Month: January 2007

Work Ethic

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Here I am sitting at work with 7 more business days until I leave for my new job. I am winding down everything I have been doing, and answering questions from everyone who asks about this or that. Since others in my group are leaving soon we are all in the same boat. You would think that we would be the last to show up to work each day and the first to leave in the evening. Scary thing is that we are not. Take yesterday for example. Monday night I asked myself why I was getting up so early to goto the office normal time (for me at least) when 3/4 of the development team staff get in after 10AM. So I set my alarm for an hour later than normal. I figured I would sleep in a bit and maybe get some stuff done at home before heading into work. I wasn’t that busy on Monday anyway. Well even with getting up an hour later and puttering around my apartment for a while I still only came to work at 10AM. The funny thing was I walked in with a developer who ALWAYS does that. When I got to work at 10AM at least half the dev staff still wasn’t in the office. I just don’t get it. Even if these people are working allot at home (tend to doubt it though) the perception this type of work ethic gives off is terrible to everyone else. Is it me? Others in my groups say the same thing, so I don’t think it is me being overly sensitive.

If you are asking, hey maybe these guys work late so they can come in late. That is what I told myself for a while. But when my team comes into work on time every day and over half of them stay much later than any of their development counterparts you get to wonder what are these people doing? I would like a 10:30 to 6PM (6:30 maybe) job with an hour lunch built in. That doesn’t account for the playing with remote control cars or other stuff people do to waste time throughout the day. No wonder why some departments keep needing to hire more staff.

On the plus side as I said at the beginning of this post I only have 7 more business days to go. My exit interview is tomorrow with HR. I will be honest when asked questions, so it will be interesting.

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Bored, oh so Bored

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Since I gave my two weeks notice I have had not that much to do. In larger organizations a person in my position would very likely be asked to leave after giving two weeks notice. It is simply a security precaution. I would get my 2 weeks pay but asked to not show up anymore due to the level of access I have. At my current company they really need to have transition information so everyone that is staying (the few that are) can get up to speed as much as possible. In theory the two weeks transition is a good idea, but in practice it is not.

What have I done so far this week? I wrote up an document outlining the major areas of concern that people should look out for with regard to ongoing operations. I wrote a doc showing were most information regarding the department can be found. Oh, and I cleaned up my office. I got rid of most of the crap out of it, and wiped my laptop so it can go into storage until someone needs to use it. I had a meeting with my boss to go over some items and went to a staff meeting yesterday.

All told out of 16 hours this week of work, I probably needed to be in the office 3-4 of them. The thing is I am done with the major stuff I have to do. I don’t know what else I will be doing for the next 8 business days? Tomorrow I am going to our data center with my boss so he can get his security account setup and see our cage, but after that I don’t think I have much planned.

I am trying to swing it so I can take most of next week off. I have floating holidays that I am going to loose if I leave and I will be available in case of any issues anyway so I think it is a good trade off. My boss seemed to agree but he still has to authorize the time off in our HR system. If I get the days off I will be able to do some heavy sleeping and maybe some xbox playing. Not sure what I would do at home for that many days, but it is better than being stuck in the office. I will hopefully have an update soon.

5 Years and a Ton of Crap

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I never realized how much crap stuff I accumulated at work over 5 plus years until I went to the office to start cleaning up and taking my personal stuff home. Jayson and I went in on Saturday to clean up. I didn’t want to be bringing tons of crap home every night between now and when I leave. It turns out that I will probably still be doing that at least for this week. I have just too much stuff and I don’t want to throw it all out. I have books, gifts, nick naks, etc that have materialized over the years. I totally forgot I had an overnight bag stashed away in case I had to stay overnight at the office. It happened during the blackout that I didn’t make it home so I now keep a bag.

I think I probably will end up tossing some of the books I have but almost everything else needs to get home somehow. I don’t know how people in the movies leave jobs with one little cardboard box. At least I am not Jayson who has to deal with giving away an entire salt water fish tank.

Apartment Cleanup

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I spent the past 2 days trying to clean up the mess that is my apartment. It is not going well. I see no improvement to the situation. That is what happens when I decide to rearrange some piece of electronics gear. Everything gets moved around and messy. I should try and finish up tonight, but I am just tired. The events of last week have still not sunk in. It will eventually, but not yet.

Well I stopped writing and got off my but for a while and I cleaned up decent amount. I still want to tidy up a bit more. I have also decided to wipe my mini, and remove the XP partition on it. I also brought back my dedicated DVR Windows XP machine. The Beyond TV Link software and the dual booting the Mini was not cutting it for me. I will use my regular DVR machine on my TV until the Apple TV thing ships and then I will plug that into my TV as well. My Mini is now plugged into my KVM. My main Windows box is not feeling too well after the moving of stuff. I think the power supply went. It is over 2 years old so I don’t know what I am going to do to it just yet.

Still cleaning…

Interview Time

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I had a job interview today. It was my first since I decided to start looking for work. It looks like it will be my last also. The place seemed awesome. The manager and VP that interviewed both seemed cool and had a direction they wanted to take the group over the next few years. I never can gauge how I do on interviews. I have thought some have gone great and they ended up not landing a job offer. Other times I think I tanked it and got offers, or call backs. Go figure. This go round I thought it went really well but lost some hope when they said they were interviewing for another week and would let me know next friday. I should have read through that since I have said similar things when interviewing people, and they also said they have been trying to fill the post for months.

The recruiter called a few hours later telling to expect an offer later or tomorrow. He then called back and said to expect a formal offer tomorrow but he gave me the numbers they were offering and asked if I could give notice tomorrow and start 2 weeks from monday. Of course I wanted the job but I told him I would think about it and call tomorrow.

Since my parents are out of the country on a cruise I spoke to my sister about the whole situation. She is in the tech field anyway so she is a good choice to talk to. She agreed that it was a fantastic opportunity for me. It was the first interview I went on but it was also a very exciting possibility for me. Technically I did turn down another job from a friend on Sunday, but I never interviewed for that. The more I thought about it, I wanted an established company like this offer gave me, vs a startup like what I turned down Sunday. I think I made the correct decision.

It was ironic I got the call from the recruiter when I did, since Jayson, Danny, & I were at a recruiter looking at candidates for replacing them, and Andrew. This recruiter was also going to talk to me about possible positions for me when we were done, but I didn’t have to do that!

We found three possible candidates for the positions we want to fill, but I don’t know if Bob or my CEO will go for the prices they are looking for. That is part of (but in no way the only reason) why 3 people are leaving in the first place.

Now all I have to do is wait for the written offer letter and tell work tomorrow. I wonder how that will go? 4 guys leaving out of a group of 6 with one other going on leave for 6 weeks is going to cripple operations and no one seems to realize it.

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Looking

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I am now in full job hunting mode. I got back my revised resume, and it looks awesome. I am uploading it on the job hunting sites I am using. I have gotten a few emails and calls about my resume already and I only posted it on Sunday night. I haven’t even began to contact the recruiters to expand my search. I am optimistic about the outcome but I just don’t want to be at work once Jayson, Danny, and Andrew leave. The stress will be bad, especially since we are launching more sites on the new code. Top on my general unhappiness at work and it is an almost intolerable situation right now. I feel so out of control, and helpless. I know it will resolve itself, but it takes time. I just don’t want to wait huge amounts of time.

Listening to Jayson and Danny talk about their new opportunities isn’t helping the situation. Danny has a great place to goto, and I am honestly jealous of the position that Jayson has landed. He deserves it and I wish him well, but I am wallowing in self pity right now since I feel stuck here right now. I know it will pass, but I am having a bad week.

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My First Interview

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On a brighter note I have lined up my first interview for Thursday. The place sounds interesting. I am going to do more research on the company and see what happens. I am hoping to set up other interviews ASAP. I have some other things in the works but no formal meetings yet.

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The room is flooding and all I have is this dixie cup!

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Due to restrictions placed on my by my current employer I am unable to discuss what happened at work today, or my feelings about everything. I think you can figure it out. Lets just say I feel like I am on a runaway train and have no way of getting off. No the world is not going to end, but things are going to be interesting for a while.

All in all I had a horrible day. It was more frustrating than anything else. I wrote extensively about it on my private work blog. One day it may see the light of day, or not.

The Big Game

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I am told there is a big NFL playoff game today. I am skeptical since my dad is on a plane going on vacation today, but we all know my mom runs their schedule so maybe he just didn’t remember there was a game on. In any case I am about to run out for some drinks at a bar with friends while we watch the Saints game. Since Gretchen is from New Orleans and is organizing the event we are going to a Saints friendly bar. I don’t care who wins either way so it will be an interesting afternoon. I am going for some food and drinks. I mean I haven’t seen every one in so long, oh wait we went out on Friday. Never-mind.

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Dating, Well Almost

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Well after a long period of procrastination I have gotten off my but and began looking for dating opportunities. Well, I guess I can say I haven’t really gotten off my but since I am trying the whole online dating thing so I am sitting down when looking, but you know what I mean. I forked over some cash to Match.com and will see what comes of the online dating search.

It is really weird. When it comes to dating I guess I am shy and find it difficult to make the first move. My friends probably are surprised by that since if I know you I am sometimes told I don’t shut up!

I spent the large part of this evening making a mess of my apartment, and working on my online profile. It is late and I am not tired. That does not bode well for my condition tomorrow when I wake up. Oh well. I think I finally have a decent online bio, but who really knows. I am trying the whole winking thing to female profiles I like. Apparently if they like what they read back, they can do the same for you and then you can email them. It is the sort of non-threatening way of making the first contact. I wonder if has the same averages to the old saying that if you walk up to a hundred women in a bar and tell each one that you want to take them back to your place for some sex that at least one (probably a few more) would actually say yes. Granted you would need a cup for the other 90% of them, but this is only a theory. I have never tried it, but I have some friends that may have attempted it.

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