How's work been?

TheWanderer wrote:

I do not travel well. Flew out of O'Hare to DC on Wednesday. 7:00 am I and my jeans and a t-shirt think to text the boss and ask "are we going into the DC office first or checking into the hotel first?" Answer was office, and I spent about 20 minutes wrestling with myself in the O'Hare bathroom changing into business attire. Ended up not soiling myself, so that was nice.

We're not allowed to check into hotels until after 4, even if we're just dropping off our bags. We could be on the road for 9 hours, we'd still have to show up to the site, touch base with the client, then wait until 4pm rolls by to check in.

We had one guy who got to el paso at 330, checked in at the hotel to drop off his bags and went straight to the client's office afterwards to configure a router. When he came back, accounting dept was telling him off for doing that. Luckily my bosses are territorial so they stuck up for my co-worker but that was just because they don't like people trying to run their dept. One of the points they made was that the policies don't indicate that check-in must be after 4pm because according to the hotel confirmation, check in is at 3pm.

Later that week, we get an email saying that new travel policies are being enacted and to familiarize ourselves with it.

ColdForged wrote:

Well. Given I've been interviewing I guess my brain was trying to tell me what was inevitable. They shut down our office last Thursday. Everyone but my boss and I were told not to come back after Friday. Me and him get to hang out together this week while I bone up on things I've wanted to bone up on and be "on call" in case someone needs something in our Montreal office.

However:

ColdForged wrote:

"Make this enormous pile of bloatware work on this incredibly cheap, low resource feature phone."

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise! F*CK YOU, SH*TTY PHONE!

As of yesterday I have two acceptable offers with better work, both good career moves with more opportunity for technical and personal growth than where I was. Sometimes "bad news" ends up being better than the status quo.

Complacency. She's a real Female Doggo. I should be looking for a new gig but instead i use my down time to read up on games, plan errands for later in the day, read news, and talk sports. I really need to get the job search going but I always find reasons to procrastinate. Any advice on how to break out of this cycle?

ColdForged wrote:

As of yesterday I have two acceptable offers with better work, both good career moves with more opportunity for technical and personal growth than where I was. Sometimes "bad news" ends up being better than the status quo.

Hey, put in a good word for me if there are other openings.

Negotiations are still on going between my handlers and the place i'm contracted out to. So even though there's a long list of things left to do on the project that can easily be expanded through next year i may end up next not being able to come back to work. Worse case negotiations fall through and they scrap the entire project. Best case things get settled next week early enough that i can renegotiate and get hired on at a new consultant agency (that still pays bench time!) and subcontracted back out at a much higher rate.

Prozac wrote:

Better today.

Was I right? Were they thrown from inside the house?

No comment.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

As of yesterday I have two acceptable offers with better work, both good career moves with more opportunity for technical and personal growth than where I was. Sometimes "bad news" ends up being better than the status quo.

Hey, put in a good word for me if there are other openings. :D

Oh yes, I'd be happy to.

Let's see.... Two weeks ago i worked 60 hours... Last week i worked 50 hours and this week i worked 50 hours (give or take).

After the bank f*cked up and forced me to pay in two month's rent in one go, effectively leaving me a pauper for the month and making me go into my reserves I'm a bit fed up with my work/pay/worth/cost of living ratio.

Even if i take advantage of all of my remaining flexitime this month I will still be 13 hours overdue on what is required. That scenario is highly unlikely... and that small payrise i mentioned earlier is looking a lot worse in the grand scheme of things.

Starting a new project soon and get to change from being a business to business focused company to a business to consumer one as well.

New design, new focus, new technologies - I'm excited

93_confirmed wrote:

Complacency. She's a real Female Doggo. I should be looking for a new gig but instead i use my down time to read up on games, plan errands for later in the day, read news, and talk sports. I really need to get the job search going but I always find reasons to procrastinate. Any advice on how to break out of this cycle?

When you figure it out, write a book about it and you'll be a millionaire. I've read tons of blogs, listened to podcasts, sampled books, but so far the most 100% effective thing I have found is fear, and that's not really a healthy motivator in the long run. In short bursts it can get you going, but anything more and it becomes paralyzing.

One common suggestion is to plug in 20 minutes of job searching a day into your schedule. No option not to do it because it's in your schedule as part of your work day. Call it "Professional Growth Research" or "Personal Development Time." Maybe consider it a meeting with yourself that you can't cancel without a good excuse.

I'm going to work tomorrow (today) from 7pm to 8am. Crazy software launch.

93_confirmed wrote:

Complacency. She's a real Female Doggo. I should be looking for a new gig but instead i use my down time to read up on games, plan errands for later in the day, read news, and talk sports. I really need to get the job search going but I always find reasons to procrastinate. Any advice on how to break out of this cycle?

Work.

That's the long and short of it. It doesn't have to be for a boss, and it doesn't have to pay at all. Just find some way to do the work you loved before and at least not have to pay to do it.

Structure your job hunting into your routine, but keep your skills sharp and with a plan for improving or updating them as you go. Having a goal and seeing your plan over a year or five years is the way to get motivated and not yield to complacency.

93_confirmed wrote:

Complacency. She's a real Female Doggo. I should be looking for a new gig but instead i use my down time to read up on games, plan errands for later in the day, read news, and talk sports. I really need to get the job search going but I always find reasons to procrastinate. Any advice on how to break out of this cycle?

I've had to think about this because I got over complacency awhile ago but I think the technique for me might not work so well for you.

In short, I got fired.

I was really good at this one job. I learned fast, became the go-to guy, and was training people even though I was a self-taught coder with less than 3 years of experience.

Over time I got passed over by people who were senior that were hired from outside the company. My boss couldn't separate work and personal so when our wives quit getting along I was no longer his favorite. To top that off, my work quality degraded because I was less motivated and it was the early days of "Extreme Programming" and paired programming either bored me to tears or made me too anxious having someone watching my every move. Finally the whole thing came to a head and they let me go. It wasn't entirely my fault and I did feel pretty screwed, I'm leaving out some really crappy stuff that management did, but the changes in my own performance and behavior should have been big clues it was time to go.

Unfortunately, I was a non-Computer Science degreed programmer with less than the magical 5 years of exprience in the dot com bust, so I went through 7 months of unemployment without even getting benefits since the company fought to block me from collecting a dime. I probably could have fought it and won but I was so depressed at the time I just sort of let them roll over me.

I learned from that situation and now keep to work that is challenging and engaging. I also keep managers and employees at an arms length. I don't mind being friendly, but I do let those friendships grow slowly and I never get involved with anyone who looks like they can't keep home life and office life separate.

The funny thing is if they had let me continue to coast I would probably still be there 10 years later. Instead I grew immensely both professionally and personally. My career has surpassed most of the people I worked with including some of my old managers. So while I would never sign up for another 7 month stint of unemployment I do see now that job was bad for me.

Since then I've learned when it is time to leave a job, but I still get irritated with people who jump ship at the first sign of problems.

I don't leave a job because things are bad. I leave a job because they are not going to ever get better.

Botswana wrote:

I don't leave a job because things are bad. I leave a job because they are not going to ever get better.

^^^^^This^^^^^

That right there is probably why I haven't left my job. Since I've started in 2005, I've constantly gotten better. Whether its a promotion or raises, or more things to do without being overwhelmed. Some people I know think that my can-do attitude is detrimental or that I can get paid more for doing the same thing. And yes, people are making more doing the same thing I'm doing, that will always happen. Someone I may not know will make more money at a different company that I may have or have not heard of. I just don't care about those people because I don't know them but at the same time I haven't grown too complacent. I'm also trying to do/learn more because it's just how I am, and every time I've done more with my current employer, I've gotten rewarded. I may not have gotten an extremely high raise (state law yadda yadda) or bonus (we don't get bonuses, frowny face) but I still got that raise or promotion, which did give me a significant raise. Since 2005, I got promoted 3 times with my current employer. 2 with one department, moved over to my current department and then got promoted again. While it wasn't worker to manager type promotions it was still a promotion in job title (specialist I -> specialist II). The fact that I can constantly get better, have the ability to make side projects with some financial backing from my employer (as long as they can see a benefit), and get rewarded for a job well done as well as provide me a relatively secure job that provides good benefits for my family and I, are what I think pretty good reasons for staying at the moment. Even though I do complain at times about my job, its still a really good place to work. Not once did I feel like things were not going to get better.

I work for a company that everyone hates, and I'm good with it.

Starting a new job next week and fully expect it to be wonderful and a great place to grow into my new career.

I was worried there for a bit but that old cliché about networking and knowing the right people really does help.

Maclintok wrote:

Starting a new job next week and fully expect it to be wonderful and a great place to grow into my new career.

I was worried there for a bit but that old cliché about networking and knowing the right people really does help.

Cool, we'll be starting new roles together then. Next week I start my new job. Looking forward to new challenges and fun times!

Just finishing up a project that'll end in a 2.5K raise, so it's been hectic but it'll be over this month.

BlackSabre wrote:
Maclintok wrote:

Starting a new job next week and fully expect it to be wonderful and a great place to grow into my new career.

I was worried there for a bit but that old cliché about networking and knowing the right people really does help.

Cool, we'll be starting new roles together then. Next week I start my new job. Looking forward to new challenges and fun times! :)

HIGH FIVE!

*awkwardly transitions to a fist bump*

ColdForged wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

Well. Given I've been interviewing I guess my brain was trying to tell me what was inevitable. They shut down our office last Thursday. Everyone but my boss and I were told not to come back after Friday. Me and him get to hang out together this week while I bone up on things I've wanted to bone up on and be "on call" in case someone needs something in our Montreal office.

However:

ColdForged wrote:

"Make this enormous pile of bloatware work on this incredibly cheap, low resource feature phone."

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise! F*CK YOU, SH*TTY PHONE!

As of yesterday I have two acceptable offers with better work, both good career moves with more opportunity for technical and personal growth than where I was. Sometimes "bad news" ends up being better than the status quo.

Woohoo! Decided to accept an offer with a really cool little development shop. See here for details. If it sounds like I'm playing things reasonably close to the vest in terms of getting laid off it's so I don't torpedo the other people from there looking for work since your bargaining position is less without a job, unfortunately. I'm not lying since technically I'm still on my ex-employer's payroll for another month (as are they) so until then I really am employed. Yes, splitting hairs, but if it helps my coworkers I'm for it. Though, like I told my coworkers, if someone asks you flat out if you've been laid off or they closed up shop, don't lie. You just don't necessarily have to tell the whole truth.

And yes, I realize I'm fessing up here. If anyone is cool enough to be here, what can I do?

I've worked 17 of the past 18 days, around 10-14 hours per day. Luckily I like my job and the work is interesting enough that I don't dread coming in.

Title Unlocked: "Service Manager"

\o/

Maq wrote:

Title Unlocked: "Service Manager"

o/

They make you do what?!!

*Re-reads title*

OH! Nevermind!

Congrats!

I'm still waiting on my new contract.... I'm thinking of asking them if I could change "core hours + flexitime" to just "flexitime".... cause i don't think they'll be offering me a payrise - even if i ask - and, to be honest, getting rid of those pesky core hours would be more beneficial to me since the projects i work on require me to work mostly outside of those hours anyway so i always end up working extra hours per month. :/

I doubt they'll say yes but they can't fire me for asking, right?

Duoae wrote:

I doubt they'll say yes but they can't fire me for asking, right?

That depends on whether you are in a "right to work" state or not

I really enjoy my job but it has an end date. My boss seems to really appreciate having me around, and would definitely hire me back if she's able, but the culture here is to hire people on temporary basis, ad infinitum. Really wish they could just offer me some stability, but it doesn't look like it'll happen. Best case scenario looks like maybe another temporary position, probably doing more of what I like. I really like the work, but do I like it enough that I'll accept the uncertainty?

At the very least, I'd like them to tell me whether they have a job for me once this current position ends.

Power went off in the building this afternoon. I sent my employees home and decided to head out as well. This needs to happen on Friday afternoon more often.

Achievement unlocked: Site Manager. Recieve 10k salary bump.

Prozac wrote:

Achievement unlocked: Site Manager. Recieve 10k salary bump.

Wow! Congrats... though i am jealous

So you can afford around 8 more games a year right