Grrr!!!!

As previously posted I had another seizure last Wednesday.   I think I missed a dosage of my pills but still, something isn’t right.  I miss one dosage and only 3 hours later I have a seizure?  They said that stress may had an effect on it too.  I asked my parents and they said duh, you are totally overstressed and the at work they forced me to take time off for the exact same reason.  But they don’t get it.  They send me home and all it does is make it harder for me when I come back because no one can do what I do there, GRRR!!!  Even when I was forced ‘off’ they would call me at home or email me to handle things.  Its like, this would be way easier if you just let me come to work instead of guessing or trying to direct you through my office!!  So I go back work tomorrow with no doctor’s note or anything and dependent on mommy or daddy to drive to and from work again.  It will be interestin if they me in or not.  They seemed pretty adament about me not coming back without a note but with their depedency on me now, and deadlines approaching I am willing to bet they will ‘forget’ to ask me for the note.

Happy Holidays My A$$!!

Me sooooo tired.

Our office was shut down from noon December 24, 2008 to 8:00 am January 5, 2009.  I was looking forward to this break since like October.  I have needed a break but I have been so busy that I couldn’t take any vacation time.  The only time I had away from the office was for a week long seminar and when I got back from the seminar all my projects had gone to hell.  No one did anything right.  I had my Blackberry during the seminar, on silent of course and during the breaks I would check my emails and messages.  I would have like 10 messages everytime.  On a 5 minute break, away from the office, you can only put out so many fires.  That week long seminar set me back two weeks.  One week for being ‘absent’ and one week fixing everyone else’s mistakes.  Hence, working through the ‘Holidays’.

Moreover, the catalytic convereter on my car got a hole in it, $1,400.  God owning a car is both a blessing a curse.

The other thing with the Holidays is that it really sticks it to you if you’re still single like I am.  I mean I don’t celebrate Christmas and I don’t go out and party for New Year’s, but as another year ends and new one begins its like here we go again, same shit, different year.  I don’t get it either.  I mean, I just don’t understand why I have such a hard time finding someone.  My friends have told me that I am far too picky.  But why shouldn’t I be.  I am a great guy and I plan on only doing this one time and  being with the one I truly love and the one that loves me in return, not needs me, but actually wants to be with me.  I am not about to settle for some broad just to be with someone, it wouldn’t be fair to her or to me for that matter.  I mean I am not depressed, but I know I could be happier, you know.  I don’t know maybe I am just a little a more agitated than normal because I didn’t get to have a vacation after all and because of the stupid car.

The Hook Up – Part Three

This guy is officially useless.  I tried.  God knows I tried because well if I didn’t, my career would have taken a hit already.

In our firm, we are required to fill out time sheets to show how our activities and how much time we are spending on that particular activity for a given project.  The goal for the the firm, obviously is for every employee to be complete chargeable to a client for an entire 40 hour week.  Thankfully, I have one of the highest chargeable percentages in the company.  The only time when I am not chargeable is when I am preparing a proposal for potential work, and that goes under sales, which the company doesn’t mind, especially if we get awarded the project.

The other day he was talking to me (notice how I said he was talking to me, not we were having a conversation) and says this was a good week for me, I almost had 50% of time chargeable.  He has been with the company for some time now but he should have beyond the 50% marker months ago.  Not that I should really be surprised or anything, he knows nothing and spends half the day chatting with this other tub of shit we have in our department. These two were made for other.  This tub of shit also is also uneducated and knows nothing, including personal hygiene.  I love the summer, just not around him.  SOAP and WATER!!  Or at least deodorant.  This tub of shit quit the firm a little while ago because he thought he was too good for it.  He went to work somewhere else, he got canned after 10 days.  10 days.  What does our company do, hire him back!!

While I am busting my ass meeting deadlines, keeping clients happy and such, these two play solitaire on the PC all day.  The tub of shit even has the guts to stay late because he’s so busy and then charge overtime.  Overtime!!  Today I walked by the new guy’s cubicle and noticed he was on the phone and no solitaire on the screen.  I thought to myself finally.  NOPES!!  He was talking to a Ford dealership trying to get a good deal on a trade in.  Fuck me.

Our department should be the most profitable in the firm, but we are so inefficient its ridiculous, as noted above.  Our reputation is horrendous.  On top of that, we had an outside consultant come in and assess our middle managers.  Each manager had to evaluate the biggest strength and weakness of each of the departments in our office including their own.

The brainiac middle managers left the meeting with everything still written in the white board in the board room.  This is how I know all of this information.  The meeting was supposed to be confidential, but when you have moron managers like that, well hey.  So I read the comments for our department.  There were as follows:

• unmotivated
• inefficient
• lazy
• uneducated
• missed deadlines

I was like durrrr, you need an outside consultant to tell you that.  Just open your eyes!  And don’t forget some of those points even came from our own manager.  Ya, you wanna correct that, STOP HIRING YOUR FUCKING UNEDUCATED DRINKING BUDDIES AND GET RID OF THE DEAD FUCKING WEIGHT!!!

The Hook Up Continued …

Well it finally happened today!! You see I was under the impression that everyone at this point was aware that this guy was hired because he was my boss’ drinking buddy and was out of a job. I was wrong. Not everyone knew apparently. Someone today started to rip into our boss right in front of this guy. Now I don’t care too much for the guy that is ramming his foot down his own throat, but the stuff he saying was way out of line and right in front of his personal friend. I’m trying to tell him to shut up, giving him signals, coughing I mean I did everything but say “Hey dumbass shut up!!” He didn’t pick up on it though. The new guy is standing there, stunned and he looks at me and I walk away. I’m not getting involved in this. I worked too hard for where I am to see it all go away because of some dumbass and some high school back biting bullshit.

It all started because my boss left early yesterday and took today off. He just bought a cottage and was moving in this weekend. He left his vehicle at work and used one of the company pick-up trucks. So the dumbass for no reason whatsoever just started ripping into him about that first and then one thing led to another and all of a sudden he is talking about my boss’ kids. The new guy and my boss are so close that they are the godfathers of each others children, so needless to say, the new guy was not impressed either. Monday will be an interesting day.

Woohoo!!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Best day at work by far! I asked for a raise, in addition to the annual increase that we receive, that was approved today, was awarded a $100,000.00 job and we finally hired an AutoCAD operator so I no longer have to do it for everyone!

Woo Hoo!!

The Hook-Up

I show up at work on Monday for the first time in four days. We had the long weekend and I took Thursday off as well. Ealier last week I was out of the office and on site all day Monday and all day Tuesday, so really in a span of eight days, I was only in the office for one day. I then had a seminar today (which will probably be the next blog) which means I would only be in the office two out of the eleven days.

So on Monday there is this new guy wandering around the office. I started asking around and no knew who he was. My boss finally shows up, late as usual and he then starts showing him around. The explanation that I got from the clerical staff was that he must be a client. So I was like cool, new work. But then I notice that my boss started showing him where the bathrooms are. Hmmmm. Oookaaay. I’m still kinda new at what I do (only 4 years) but that seemed really odd to me. Do clients really need to know the number and location of our bathrooms. So I made a mental note of it and my relationship with my boss is such that I can really say anything to him, so I started to think of what to say to him when the client would eventually leave. So my boss finally hits my office and I get introduced to this guy. Apparently he’s not a client but a new employee and his duties will be split between my department and the inspection and testing department. I was floored. My boss tells me everything. I mean he even tells me things I have no business knowing our relationship is that good. He had mentioned that he was looking around for another engineer but he didn’t tell me that he hired someone. Others in the office know that I have a good relationship with my boss and were wondering if it was only them that were left in the dark. I should probably mention that my boss also happens to be the Branch Manager and a Director of the firm. So the hiring of someone always goes through him anyways, but the poor inspection and testing manager has this new guy and has no idea about it.

Things just didn’t quite add up. So the new guy is just sitting there all alone, like all new people do. I felt bad for the guy so I made some simple nonsense chit chat with him just so he doesn’t think we are all a bunch of jerks. A typical question for a new guy at an engineering firm is always, whats your background. Where did you go to school, previous work experience, blah blah blah. He answers with, I have no school and my previous work experience is too many to say. I have bounced around from job to job to job. My jaw hits the floor. WTF. I’m sorry, what are you doing here exactly I asked him in as nice a way as I could. Since I was out of the office so much, I was like how was the interview. I have worked for both my boss and the inspection and testing manager. They have very different styles of inviewing. So I asked him what he thought of both styes of interviewing. The I&T guy looks you up and down to see if you are physically capable of doing the job then asks one question: Do you own a car?, whereas my boss is more the traditional route, or so I thought. He says, I have never met the other guy, but my boss hired him on Saturday when they were out drinking. DRINKING!! Then it hit me. When my boss introduced him to me, it was very short, you see my boss know me quite well and I can spot a shitty engineer and a shady situation pretty quick. My boss overheard this conversation. He then immediately calls the new guy into his office. I said nothing. I just gave the look like I knew and walked away. My boss later comes into my office closes the door and starts to bullshit me about how this guy used to inspect homes and blah blah blah. I was like, just stop. It’s me. You know you can’t do this to me. I’m not okay with it, but I have no say. If I have to work with him, that’s cool, I have nothing against him, I don’t know him. But I’m not co-signing or signing anything he does unless I was involved directly. He just stares at me. Done.

This world sucks sometimes. Here is a fantastic job that should have gone to someone way more qualified, or in this qualified period, but instead it goes to one of my boss’ drinking buddies. I have always been fortunate thank God, in that I have always had a job since I was 16 years old, but I know others that are brilliant and hard working people that have not had such fortunes. Or others that are in a shitty situation and want to get out but can’t because they cannot find other work. I’m not naive, I always new that this went on in the world, I just never thought that it happend in careers like this where public safety could be at risk.