Episode #24 Welcome to the New Year!!

Welcome to 2007! Let's see how many people we can piss off this year.

Episode #22 Defending my job...yet again.

So this is a little late in posting, but I've been trying to get stuff done.

So last Friday, we stumbled across the posting for the Software Engineer position that recently opened up in our unit. It had all of the normal stuff in it. The interesting/frustrating part was the fact that they were looking for 1 year of development experience, 1 year with .Net and offering $64k minimum. (If you want to apply, here's the link @ Higher Ed Jobs)

Anyway, I thought that was a little high, but apparently that's the number that HR came back with after their research. NICE!

However, most of us here have been here longer than a year (not to mention more previous experience) and we make that or less. Now I know that we were never paid what the private market dictates, but don't insult me by hiring someone with less experience for more money.

I know that if this were the private sector no one would even know. But it's not and I do. Talk about a slap in the face. If you think I'm not doing my job, then just fire me, don't insult me.

We did find out that our director is trying to get us equity adjustments based on this. After the many times we've been screwed before, I hope that this time I'm pleasantly surprised. Cross your fingers!

I'll keep you posted on the saga.

Episode #21 I'm in charge....so they tell me

So I've been in charge at work this week. That really amounts to nothing, but I can dream. So Monday morning, I get in. One of our System Admins wants me to sign some security access forms so he can get an account for the financial system for a project. Now he doesn't want to do anything illegal, as far as I can tell :).

I had asked may manager and director if there was anything I needed to know before they left.... So now there's this project that is supposed to go live at the end of the month and access is needed to complete this phase. Anyway, long story short, he doesn't need access, he needs a couple of generic account types. So I have to tell the VP that is heading the project that, I have no signature authority to grant these (or any) type of accounts, especially the ones that they need for another institution, and no one else is back till next week.

Panic! Chaos! Disaster! (My work here is done.)

Episode # 20 - Flight of the Leg Room Snatchers

So I was flying back from visiting Dacia in St Louis. After a 30 minute delay we board. The tall business guys are sitting in the front row. I understand, they need a little more leg room. I pick an empty seat in the next row (it's a full flight, get what you can). Not only do they need more leg room, but they think it's a freaking Hilton or something. All of them decide that they need to put their seats all the way back and completely stretch out and sleep. Because there wasn't enough room for you already, you have to squash the person sitting behind you too. How rude! You already got the seats with the most leg room, be considerate.

Episode #19 - Can't Trust Anyone!

I was out sick for a week. When I got back to the office, I found that my DBA had attempted to upgrade software on the server, messed it up, and ended up deleting a month's worth of development code. WTF? Where were the backups?! Then my boss told me, "You'll just have to do it over again."

NICE.

Episode #18 - Let's meet to discuss how much time we waste meeting.

So I spent an hour and a half meeting with a co-worker today to figure out (for our managers) how much time it would take us to finish a couple of projects we are working on together.

Now these projects aren't necessarily large and I usually just ask my co-worker questions based on his area of expertise. When he has time, he answers. Very symbiotic relationship.

But we wasted an hour and half meeting and sending email of the minutes to determine that we're going to continue doing what we're doing because neither of us is an expert in the particular field we're working on and it's difficult to say that, "I need xxx hours of his time to finish this."

Episode #17 - Follow up on the Stealership

So Dan finally got around to working on my brakes. We had gone out and bought the pads, shoes, & rotors for less than the Stealership wanted.

The Stealership is full of SHIT. My pads were not on the verge of replacment AND my rotors were far from being "below minimum" AND they could have bee machined.

What a load of crap!