Tag Archives: WORK

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Every three weeks…

I really farking hate my job.

I do software support for a local company. They produce software is also supposed to bring geezers that have been doing mainframe programming for the last 20 years into the happy shiny world of Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio. The software this company creates has a programming language attached to it. With just a week of training at our facility, they will know Visual Studio, .NET, Windows programming, and Web programming. What could possibly go wrong?

Every single farking thing, that’s what.

I went into this with the hope that since I would be dealing with other programmers, they would be somehow smarter than the unwashed masses that I have had to deal with in previous customer service jobs. I could not have been more wrong. (read this to find out why) More and more I wonder how some of these people keep their jobs as my sanity slowly leaks out of my head.

We take calls from customers day in and day out, but one unfortunate person gets the -snicker- honor of answering email requests for assistance. These are usually the worst, they usually fall into a few categories:

Customer emails an error message and nothing else.
Customer wants to know how to do something, but does not specify exact details or a version number.
Customer is having problems with their code, but does not send any code at all, just a vague description of the problem.
Customer has something that OMG REALLY NEEDS TO BE FIXED RIGHT NOW but they email it instead of picking up the phone and calling our toll-free 800 number that is usually answered quickly.
Customer has a question that anyone who took Programming 101 should be able to answer.
Customer actually has a genuine question or problem. Customer provides code, version numbers, operating system, and other things that may be relevant to their problem.

Needless to say, we get the last one very infrequently.

Every three weeks, it becomes my turn. I dread going to work that Monday morning, and of course there is a (virtual) stack of things waiting for me when I get in. I also still have to answer the phone while on ’email duty,’ and every so often I get chastised for not answering a question “the right way” or not giving “special treatment” to an important customer.

I am not a salesperson, nor do I have any desire to be. I treat all my customers more or less the same. I’m only human: some folks do get special treatment (particularly if they’re nice) and some folks get to wait a little longer if they’re being dickholes. Either way, their problems get fixed, their questions get answered, the company gets paid, and everyone is happy…well, except for me.

Frankly, I think a trip to a certain monstrous career-building hotjob website is in order. 😉

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Scrooge and Marley and Randomizer9

I have to work on Christmas Eve. That sucks. Yeah, yeah, I know, so do a lot of other people, but I work in a ‘professional’ setting. The other professionals I know have Christmas Eve off, clients are telling me they have Christmas Eve off, my brother’s kids have Christmas Eve off, but I have to work. It wouldn’t be a big deal if my family was in the neighborhood, but having to make an extra trip just to work (hopefully) a half day on Christmas Eve is a big ball of SUCK. I’ve spent every Christmas with my family and I have no intention of spending a Christmas without them now.

Things have gotten slower and slower leading up to the holiday, and except for a few freaks who contact us on a regular basis because they don’t have anything better to do, its pretty dead here at the office. I can only imagine what Monday is going to be like. I’m trying not to let it spoil my holiday. I currently find myself sulking around in my cube with a big chip on my shoulder that I usually keep in storage except for Valentine’s Day. Once I get out of here my mood will improve, but until then I’ll be quite “Grinchy” until then.

But the Grinch got over his holiday hangups, and so will I…once four-thirty hits. 🙂

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Lights, Liquor, and Licks

Our company Christmas party was this past Saturday, and it was held at Mr. and Mrs. CEO’s house. They live in one of the ritzy parts of town, where they not only have a gate, but a guard station to keep the riff-raff (i.e. people like me) out.

That said, the neighborhood had the worst Christmas lights I’ve ever seen. When I lived with my parents, my brother and I would put up the Christmas lights; I like to think we did a good job of it.

My biggest Christmas light pet peeve is the whole “wrap the lights around the trunk of the tree” bit. It is particularly ugly when you do it to a fucking MESQUITE tree where the branches go every which way but straight up. If you are going to put lights on a tree, COVER THE WHOLE DAMN TREE. Obviously you can’t do this unless the tree is short, but when you do, it looks awesome, and yes, I’ve done it. Otherwise, it looks half-assed, as if you had strings of lights left over and didn’t have anything better to do with them.

Anyway, every few houses had trees with lights wrapped around the trunk from about 3-10 feet off the ground. I’m not sure if that was by design, but whomever had the idea should be hung by them.

I met some of the developers that work just around the freakin’ CORNER from me at the party. I find it a little disturbing that I’ve been there half a year and have not met a lot of these people. Lesson learned: if you want to make your developers even more anti-social than usual, give them offices instead of cubicles.

The food was good. Granted, it was a hell of a lot fancier than I’m accustomed to, though. There was also a “white elephant” gift exchange. I had neglected to buy a gift, so I didn’t participate, but it was fun to watch. No company Christmas party would be complete without speeches as well…blah blah blah. They really need to have it somewhere else next year, though, there was nowhere near enough seating for everybody. My feet were hurting pretty good when I left.

Overall, I’d say the company Chrstmas party I went to last year was better. Those who were there may raise an eyebrow, but I’ll take good company and regular food over a fancy-pants setting and unfamiliar faces. Call me nutty, I guess. Of course, the BEST one I’ve ever been to was the one where the company president was handing out Christmas bonuses. Payday is coming up, though, so perhaps that might still happen. -crosses fingers-

As I was leaving, Mr. and Mrs. CEO were at the door handing out boxes of chocolate and bottles of wine to employees as they leave. I don’t drink alcohol at all, but I also didn’t want to be rude, so I take the wine and go on my merry way. I now have a bottle of Chateau Liversan Haut-Medoc 2003 sitting in the kitchen collecting dust until I find someone to give it to. I can only assume its good stuff, all I really know is that it was made in France, but it may as well be a bottle of air as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps when I distribute Christmas cookies this weekend, I’ll find a taker. Does a red or white go best with Oatmeal Raisin cookies?

On Sunday, I went looking around for gifts for my nieces and nephew, as I’ve already got all the adults on my gift list taken care of. I’m agonizing over what to get for the kids, for whatever reason. As part of my trip, I went to Best Buy, where I noticed the Rock Band demo was available. Having been a drummer myself (marching band), I thought I’d give it a shot, and fired up “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss.

Rock Band was damn good fun, and I was getting into it. The drum pads don’t feel quite right, though. When you strike a drum, your stick should bounce. The Rock Band drum pads are hard plastic, and you don’t get that bounce. I don’t expect this to make sense to those who don’t play drums, but it makes a difference. Between that and the hardware issues I’ve been hearing about, I think I’m going to wait until version 2 before I get it, if indeed, I do. Or perhaps I should get a cheap electronic drum set and rock out that way. In any event, Guitar Hero isn’t going away anytime soon!

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