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.
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...
Not much to say...but i'm still here and getting paid
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Really, is there much else to say. I can't talk about how much i hate this place on a daily or weekly basis and the fact that there's a new idiot on board does not help things, although he does deflect some of the bullshit I'd have to be dealing with.
I've had it with OAG! New Sales Guy i swear almost cried the other day when OAG and i were fighting about the fact that she sticks her nose into everything without knowing what the hell she's doing. He got so upset about US fighting that he stepped in and i told him if he had nothing to add to the conversation to just leave. His voice was literally quivering like a little boy who's about to break down and cry.
I'm not mindlessly wandering the internet and playing games all day, at least not always. I've been researching and studying about investment opportunities and the stock market. I'm hopping to make a descent sized investment by Sept. I've already been putting my "Hard Earned" *cough* *cough* money into CD's and Mutual funds and now want to take the next leap into investments so that's where a good portion of my day is spent if I'm not being interrupted by "work".
I have been on MULTIPLE interviews but nothing has panned out. If nothing works out, well there's always this place...who knows for how long though. I do know of an immediate job in case I'm forced to leave with a friend, it's in the same industry but lower on the food chain so in case something drastic happens i know I can always land over there.
Last Friday "OAG" and I had an out of ofice meeting with a "potential" client. Got into work Friday morning, sat around for an hour then left for the meeting. Got back around 3 p.m. and told "OAG" there was nothing left to do for the day so I went home. She agreed and left early too.
This morning I got here around 8 a.m. (about an hour early) and started working on another blog I had an idea for over the weekend. I set up the template, started on the first 6 posts and uploaded some pictures. It is my first time working with a "WordPress" blog so I'm getting into exploring that format.
I spent the morning running errands for myself although I had explained to "OAG" that I would be getting an estimate for the damage to the company car that the previous employeee had caused. See this post for a reminder I went to renew my vehicle registration, the Bank, got the wife a valentines day gift and cards, brought my broken iPod into Apple for serviceing (but it's dead) then I went home and watched a movie. "OAG" had called 3 or 4 times to see if I'd be comming in and i told her each time that "the shop was very busy and they're trying to get to it." This is the reason I did not post anything yesterday. I took the day off and it did not matter. Today the most important thing I have to do is call the west coast client which will take all of 10 minutes and then I'll be surfing the net, updating blogs, and possibly playing some online games.
More opportubnities have been falling in my lap and I expect to have a new job any time now. Till then i will continue to soak up a paycheck here while doing absolutly nothing to contribute to this worthless endevor. I despise "OAG" more each day and can't wait to tell her that I quit. Once I do she'l have 1 month to find a job with another US based company or face the possiblity of deportation due to not having a work visa. Back to HQ-Land...Buh-Bye!
Till tomorrow, you people have a great day at work and i'll be thinking of you. :)
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”.
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.
