have fun at work!
Well, it's a lovely rainy day and traffic was SUPER getting into this hell hole this morning. I can't complain too much though because it's not like I'm going to be doing much today and because I had one hell of a great weekend. Took Thursday afternoon off and left for a weekend get-away-retreat with the wife, got back on Saturday night and had Sunday to sit on the couch and watch the football playoffs. Now i'm feeling refereshed and ready to sit back and do nothing, tough job. I did spend part of sunday helping out my friend with their My Space account, made some tweaks to the layout and added some friends for them. I do feel pretty good about doing something a little productive. I may have to take off tomorrow for a meeting at an industry convention if so i'll be driving for 9 hours tomorrow, not looking forward to that but it might be nessacary if we want to continue getting paid by the client and of course keep me "stable" in my current position, lets just call it maintenance.
Last night I went to dinner with a friend who works in my industry, we met each other while working together at “Company A” and have become close since. Half way through our conversation, which happened to be all about work, I said to him, “You know, this is the most intellectually stimulating conversation I’ve had about work in months.” And sadly it had been, but I felt really good about talking to someone who understood the language I was speaking because to the people at my present company (“O.A.G”) the lingo used in our industry is “All Greek to them”. To which my friend replied to my comment with an apology for talking so much about work during our dinner but soon realized why I had said what I did. Maybe it was the self realization of the comment and dejected look on my face right after I said it that he caught on.
To elaborate a little more on this, it was at that moment that I realized I really missed doing the job that I loved. It was enjoyable and made me feel good to be able to talk through some of the problems that my friend was experiencing at his current job and to explain what I would do in certain situations and how I would handle certain problems. I felt useful to a point. I guess the current situation I’m in right now is not all roses as much as one would think, my current situation is the epitome of the cliché saying “Be careful what you wish for”. Maybe if I didn’t truly enjoy what I do, when in fact I’m doing it, I would not have these thoughts pop up. If I was in a dead end, “any-monkey-with-fingers-could-do-it”, kind of job maybe I could be this lazy and unproductive for months on end. But by talking to my friend last night it hit me that I do miss being challenged and truly being productive and why it is I love what I do.
Here at “Company B” even at my most productive moments I felt like I was teaching high school students how to add 2+2 but I also had to teach them why addition is good for you and that bigger and better things happen when you know how to add simple numbers. This place is in no way a competitive company in our industry (if I only knew that prior to taking the job!) and since I was coming into this position from “Company A” with more experience than anyone here at “Company B” had, I ended up teaching quite a few people the basics of the industry. I went home each night exhausted and frustrated that I was explaining simple business practices to my boss, “Dickboy”, and he had an MBA! When I fill out online surveys or applications I have to check the “Some College” box. But while working here I had to explain to “Dickboy” why he should never have told our clients why we can’t do what he promised them we could do and, how he could have done the same thing without taking all the risk. But I am where I am.
I am leaving for a 3 day mini-vacation with the wife today and hope that getting out of town will clear my head a little and get me to really put my options in perspective.
I spent the whole day on My Space adding friends to the other page i created, over 100 people on that one now. I had pretty much finished up for the night when I went to go check my own page and one of my new "Friends", Frank, left me a little note:
I heard about your website on my local radio station in San Antonio and have been following your blog with great interest! I enjoy your postings and now take more notice when I get distracted at work and I become non-productive.
Apparently this blog was mentioned on a radio station in San Antonio. I thought that was kinda cool, if that radio station wants me to talk to them leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.
Well it's been another boring ass day but I'm glad I was able to do something productive for my Friend. They have already seen an increase in foot traffic to their store and one person already mentioned My Space to them. I hope that works out well, i know I'll be plugging away over there for them while I get paid by someone else.
Well I'm still here doing nothing. At least this means I'll get a check for this month. I got into work this morning and acctually had to do a little work. Sent off the samples to the west coast client and will have a conference with them later today about them. Other than that I spent most of yesterday and last night before I left on My Space. I created my own My Space page just for this blog but also created one for a friend who has a business aned wants to add some alternative promotion and hopfully get some added business. Since I'm the one managing it remotly ( from my office :) )they don't have to spend the time or money to do it and since I have ample amounts of time I offered my services. I hope I can get a few people to buy some stuff.
Well if I'm not on My Space today I'll most likely be spending my time online learning how to play Vegas Style Poker. I'm going on a trip with the wife this week and there will be an ooportunity to play poker with some guys some I'm trying to brush up.
Still getting paid to play games and write blogs. Although today I have filled my time learning about the wonders of My Space. Count Down To My Own Demise now is in the social networking scene with my own My Space Page. Woo Hoo. Yes my day has been filled learning the wonders of HTML and how to gain "friends". To all of you now reading this blog via My Space, thanks. I hope you enjoy the posts.
Well this is what my entire day has been about yet I am paid to do something entirely different, a.k.a. "work". If you are not already on my "Friends" list please go to the page and add me as I will have other random updates from there as well.
So tonight I have a conference call with the Director of Operations which should sort out the details of the next month or so. Can’t wait to hear what is going to happen, if anything. We shall see.
Well, it’s a New Year and I have but one resolution. I will start each day by saying something nonsensical to “OAG”. Example: This morning as soon as she comes into the office I know that she’ll say something like, “Hiiiiiiiiii, Happy New Year, what did you do for New Years, did you party?” I will respond with a stupid story about how the wife and I do not celebrate New Years on the 31st like everyone else but that we feel the true meaning of New Years is to party on Jan 1st each year. Stupid, I know, but I think it is going to be the one thing that keeps me from ringing her stupid neck. She’s foreign so I might be able to get away with most of the bullshit I tell her.
Whatever, I plan on doing nothing until the conference call which we wont have until at least 5 pm so I’m going to do the same thing I have done for the last 2 months…nothing.
Have fun at work, I’ll be playing games all day while you slave away at your day jobs.
