How's work been?

Busy as can be to the point that there's so much going on that I can't keep track of it all. If I only deal with the priorities then some of the day-to-day tasks fall behind. If I deal with the daily tasks, then priority projects lag.

Maybe I should grow two more hands.

Turns out a server upgrade last night is slowing down the ILS across the consortium. So it's not just me! /eye twitch

For the past few days I deployed Citrix Edgesight (and SQL) with google-fu since the guy it was assigned to couldn't get it to connect to SQL. I then had to write directions on how I did it and when that didn't work I had to script the agent install.

Does anyone else on this thread have a colleague who is absolutely obsessed with being the funniest person in the office? As in, if someone else cracks a joke, that person has to try to crank it up a notch with an "even funnier" joke? And when that same person lacks the ability to understand subtly sarcastic humour, he/she makes an arse of himself/herself when trying to make something "even funnier" out of that subtle sarcasm, missing the point entirely?

How's work been? Well, recently I started a new job as a Trainee Probation Officer. I've spent a few years prior to this in the service managing offenders but at a lower pay grade so I wasn't managing sex offenders or cases involving serious violence (murder, rape, etc). Now I have three years to complete a degree whilst holding a reduced caseload. Luckily the area I work in are pretty good with offering support so I will get one day out of the office a week for study allowed. Today is my first day of doing this and so, as I'm not really sure how to start the first essay yet, I decided that today would be a great day to finally sign up to the GWJ community! Also I may be having a bit of a panic about the idea of writing an essay again at all after so many years out of the education system, so being distracted also seems an attractive proposition.

MothBeHe, I can't think of anyone like that in my office. I think I'm fairly lucky that I work with several actually funny people. It's quite odd when juxtaposed against having to read in detail about horrifically violent crimes...

MothBeHe wrote:

Does anyone else on this thread have a colleague who is absolutely obsessed with being the funniest person in the office? As in, if someone else cracks a joke, that person has to try to crank it up a notch with an "even funnier" joke? And when that same person lacks the ability to understand subtly sarcastic humour, he/she makes an arse of himself/herself when trying to make something "even funnier" out of that subtle sarcasm, missing the point entirely?

If you can't pinpoint who that person is in your office, it's you..

PawnSacrifice wrote:

How's

MothBeHe, I can't think of anyone like that in my office. I think I'm fairly lucky that I work with several actually funny people. It's quite odd when juxtaposed against having to read in detail about horrifically violent crimes...

Actually, the humor in such a workplace, seems pretty appropriate. The old adage, paraphrasing, "If I don't laugh, I would cry.", would be very at home in your environment.

We just found that Johnson and Johnson is floating a sale balloon for our company.

I have worked here for almost 11 years in the R&D section. I have always been VERY proud to be able to say I work for J&J and them selling us makes me feel quite sad. I work in medical diagnostics and J&J doesn't find our company profitable enough anymore so...

I understand this on a basic economic level but it still hurts. The fact that if our intellectual property is bought up by one of our competitors, R&D might be expendable doesn't make me feel any better either.

Bad day at work.

Scanned a drunk the other night that was so saturated in alcohol my department stunk of gin for 2 hours.

Sometimes I like my job, sometimes I don't.

cartoonin99 wrote:

Actually, the humor in such a workplace, seems pretty appropriate. The old adage, paraphrasing, "If I don't laugh, I would cry.", would be very at home in your environment.

Incidentally, one of the standard "jokes" by that "funny" person I speak of is to ask anyone in the office who's about to pay a visit the bathroom if they're "going to the toilet to cry."

If she only knew how f*cking close to the truth that was.

What was the name of that website for relentless, unfiltered and unrestrained rants about everything you hate at work?

I discussed obliquely what I'm going to say below in the frapulism thread sometime last week, but this thread allows me to "vent" a little more..

So at the end of last week, my ex-boss came back into town and suggested we meet up for a drink. After a few rounds, he suggested I come work for him again, with the promise of a substantially bigger pay cheque and the chance to head up a new line of business in his startup.

Spent the weekend endlessly debating with my wife on what to do and finally screwed up the courage to have "the talk" with my current boss on Monday. Also spoke to a friend working for my ex boss who responded today suggesting the role he's offering probably doesn't exist and I might wind becoming a for-hire consultant again (which is why I quit working for him in the first place...)

Now I've got to wait till next week to find out if my boss is willing to fight a little to keep me around in my current role or I've made a really bone-headed decision. Gah, the waiting is killing me!

Edit: On a more positive note, had to update some data in a system today but couldn't locate the automated job that was developed some 3 years ago for this purpose(Yes, this happens). Busted out the old SQL editor and figured out how to use the MERGE command in Oracle databases - a fun throwback to my earlier days as an analyst and a respite from staring at emails and project schedules.

So we're receiving Stock Appreciation Rights this year instead of cash bonus. No numbers yet... but skeptical. We have a call on Monday to announce details. Is this what other companies are doing now? From what I read SARs are essentially bonuses with the option to hold on to the stock for a certain amount of time with hopes that it will grow in value. Thus it gives incentive to the employee to "grow" the company. Any thoughts?

Eh, in a groove, my boss is fairly hands off.

I just finished a contract, and need to remind them to pay me as I have not received a reply for something done Monday.

My own wheels got spinning, and I have decided to start a non-profit firm. Details will come, especially as I will be taking donations starting this spring. Any expertise on this, more than welcome. It would be nice if Kickstarter allowed non profits and charities to raise funds.

I even found a friend willing to design our web site pro-bono.

Anyone with contacts at larger US corporations, who provide grants would be appreciated. The project is to assist veterans in filing their claims for benefits, pension, disability. I am getting pretty jazzed about it.

Charity and Grants will be an important part, disproportionately so early on. But given the structure of Veteran's appeals the company should be more self sustaining in a few years. Short story is that an office cannot bill a veteran to assist in filing a claim for compensation from the VA. But when a claim is declined and then appealed, the VA will award 20-30 percent of the claim as compensation for an attorney. The beauty is that the veteran gets 100% of their award, and the VA pays a separate fee to the attorney.

But the aim is to get benefits their deserved services the first time, and not after 3-10 years of appeals.

avggeek wrote:

I discussed obliquely what I'm going to say below in the frapulism thread sometime last week, but this thread allows me to "vent" a little more..

So at the end of last week, my ex-boss came back into town and suggested we meet up for a drink. After a few rounds, he suggested I come work for him again, with the promise of a substantially bigger pay cheque and the chance to head up a new line of business in his startup.

Spent the weekend endlessly debating with my wife on what to do and finally screwed up the courage to have "the talk" with my current boss on Monday. Also spoke to a friend working for my ex boss who responded today suggesting the role he's offering probably doesn't exist and I might wind becoming a for-hire consultant again (which is why I quit working for him in the first place...)

Now I've got to wait till next week to find out if my boss is willing to fight a little to keep me around in my current role or I've made a really bone-headed decision. Gah, the waiting is killing me!

Edit: On a more positive note, had to update some data in a system today but couldn't locate the automated job that was developed some 3 years ago for this purpose(Yes, this happens). Busted out the old SQL editor and figured out how to use the MERGE command in Oracle databases - a fun throwback to my earlier days as an analyst and a respite from staring at emails and project schedules.

Well the waiting is over and it's not good - my current boss has basically told me there is nothing much he can do about my compensation and it's up to me whether I want to jump for a better salary but waay more travel or stick with a slightly less stress job (though the last year felt anything but less stressful). Also, now I have to wonder how much I've screwed myself if I don't quit by having had this conversation.

Faaaantastic.

We got a new national boss last year who came over from a competing company and has promised to turn things around in the couple years he's going to be here.

So far there have been process changes that, to us front line workers, are grossly inefficient compared to the old ways, even though the older ways were more costly to operate. Managers are running scared that they might be on the chopping block, so they are making changes all willy-nilly to show they're on board with the new regime and making things hard on us. There was a big announcement made at the beginning of December by the boss, claiming to be "streamlining" operations and that 4500 jobs would be cut in the next couple years, 1700 by year's end (2012). We've got 50 guys laid off right now in our location, they have a shortage of men to cover the shifts they need to move product as it is, and they're still handing out layoff notices.

I have never understood the correlation between laying off employees and stock prices rising, but here we sit with guys not working and our stock prices double what they were a year ago.

IMAGE(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-W4QcmVr5FsI/UQaI-ZQlqDI/AAAAAAAADWk/8PB55vrvjHI/w497-h373/twitch-GIF.gif)

Well, fortunately work has been stressful but not bad.

I say "fortunately" because it's still the best part of my life.

I need a new job... =(

Strewth wrote:

I have never understood the correlation between laying off employees and stock prices rising, but here we sit with guys not working and our stock prices double what they were a year ago.

Layoffs often have long-term effects that don't pop up until a crisis occurs, but the balance sheet immediately looks great.

Given that senior leadership is almost invariably under contract, and typically have incentives tied to stock/fiscal performance, it's a no-brainer for them. Come in, make a bunch of noise, slash costs, contract stuff out at fixed rates, then bail three years later before they feel the effect of cutting that R&D department or trimming those employee perks that were keeping the performers happy.

My old boss described it as "seagull management." Fly in, sh*t all over everything, and fly away. Last year my company started shedding a bunch of seagulls we picked up from the banking industry in 2008. Bye, guys! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

Freaking rough week so far with 12 hour days, and I'm not looking forward to next week either. Worked most of Sunday, last night and have been out of the office for meetings today. Got two big projects that are coming to a head end of next week, plus a recruitment process that's been dragging out for five months that I have to interview for on Monday.

I'll be happy to see the 9th of February.

Overall, I still really like my job and the company I do it for but this has been a pretty sh*t week. After our merger completed, some of the corporate structure was reorganised and the person who used to be the Financial Controller became our new Manager of Corporate Services. Previously, my boss and I didn't actually report to anyone specific which was always a headache. Unfortunately, despite being a nice person, she's beyond awful at communicating organisation. IT here is currently 2 people supporting almost 200 users and managing a corporate transition to boot. To say we're understaffed is the understatement of the year. We were told back in November that we had permission to start looking to hire another IT staffer. We created a job description (less than a page) and sent it to her for approval so we can start the recruiting process. It would literally take 5 minutes to review. It's been over 2 weeks now and we keep getting told she'll get to it but she never does. Meanwhile, we get more and more behind because there literally aren't enough hours in the day to handle our present work load.

On top of that, I was very clearly led to believe that once this person was hired, IT's structure would be changing. The new person would be handling support, I would be handling overflow support while shifting my primary focus to our backlog of infrastructure projects and my boss would become a full-time manager instead of handling support as well. I was also told I would be supervising the new hire and that would probably come with a title and pay bump. What I've been told now (though not definitively) is that while I'll have to train the new hire, I will probably have the same title as he/she will, I won't have any supervisory duties, I won't get a pay bump and I'll be "sharing" the support responsibilities. Meaning that even though I've been here more than two years and frequently do more than my job description, the new hire and I will be on pretty much the same level and either infrastructure projects will continue to get neglected or I'll be expected to do them and support for the same money. What I was previously told was very clearly not this and when I questioned it, it was presented to me by our manager as if I misunderstood. I was told that my role will "evolve" and I probably will end up supervising the support stuff at some point but I was not told when or what other benefits would accompany that. Seriously, if you don't know for certain that something's going to happen, don't tell me about it as if it's a sure thing. I do think I've demonstrated why I deserve a promotion when the new person is hired but I wouldn't be nearly as annoyed about it if I wasn't told it was going to happen, only to find out later "Actually we didn't think that through when we promised it to you and now we think it's a bad idea."

I was really looking forward to us finally having a dedicated person at the high end of the company that we ran everything through but if my experiences with this person so far are any indication, this is going to become a nightmare quickly.

Work has gone well today. I've been selected, with 2 others in Edmonton here, for a promotion. Had to spend a week in the classroom studying and doing tests. Passing grade, 90% for all tests, except for the one which needed 100%. It's all over, and I passed. I can go onto receive further training for said promotion. For the next two weeks, I not only get weekends off, I get trained on how to drive a train. The weekends off bit is just a nice bonus. Oh, and more tests, but I think I can deal with that.

I hate working on the first of the month. Holy balls, it was so busy.

PS: I am SOO over the McRib. Can't wait until we get rid of that noxious pile of nostril burning mayhem.

Yeaaaaaah... no.

Let my supervisors know I'm not going back for another season in Yellowstone. It was my dream job, and I loved it, but spending time with the wife and kiddo is more important to me. The park service and my wifes career don't mesh at all, so taking another position that doesn't have me so remote for extended periods of time isn't an option. I'm not interested in doing Law Enforcement on a city or county level, so the last 10 years of training and education are out the window.

Kinda floating with the big, "What now?" swirling in my head. It may be time I go back to school.

Interesting timing, this thread.

The Daily Bugle has a new owner. Without naming names, the paper is now owned by a certain old school Midwestern investor who shares the surname of a singer whose catalog includes tunes about margaritas, middle-aged pirates and boat drinks.

The new owners have said they probably will dump our still-catastrophically-buggy-after-two-gens CMS and buy us new computers. Nothing says productivity like an 8-year-old Windows XP laptop trying to run the shotgun marriage of two Adobe crapware products!

On the flip side, I'm down to about my fourth or fifth choice of jobs as part of the Daily Bugle's re-org. So, yeah, workplace karma still applies.

Druidpeak wrote:

Let my supervisors know I'm not going back for another season in Yellowstone. It was my dream job, and I loved it, but spending time with the wife and kiddo is more important to me. The park service and my wifes career don't mesh at all, so taking another position that doesn't have me so remote for extended periods of time isn't an option. I'm not interested in doing Law Enforcement on a city or county level, so the last 10 years of training and education are out the window.

Kinda floating with the big, "What now?" swirling in my head. It may be time I go back to school.

Exciting and scary! Why not move the family to the woods?

I'm waiting eagerly for this year's release of new hardware as my company works to re-establish what was a great reputation in the field a decade ago. We've worked really hard to come back, and in the current generation, we've caught up with the competition (and lead in some areas, as we always have). Now we get to show that we're here to stay, and I can't wait. Soooo much FUD has been thrown around, it'll be a pleasure to show that it's all wrong.