Here I sit all brokenhearted, tried to work but only, um, got locked out because the *@!**! customer decided to sleeep in. At least it’s a padded hallway.
Oliphant Parts
Reframing Reality
Categories: Work
Another Whine
Today marks a full week of on-site time for what I was told was a two day install. Today marks the end of the second week since I was told my promised “salary adjustment” (a pay raise to those of you who don’t like doublespeak) was finally rejected. I waited three months to be told this? Well, what’s next. I tried company loyalty and discovered it is a one-way street, so I suppose now it is time to brush up on my networking terms and try Verisign. 14 hour days and 80% of my life spent on-site and in hotels just isn’t worth it at 75% of the standard salary and no bonuses, especially not during a labour shortage.
A tangent . . . how unusual for me. Why has it taken me a week to do two days’ worth of work, you ask? Excellent question! The answer, rather boring, is that it hasn’t. I’ve spent most of this time relaying conversations from a 3rd-party consultant (whose source is the customer) to an engineer, who then relays it to another engineer, who responds and we reverse the whole process. Time-consuming and quite frustrating for all concerned, but it’s the only way I am permitted to do this.
On The Road Again
Yay! I get to travel again tomorrow! Yay! Does my smile look real still, or is it obvious I’m grinding my teeth an getting a wee bit tired of spending the week in San Francisco and the outlying areas?
Home Is Where The Hat Is
I’ve been home all week. After the past six weeks or so, this doesn’t feel natural. Nice, but not natural. Today was the first day I’ve woken feeling happy in a while. Being puppet-boy for a disorganized and understaffed proserv team (yes, I am an Army of One here) has been incredibly stressful. I am catching up on the backlog of unfinished business, though, so things are looking up. My new manager tried to offer me a significant pay cut as incentive to join his team, which just pissed me off, but hopefully that is getting resolved. Either that or he’ll have an embolism and be dead within a week. Either way, I will be happy.
Don’t get me wrong: As a person, he is fine; as a manager, he has yet to impress me. I may have too high of standards though: My last manager rarely contacted me, and when he did so, it was by email. At the moment, I equate effective management with leaving me the heck alone.
Besides spending entirely too much time in exciting towns like Milpitas and Burbank during the week, I have had some exciting weekends. Jennie bought a cute little Honda Shadow 600, which for now only I ride. She also ran over her motorcycle safety training instructor, so I may be the only rider for quite some time. Oh, happy days. I haven’t strangled anyone yet; surely that must count for something. The kids are still doing kidly things (yes, I made up that word. What of it?). Highly stressful things have been happening lately, but since I won’t discuss them with myself yet, what makes you think I am going to discuss them with you? 
I may be happy today, but I really do not like being away from my family for extended periods of time. I think it may be time for a new job if they’re going to keep bouncing me around like this.
(I can’t remember whether I should capitalize the first word after a colon . . . I really need to dig out my Strunk and White’s. Or just accept that my standards for writing are as low as those of everyone else out here.)
Save Me!
Hello world,
Yes, I am still alive. It’s been a bit crazy around here for the past month; I’ve spent more time in hotels in California than I have at home. Hopefully that will change soon, either because I am done working for my latest manager and back with my old manager, or because I have quit. I do not see myself staying at my current job unless it is in a position that makes sense. So that’s my life right now, how are you? Excuse me, I have to go pack for a trip to California in the morning . . .
4 Lonely Days In A Brown L.A. Haze
I’m stuck in Hollywood for the next four days. Don’t expect any effing updates until Saturday.
Efficiency
I can feel the terrorists hating my freedom(s) as I sit here typing. Please, DHS, put me and my fruit trees on the list! Really, do they hate our freedom, or do they hate our political and economic policies? I feel more freedom-hating from Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh, GWB and the like than I do from any Achmed Goesboomalot. Okay, back to an exciting day of being the human Tivo. And I get paid for this?
God’s Spliff
Once again, I have so much to write and so little motivation. Do I write about the local lawyer and former Idaho Concressional candidate who is growing God’s pot plant on his front lawn (one of many great quotes from Tuesday’s Post Falls Press article: “. . . this was a proverbial burning bush, this was a sign from God.” Oh yeah, you can’t beat local journalism for a lively 4th!), do I make a snappy comment about how I, too, would like to lounge my summer away (thanks, Boondocks!), do I dig in my notebook and regurgitate this morning’s ramblings, or do I just toss up something fun I gimped up? Given that I need to get some work done, and that typing in my notes is just too much effort at the moment, let us celebrate the boy-child with a little neon edge-detect and the wonders of GIMP.
Adventure
And now, I’m off to exciting McLean, VA, where I’ll do something. Hopefully someone will call me before tomorrow to let me know what it is I am doing there.
Chicago
I knew it was too good to last; it’s time to go back to Chicago. Chicago, you’re not my kind of town. It’s going to be hot and muggy by now, I’m pretty sure. Please tell me ita ain’t so!
License
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