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| Just an Update |
| Saturday, July 11, 2009 |
Hello,
I know it's almost been a full year since my last post but I'm so busy with the new job (still there) plus there's no good reason to dwell on the old shit. It was an experience that I will never forget. I was able to travel all over this country and a few others and was paid well to do very little.
For those of you who go to work each day and surf the net or do other things other than work and wish you could get paid to do that all day, i'm here to tell you, its not that great. Near the end of my time there I didn't even have to hide what I was doing, and I was bored out of my skull. I hate having to look for busy work to do or to "look busy" so the new place is perfect, there is always work to do and I'm quite content....shit, I'm fucking happy to be working and productive each day.
I'm at the office 50+ hours per week now and couldn't be happier. At the old place I was barely spending an hour per day sending e-mail reports to clients or the overseas home office and I was trying to look like I was doing something for the other 6 or 7 hours that I was there. For the majority of those 6 or 7 hours I blogged on here, played video games, surfed the web and had lunch. It bored me to tears. The grass is always greener right?
For those of you who read this blog at all I hope i provided a bit of enjoyment or a means to show you how good (or bad) you might have had it at work. For those still finding this strange little blog, enjoy. Not sure how often I'll post here, maybe once a year, maybe if I ever run into Sales guy or OAG I'll send an update. Till then...Labels: blog, blogs, bored, boss, bullshit, bullshit job, careers, dumbass, Fired, freezing office, italk2much.com, jobs, reason, Stupid co-workers, surfing |
posted by Me @ 12:30 AM   |
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| Example Of Why This Place Is Bullshit. |
| Tuesday, February 27, 2007 |
I just had an argument with "OAG" about having to fight my way through every single suggestion I make. Case in Point - I made several remarks about the contract we were going to send to the "West Coast Client" and laid out reasons for NOT changing a handful of issues that "New Company B" decided to change.
"OAG" tells me first thing this morning that they want to send the contract "AS IS" with out my changes to see what "West Coast Client" will say. The main reason for my changes is that I KNOW what "West Coast Client" will say about some of the items but even more troubling is that when they look at all of them as a whole they might wonder if they still want to do business with us. They may also wonder if I had even looked over the contract becuase of the blatently obvious issues should have been addressed by me, BUT THEY WERE!
HEre are some examples:
Here are my notes:
Issue #1
Legal Mumbo-jumbo-
With respect to each Application, "New Company B" shall receive as its sole compensation for the Services rendered and the rights granted to "West Coast Client" hereunder a royalty (the “Revenue Share”) in the amount of Net Sales of such Application and derivative Application Products as set forth on the applicable portion of Appendix B. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no Revenue Share shall be payable hereunder with respect to (i) Applications or Application Products used for promotional purposes or furnished free to the trade, press or for public relations use; or (ii) Applications or Application Products used for promotional purposes furnished free to distributors, sub-distributors, dealers, or others.
My Observation-
“…or furnished free” – was deleted from the contract. This should remain in the contract so that "West Coast Client" has the ability to furnish the listed outlets (the trade, press or for public relations use) a free copy of the application. "West Coast Client" is not going to ask the press to buy the game in order to review it.This is an industry practice that has been added (in some fashion or other)into every contract i've ever read.
NOTE: "New Company B" refuses to listen to this and think its a "ploy" by the "West Coast Client" to give away the game so that they don't have to pay us! They demand that it “…or furnished free” is removed from the contract entirly and will not sign it if it's in there.
Issue #2
Legal Mumbo-jumbo section of the contract is deleted by "New Company B" dealing with required insurance needed to do business between copanies.
My Observation-
This whole section was “Omitted” from the contract and needs to remain IN the contract as US companies will not do business with us if we do not have insurance. By ommiting this section we are saying to Sony that we do not have insurance and will not get insurance. This is not acceptable.
Note: "New Company B" claims they have insurance and that they could not open in HQ-Land if they did not have ninsurance, they see this section of the contract as "insulting".
FUCKING MORNONS. Nuff said.
Issue #3
Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
To the extent necessary to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations of HQ-Land Country Name, "New Company B" agrees to pay to the relevant HQ-Land Country Name tax authority taxes at the applicable rate set forth in such laws, rules, and regulations.
“HQ-Land Country Name” –was added to this section and should not be there. The term “comply with applicable laws” will cover each countries laws and adding the express HQ-Land country into the contract detracts from the US laws which should also be adhered to as "West Coast Client" is an American business.
Issue #4
If "New Company B" shall commence an action, suit, or proceeding against "West Coast Client" concerning Revenue Share statements rendered or required to be rendered by "West Coast Client" to "New Company B" hereunder, the scope of that action, suit or proceeding shall be limited to a determination of the amount of Revenue Share, if any, payable to "New Company B" for the accounting periods in question, and "New Company B"'s sole remedy shall be the recovery of that Revenue Share, if any.
This paragraph was deleted from section “Issue 4”. Why? I don’t see this as detrimental to "New Company B", can someone explain why they think it should be deleted?
NOTE: no one has answered this question and i have sent 2 follow up e-mails about it. I've also asked "OAG" about it and from the look on her face when I ask she seems to indicate that she's either not asked the question or has been told not to ask anyone else about that question.Labels: boss, bullshit, bullshit job, legal issues, Stupid co-workers, Stupid Job, stupid people, What the fuck, work sucks |
| posted by Me @ 1:44 PM |
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| Off For The Weekend |
| Friday, February 16, 2007 |
Have a good one. I'm outa here. Get back on Tuesday and plan on doing nothing next week as well. I like getting paid to Blog. You should try it.
Later folks, have a good weekend yourselves.
 Labels: blog, blogs, boss, bullshit, bullshit job, dumbass, lazy, nothing to do, Stupid co-workers, Work, work sucks |
| posted by Me @ 4:55 PM |
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| Not Much Going On |
| Wednesday, February 14, 2007 |
I've done about the normal 45 minutes to an hour of work each day for the past two days, nothing exciting. This is usually made up of checking my e-mail, filling in a few measly reports and updating a document or two. I then sit around, either online or playing a game, waiting for a conference call to the HQ which is thousands of miles away. During the conference calls I have to reiterate the exact same thing I've been explaining all fucking day to "OAG", who has to translate all of this. She will then ask me questions that HQ is asking, but these are questions she has already asked me during the day. Really. She has already asked me THE EXACT SAME THING DURING THE DAY but continues to ask again because someone in an office thousands of miles away has asked her and now she needs to hear it again. I hate her.
I have gone to the lengths of asking her why she continues to ask me the same questions to which she replies, "Well, i just want to make sure you didn't change your mind. It's not like she asked me something once in passing, she usually asks me about one topic and asks many...MANY questions about it and I am good enough to understand that English is not her native language and if she seems confused about something I will re-phrase it so it's a little bit clearer. This has no effect. I GET THE SAME QUESTIONS. I hate her.
Last night at 7 pm while I was driving home (IN TRAFFIC!) she decide to call and ask me about a scheduling chart I had created (3 months ago). She was asking about one section of it where I had explained what products our services had to be developed for. She continued to tell me what section of the chart she needed to know about and i said "yes I know what section you’re asking about" but she never asked a question. I had to tell her that I needed to know what she wanted and she insisted that she already HAD explained to me what she wanted. To this I had to ask her to ask me her question in a different way. She then USED THE SAME exact WORDS IN A DIFFERENT ORDER. This went on for 20 MINUTES! I had explained to her each time that I still had no idea what she wanted and she decided that I was trying to make her upset. I then began (STILL IN TRAFFIC) to question what part of the schedule she was looking at and to read the schedule off line-by-line so I could understand where she was and what she was getting at. By doing this she answered the question herself because the answer was IN THE SCHEDULE! She realizes this, tells me about it and says simply “ok, bye. Have a good night.” Again, I hate her.Labels: "OAG", blogs, bullshit, bullshit job, pulliong hair, quit, Stupid co-workers, Work, work sucks, Your job sucks |
| posted by Me @ 9:21 PM |
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| What I Did Last Week |
| Monday, January 29, 2007 |
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.Labels: blogs, boss, bullshit, I quit, interviews, jobs, pay check, Stupid co-workers, travel, Work, work sucks, Your job sucks |
| posted by Me @ 1:21 PM |
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| Slow Day |
| Thursday, January 18, 2007 |
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.)
I'm outa here.
Have fun at work.Labels: boss, bullshit, careers, cold, Fired, freezing office, quit your job video, Stupid co-workers, weather, Work, work sucks, Your job sucks |
| posted by Me @ 4:55 PM |
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| The End Might Be Near. |
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 |
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.
Have fun at work.Labels: blogs, boss, bullshit, ditzy, dumbass, Fired, I quit, lazy, lunch time fun, online games, pay check, quit, Stupid co-workers, Stupid Job, work sucks, Your job sucks |
| posted by Me @ 12:54 PM |
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| Love Thy Co-Worker! |
| Friday, January 12, 2007 |
"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.Labels: blogs, boss, bullshit, ditzy, dumbass, Fired, I quit, lazy, pay check, quit, sleeping, Stupid co-workers, Work, work sucks, Your job sucks |
| posted by Me @ 3:22 PM |
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