Aperture Science Chronological Life Data Tracking System

Werk, werk

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? It really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long - in fact, this whole year feels like it’s just flying by.

I remember when I first started this blog that I told myself I’d post at least once a day, every day. Ahhhh well.

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I’m always used to being the person giving help and very seldomly asking for/receiving it, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that people keep asking (with genuine interest and concern) how things at work are going, and if the situation is improving at all. In all fairness, it’s not as bad as I made it out to be in my last post - that was definitely a venting time. However… nothing I said in there is an exaggeration, or untrue. It’s more of a Cliff’s Notes version of everything that’s happened so far this year.

My company is not necessarily a bad company to work for. For a financial instutition in today’s economic brouhaha we’re doing really well; they avoided all that sub-prime mortgage crap, and our business is showing steady gains. The problem lies moestly in the IT department.

The pay here is not competitive, and the company knows it. It’s not uncommon for someone to leave and get hired back at a higher pay. We also have about 2/3 of the IT staff that we really need, with most people being the sole person who knows a system. It’s stressful enough like that, more so when they leave.

We’re also constantly under audit, both from internal and external sources (including the OTS audit next week. Eeeeek!). It’s not so much that the audits are difficult, it’s that there’s so much gathering of proof and documentation that there’s less time for doing actual work. Again, more stress. Multiple audits at a time do not help.

I still say my boss has the attention span of a hyperactive monkey though. Part of that, I’m sure, is just the amount of work that she has to do and the amount of data that flows through her - information overload is very real. I’ve actually learned that it’s best to catch her in the hallway away from her desk; if you’re in the office talking to her and the phone/IM/email goes off, you might as well just get up and leave - she won’t notice.

It can be a very frustrating place to work.

Why I hate my job

• Meetings, meetings, meetings. Everything gets discussed to hell and back.
• Capslock should never, ever, ever be used in a corporate environment. NEVER.
• I don’t care how much you’d like it to happen, boss, technical support can not help me violate the laws of physics and technology.
• I am not an engineer. Why the hell do you have me working on servers? Pay me for it or go away.
• 6 am sucks as a start time.
• My boss currently has like 13,000 emails in her mailbox. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get her to reply to an email?
• I have three weeks of vacation that I haven’t been able to take because I’m “the only person who can do my job”.
• Did I mention I’m the lowest paid person under my boss? I’m the only one still hourly, too, because she’s too damn busy to remember that she said a year ago she would promote me.
• It’s impossible to work here without backstabbing or being backstabbed.
• STOP WITH THE MANAGERIAL LEET SPEAK. WE ARE PEOPLE, NOT RESOURCES. YOU DO NOT ‘ENGAGE A RESOURCE’, YOU ASK AN ENGINEER FOR HELP. IT’S NOT AN ‘ACTION ITEM’, IT’S A TO-DO LIST.
• Bosses, please don’t micromanage. If you ask me to do something, trust that I’ll get it done without calling me at 11pm.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more to this as the day progresses.

Tags: rant, work

Selfish jerks!

Dear jerks I work with,

If you expect me to drop everything to help you with something, then you better damn well be prepared to return the favor.

Die in a fire,
Me