The Stand-up Philosopher

I Love Being Right: Haliburton Ditching RIM for iOS

I don't remember if I bothered to publish this thought, but I predicted a while ago that RIM is going to die the day large corporations and the federal government switch from BlackBerry to another mobile platform. Haliburton is apparently ditching the platform. 

I've had several BlackBerries issued by work. I won't buy one for personal use. On a previous job, I had a BlackBerry 7130, and a Curve. The only real difference between the two is the Curve had a full keyboard. The keyboard on the 7130 drove me nuts, since keys were shared between letters and "predictive text" wrongly predicted which word you meant to write, forcing you to spend twice the time correcting 75% of the words you type.

On my current job, I was originally issued a Bold. I now have a Tour. Even though the Tour has a new operating system (6.0), there is no noticable difference from the 7130 I had in 2008 with OS 4.2. 

The only reason RIM has done a decent business for so long is because it bent over backwards for every request the government and large corporations asked of it. The even make smart card readers for BlackBerries allowing government users to sign and encrypt emails from their BlackBerries.

Once the government finds a way to use iOS for mobile needs, I predict the demise of RIM. 

Urgency: Does Anybody Have It?

Yesterday, I got hit with another massive wave of discouragement. I realized that I don't want to get good at handling discouragement. It's not worth the pain. But I am resorting to a tactic that got me through boot camp. I keep telling myself that many people have been here before me, and they made it. I can too.

First, I had a phone interview. I was hoping for "Wow, you're the super tech we've been waiting for. Can you start after lunch?" What I got was a second interview next week.

Then I exchanged emails with a friend. There are a few open positions in his organization. I applied for one. Even though he's a director, he has no real authority in hiring. All he can do is forward my resume. But, even after applications close out, it will be 4-6 weeks before I could even get scheduled for an interview. That's another mortgage payment. Not sure my savings will hold out that long. Crap. I wanted to crawl under a table.

Then an email came in. I applied for a FEMA job in November or December of last year. They FINALLY got around to deciding I'm not qualified. 

I have to wonder if anybody has a sense of urgency in hiring. How does any work get done when nobody can get hired?

But there was a bright spot. I'm not totally without hope. A friend of mine is a Real Estate agent. When I first got laid off, I asked her if she thought I could make it as an agent. It's something I always wanted to do, and with FEMA not being the only organization not in a hurry to hire anybody, I figured it was worth pursuing.

I met with my friend's broker, who is willing to take me on after I get licensed. I already took the school, and my state license exam is scheduled for Monday. Then I have to get fingerprinted, and get a background check. I think I misunderstood how long it will take before I can start though. Apparently it will be sooner than I thought. I'll also be working in the top producing office in New Jersey. I'll be learning from the best.

That's where a paradox comes in. I could take down all of my resumes now. I could start laying out a list of goals for Real Estate. Or do I pursue another tech job? I feel weird trying to keep a foot in each door. I think I'm going to have to make a decision very soon.

And I have to study for my license exam.

Alternate Work Schedules: What's Best For You?

The company that laid me off last month rolled out what they called "Flexible Work Schedules" at the end of 2008. I elected not to participate because I considered these schedules to be far less flexible than a regular 8 hour day 5 days a week.

One model required you to work 9 hours every day and take 1 day off every two weeks. The other model required 8 hour days one week, then 10 hour days the next, with 1 day off in the 2 week period. Maybe if they'd called it an "Alternate Work Schedule" I would have considered it. But by calling it a "Flexible Work Schedule" while making it less flexible than the original model, my BS detector just about blew my eardrum out. Oh, yeah, if an unpaid holiday appeared (they only gave us 7 paid holidays a year, and Black Friday wasn't one of them), your day off became that holiday whether you liked it or not. Yeah, real flexible. Also, if a paid holiday appeared during a time when you were scheduled to work more than 8 hours a day, you had to take vacation to make up the balance. Again, super flexible. 

It's scary when companies believe their own BS.

I've worked a flexible schedule before. When I was at BAE systems, I was required to put in 80 hours in 2 weeks. I could flex up to 16 hours from one week to the next within a pay period. As long as my work was getting done, I could come and go as I pleased. I loved it. If I needed a day off (or was sick) I could work a couple of 12 hour days to make up for the missed day. I could leave for a few hours and come back. Nobody ever said anything as long as my work was getting done, which it was.

I really enjoyed that kind of flexibility. I normally worked 9 hour days and took a half day most Fridays. I could come in on weekends if needed to make up time. I loved coming in on Saturday, when nobody else was there. I could get a lot done with the entire floor all to myself.

When Caleb tried a physics experiment (he wanted to see if his hand and the minivan sliding door could both occupy space simultaneously) I got up and left for the ER. I came back a few hours later and worked late.

INC Magazine has an article about Four Day Work Weeks. I don't actually like the concept of 4 day work weeks. I like to have the option to do them occasionally, but I would not want a 4 day work week to replace a 5 day work week.

Here's why:

• 10 hour days are exhausting- Seriously, they wear you down. I don't mind doing 10 and 12 hours days as the situation requires, but I wouldn't want to do them all the time.
• Workload is rarely that predictable
• They limit flexibility to handle workload- what do you do when something comes up on Friday, but everybody is off? "Oh, sorry Mr. Client, we don't work on Friday. You'll have to wait until Monday." That or you can incur some overtime expenses.
• Life is rarely that predictable

Here's my preference:

• Hire professionals that you can trust. Seriously, if you catch somebody cheating on time, fire them.
• Tell your professionals what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by.
• Give your professionals some leeway to decide what needs to be done and when it can be done.

In this age of knowledge work, many jobs can be done outside the limitations of a 9 to 5 workday set in a physical location. Why not change compensation to a model based on what gets done rather than how many hours a butt is in a chair? Some service jobs are still somewhat chained to time and space, but most knowledge jobs aren't. Give knowledge workers some space and watch what happens.

Inc. Magazine: Onboarding a New Hire

Inc. Magazine has an interesting article about how to onboard a new hire. The article seems to have disappeared since I started writing this. Maybe it'll be back. It still shows up on a site search.

Hopefully, very soon I'll have to worry about starting work with a new company. That means I'll go through some form of onboarding. But what kind of onboarding will it be?

Traditionally, you show up for work and spend most of the day filling out forms. Some companies will have an HR representative to walk you through them. Others stick you in a room (or cubicle) and leave you on your own.

Then you get to meet the people you'll be working with. 

Some companies are more organized than others. Sometimes it takes days to get an email account. My last company had one created for me the day I started.

I started working for BAE Systems the week of Thanksgiving. But because it was the "holiday season", for the next several weeks many key people were unavailable. I started work in November, but it was January before I had access to all the accounts and systems that I needed to do my job.

But is the traditional onboarding plan really the best? Unfortunately, most companies have the attitude "We do things the way we do because this is the way we've always done them."  Not "experience has proven this is the best way." No, it's because it's the way we've always done it. Talk about circular reasoning.

We work in cubicles, not because it's the best and most productive working arrangement. But because it's the "way we've always done it." Work hours are set, not because those are the best hours for people to work, but "this is the way we've always done it." We don't have more telecommuting because you can't trust college educated professionals to work unsupervised, but because "everybody getting up in the morning and driving to this office is the way we've always done it."

The INC Magazine article made some suggestions for onboarding. Mostly it was simple (yet ignored) advice, like setting up email accounts ahead of time. Send the employee handbook and benefits information ahead of time.

What onboarding inefficiencies have you experienced? How do you think it could be made better?

Do You Know When To Fix Somebody, And When To Just Listen?

This post is hard for me. I like to fix things. I love to have problems to solve. I also love to learn things. I’d love to have the answer to every question.

A few weeks ago, a group I was talking with had an interesting discussion. Have you ever had somebody totally drop a bomb on you? He just open up and let you in one some major problem in his life. What’s your first reaction?

If you’re like me, your first reaction is probably something like “Oh, that’s not a big deal. You should try this. And also this. And yeah, this too. Ok, got it?” If you’re a Christian, you’ll probably throw a boilerplate “You’ve got to trust God. God will provide.”

The problem is, that’s often not helpful. I’m not saying I don’t believe it. But when the manure hits the fan, it’s not helpful.

Here are some steps to take when you are dealing with a friend facing a crisis that you think could be fixed, if they would just listen to you:

1. Give the person some credit for knowledge and life experience- It’s no secret I’m out of a job. I’ve gotten plenty of advice. None of it is helpful. Definitely none of it is new information. (See my post about the most useless career advice, and “Drive Safe…”.) I had somebody ask me if I knew I could look for jobs in the newspaper. No, really? Wow, I’m 36 years old and nobody ever told me there were jobs in the PAPER! What have I been doing with my life? Seriously, when you’re tempted to hand out advice, stop and think critically about whether or not the person you’re advising might actually know, have considered, or even tried the advice you’re hoping to use to apply a quick fix to his or her situation. Please.
2. Are you actually following or would you follow the advice you’re giving? Prior to being let go, a friend at my job would constantly offer me advice. I hadn’t seen him do any of it himself. I honestly wasn’t interested in following it. It didn’t appeal to me. I wanted to try some of my own ideas first. But he kept coming over to my cubicle and giving me the same advice over and over again. And of course, while he was giving me this advice, I couldn’t do anything else productive. When I was first told I’d be out of there in a few days, and given permission to access the job sites from work, he spent a good 45 minutes giving me that same advice again. That was 45 minutes that I WASN’T applying for other jobs. Then I had to be escorted out because they realized that employees who know they’re short become security risks. He was a friend, but that was wasted time. It wasn’t helpful, and it didn’t “fix” my problem.
3. Consider this: is it possible that you could be more help if you just shut up and listened? I have a fair amount of intelligence and life experience. I’ve had to find jobs before. I know how to do a job search, and intellectually, I know what steps I have to take to secure another position. But honestly, I’m scared. I don’t want to end up miserable again. I don’t want to be stuck in another stuffy cube next to the gossip-hole. I don’t want to be doing boring, tedious work again. I don’t want to work for another micromanger. I don’t want to be in another organization that is busy being busy. I want to be effective. I want to have challenges and solve problems. And I’m afraid if I go too fast, I’ll end up in another bad fit. And I don’t want that. It’s not good for me, and it’s not good for the company (see below). I’m often able to work through my own problems when I have somebody to think out loud to. I assume other people are as well.

When somebody drops a bomb on you, please consider that there might not be a quick fix. Consider the possibility that maybe you could do more good just by listening, rather than dispensing advice.

Beware of Scam Sounding Recruiters

I hate looking for a job. It’s never been fun. The last few times, I already had a job, which took some of the urgency away. I’m especially fearful now of ending up in another bad match, stuck in another cubicle near yet another high-traffic/low concentration area.

I have to wonder about a few things though.

For one, do Career Builder and Monster somehow handicap you if you decide not to pay for their premium services?

Also, is it really a benefit

This post just took a turn from what it was originally intended to be. I was going to whine about recruiters asking me to join yet another resume farm. Those really bug me. I don’t get the point, and I’ve never gotten a benefit from them. I was going through my spam folder, and came across the following message:

subject
Corporate Recruiting Firm (Contact info request)

Eric,

If I already emailed you then please ignore this, but I've learned that some of my recent emails were not delivered.

I have a copy of your resume and was touching base to see if you are currently in the job market. If so, please register with us at www.mcsourcer.com/register so I can easily update you regarding opportunities.

I'm based in Chicago but our current search engagements are spread nationwide.

Best Regards,
Mike McCarthy
McSourcer Recruiting and Staffing
Phone: 312.277.1986
40 E. Chicago Ave. Suite 131
Chicago, IL 60611
http://mcsourcer.myplaxo.com

Remove your email from my list here and I promise to never contact you again:
http://lists.mcsourcer.com/u?id=8080475.23b48f3475dfcdc7d0e7a4c33c22768d&n=T&l=mcsourcer-candidates&o=1372721

I decided to to a search on this agency, and I came up with this. They’re not saying this is a scam, but it sure sounds like one. I agree.

For one thing, look at the phone number: “Phone: 312.277.1986”. In America, we write our phone numbers as “(312) 277-1986”. In other countries, they put periods after the groupings of numbers. I tend to be suspicious when I get an email that is supposedly from somebody living in the U.S. but uses foreign designations. Have you ever posted something on Ebay or Craig’s List and somebody promised to pay you in “American Cashier's Cheque”? Why would I go to a yard sale in my neighborhood and offer to pay in “U.S. Dollar” when that’s all we use here?

The website for McSourcer is very basic. It’s definitely not professional at all. I could do a better job with TypePad’s templates than that. You can read the link I posted above for what happens when you try to register. I’m not planning to.

McSourcer aside, do you get any benefit from resume farms? If you’re already on sites like Careerbuilder, Dice, Monster, Clearance Jobs, etc., do you ever act on those emails that say “We’re the largest IT recruiting firm, with over 40,000 customers. Put your resume on our site”?

When Bad News Is Good News (And People Won’t Deliver It)

I wrote this post yesterday. Then I deleted the entire thing. What came out of my hands onto my keyboard was very angry and reactionary. It was also immature. I should expect better of myself.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you know the news you’re likely to get is bad? Of course you have. But have you also wished that the shoe would just drop so you could get on with your life? But the shoe never drops. The call never comes. And it all boils down to people not keeping commitments.

Last Monday, I got a call. It was for a possible job. It sounded very exciting. This company was looking to branch into something that I have some very direct experience in. I also happen to be available to help them with it. There were drawbacks, like a 60 mile commute. But I was excited about the possibility.

High-Stress vs. High Frustration

I wrote the following post back in January, but never got around to posting it. I hate to let it go to waste, because I was trying to communicate the difference between a high-stress environment and a high-frustration environment. I can handle stress. Needless frustration is a very bad thing. I was ultimately let go from the job on March 18, 2010. That saved me the trouble of walking out. It's pretty sad when working conditions reach such a low point that you begin to pray to be fired, because you have nothing else lined up and are at a disadvantage if you quit.

I've done my best to change the language of this post from present-tense to past-tense. It's now written from a perspective of a former employee, rather than a current employee.

I plan to write only one more blog post about that job, then I will lick my wounds and move on.

This begins the original post, High-Stress vs. High-Frustration:

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook from November 2009 to March 2010, you know that I was highly frustrated at work. I figured I would take a few moments to explain why.

I guess I’ll repeat: I despise the concept of cubicles. It sends a great message to the kids, doesn’t it? Work really hard, get a degree, and someday, you too can sit in a box with little privacy where people can sneak up behind you all day long. It’s a great incentive for education and hard work, isn’t it?

Cubicles frustrate me. I’m a knowledge worker. I get paid to think, and turn that thinking into product. But, it’s hard to THINK when people are talking all day long. I also don’t do very well when people sneak up behind me. The project leader I worked with liked to sneak up behind me and grab my shoulders. I somehow managed to stop myself from coming up swinging. I don’t care if some of you think I’m whining. I don’t like it, and it hinders my ability to work. I’m not comfortable in an environment where people can sneak up behind me and grab my shoulders like that.

Then there were the conversations. People in offices like to talk. I understand, so do I. But it’s hard to concentrate on work when the conversations all happen right outside of your cubicle. Cubicles are one of the most anti-productivity concepts around.

Enough about cubicles. I know, there’s nothing I can do to change them, but they are frustrating. On to why the actual work was frustrating.

As you may know, I was fired from the project I was originally hired for. My company was nice enough to keep me around for a while. They had one project that I could help out on. It wasn't actual engineering or technical work, but it brought in a paycheck.

The problem was, the project brought in lots of frustrations. It was never planned out properly. I think our customer didn't know how to do the job, but it had to be done so they outsourced it to us. They constantly changed their minds about what they wanted. Some of their requests actually prevented us from doing a good job. Basically, they wanted a product that they could redline and show their program management that the job was done.

On top of that, the people who led the project hadn't planned very well. Some of the instructions we were given earlier caused more trouble later.

Several times, I got so frustrated that I started wondering just how badly I need a house, or a car, or food, or anything. I don’t like being frustrated enough to walk out, but what we were doing was literally like digging a hole and filling it again. I would be given an assignment, then have it taken away and passed to somebody else while I picked up where somebody else left off on another assignment. There was no ownership, and I had no part in the planning of the project at all even though my expertise would have helped make it run smoother. 

I got frustrated one day because I was given a spreadsheet. We were tracing requirements to documents that we had written. We should have done the requirements trace as we went along, but were told not to and “we’ll do it later.” Somebody else supposedly traced these requirements, but I had no idea which document they were traced to. It took me a while to find the right document with the help of the guy who did it. He was given confusing instructions, so I had to repeat work that he already did. He would have done it right had he been allowed to.

It didn't help that I read this one night in the middle of all that frustration:

…Jewish law mandates that no employer may direct a subordinate to dig a ditch one day and to fill it in the next, only to have him reexcavate it on the third day. Early years of experience in mass production and assembly lines during the twentieth century showed that treating workers like automatons and depriving them of meaning in their professional lives was not only immoral but also economically stupid. – Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Thou Shall Prosper, Chapter 4.

During one point where I contemplated walking out in frustration, I gave some thought to this. Obviously, I had to stick around at that point because I’ve got bills to pay and a family to support. 

I generally liked the people that I work with, even the project leader who frustrated us. I think he just didn't have any experience in running a project like this. He also didn't seem to know how to communicate, which led to our frustration. His emails were in riddles, he confused acronyms, and he confused the terms “test procedure” with “step within a test procedure”. That one lead to no end of confusion until I figured it out. That’s as bad as in my last position where people didn’t know the difference between a test procedure and a test plan.

It’s not that that was a high stress environment. I can handle a high stress environment. I actually somewhat like it. I wouldn’t go out of my way to create a high-stress environment for the heck of it, but I don’t mind them. I don’t mind working 12 hour days and traveling half the time AS LONG AS SOMETHING MEANINGFUL IS BEING ACCOMPLISHED. It feels good to get things done and make things happen.

But when your professional life consists of the equivalent of digging a ditch only to fill it back in again, it leads to a high-frustration environment. I don’t deal well with frustration. Stress I can handle, frustration I can’t.

I like to be effective. Just tell me what you want done and get the heck out of my way while I do it. I like to work like that. I like to know what has to be done and make it happen. I wasn't getting that in the months before I was ultimately let go. Sometimes, the assignment changed twice an hour. I was told to do it one way, then to do it another way the next time I talked to my project lead. One time, I had him convinced and had permission to write a new document, then the next time I saw him, “no, we’re not writing new documents. Match the requirements to what we already have.” They don’t match. “It doesn’t matter. Match them.”

OK, would you like me to defy gravity while I’m at it? Grow wings?

What Do You Consider A Good Workplace Perk?

I have a title for a blog post that I’ve been wanting to write for a while. I don’t quite have the content to go with it yet. I’ve been wanting to write a post about “When Companies Believe Their Own BS.”

Have you ever worked for a company that went on and on about how great it was? It told you how kind it was to the employees, how great it was to the community, and how everybody working there loved it. Yet you thought you were the odd person out. You didn’t get it.

I wondered about this with my last company. The one that let me go last Thursday. I’m not bitter; seriously, I’m not. I’m glad they kept me around as long as they did.

I’m curious about why the company built itself up over certain perks. I did like and benefit from the free coffee. It was the first place I’ve worked where I didn’t have to pay dues to a coffee mess or bring my own coffee. They also paid entirely for a picnic every summer and for a “holiday party” in December. But, the company only gave employees 7 paid holidays a year. That’s right; we had a great Christmas party, but we had to work on Black Friday.

Employees started with 10 vacation days a year. After 5 years of service, you get 12. Wow, 12 days a year off! What am I going to do with all that spare time? You can almost make up for the 10 paid holidays other companies in this industry offer after 5 years of service and those 2 extra days!

On top of that, any readers I have know how much I hated my cubicle. Seriously, I would rather have a quiet and secluded place to work than an open bar at the Christmas party. I can’t work effectively when I’m surrounded by noise and distraction and I feel like I’m in a fishbowl. I don’t like being snuck up on. Micro-MAN-ager had a habit of coming up behind me and grabbing my shoulders. When I was concentrating on something, it took a lot of willpower not to come up swinging. I’d rather had a desk facing the door than a free picnic in the summer.

What do you consider a good workplace perk? What kind of silly ways does your company claim to be the greatest that you don’t get the point of?

Why Do Companies Make It Harder Than It Has to be to Apply for a Job?

Before I go any farther in this post, I’ll state that I will do what needs to be done to pay the bills. If that requires getting back into another soul-sucking 8 hour a day cubicle job, then I will. But not if it can be avoided.

Except for one year (1998-1999), I’ve spent my entire adult career either in or around the U.S. Navy. It’s been a good run. But there are a lot of needless inefficiencies built into the Navy, and into many of the contracting companies that support the Navy.

I’ve been looking for a job since November. I’ve avoided mentioning it just in case anybody from my previous job might stumble across my blog. But I’ve been looking ever since just before I got fired from my original position. I continued looking while I was stuck in a stuffy cubicle working from Micro-MAN-ager.

I’ve come to realize that, unless you absolutely HAVE to put food on the table right now, the degree of difficulty in applying for a job just MIGHT be a sign of the difficulty DOING the job.

Some jobs have been easy to apply for. I come across the job on Monster or Dice, or even Careerbuilder. I click “Apply Now”. I’m taken to a page asking which resume I want to use, and if I want to include a cover letter. I make those decisions, and click another button. Then I’m done. I get an email confirmation.

But some companies make it really hard. First, you have to register at yet another job site. God help you if you’ve already registered and can’t remember your password, because you can’t use your email account again (Comcast is the worst offender I’ve come across in this regard). Then you have to upload your resume. THEN, after your resume is uploaded, you have to copy and paste your work history and education into text blocks. Even though this information is already on your resume, you have to type it in again.

The government is horrible. Trying to apply for a job through USA Jobs is a nightmare. OK, not all. Some are relatively easy, but I have yet to find an agency that is tied into USA Jobs and can take your resume from the main site. Normally, you find a job on USA Jobs and are taken to another site to apply for the job. This requires creating an account and inputting your information. Some aren’t bad. Applying for a civilian IT job for the Army was actually easy. The Navy makes it almost impossible to apply for a job. I couldn’t get past the first step in the process to apply for a civilian job for the Navy. I put in a trouble ticket. I found out (which shouldn’t surprise me) that I can’t apply because I’m not using Internet Explorer 6, which is the official web browser of the United States Navy.

So, let me ask you: if it’s a pain in the neck just to APPLY for a job, once you get in, do you think you’ll find a massive bureaucracy that makes it nearly impossible to actually do the job?

Job Update

This post probably won't be my masterpiece. I was dismissed from my job on Thursday. It wasn't a surprise. I knew it was coming, and I was under incredible anxiety about it. Once I found out, most of the anxiety went away. I'm still wondering how I'll pay the bills, but I know I'm smart and I adapt. I was just stuck in a bad spot. It was bad for me and for the company, and I am grateful to them for keeping me around as long as they did. Sometimes I wonder if that just prolonged the inevitable. Nothing I can do to change that.

On the bright side, I can chart a new course. If there was ever a time to make some hard decisions about my career and future, this is it. Here are some of the positives I've come up with. Some are silly, some are really profound:

• I can openly complain about how bad most job descriptions and sites are. Seriously, some of them are really bad. Take Clearance Jobs. It's one of those needy sites. Every 30 days I get an email from them "You haven't been on Clearance Jobs in 30 days. You need to refresh your resume." Sometimes I wonder what the point is. To this point in my job search. Clearance Jobs has been one of the more useless. I got an email from one person early in my search. When I did some research, it turns out he's a one man shop. I sent him my resume and all the information he requested. Then I heard nothing. I called him twice and left a message. He didn't have the decency to call me back.
• I can chart a new course. Do I want to stay in engineering? Do I want to get more into pure IT? Do I even want to stay in this field, or stay in the defense industry? One of the prayers most in my mouth right now is "Please, God, don't let me end up in another cubicle." I need to keep that in mind as I decide which path to choose. I've been miserable to some extent in my last 3 jobs. I should probably try to figure out why, because I don't want to end up miserable again. I'm sure the cubicle isn't the only reason, but I don't like them. I can't concentrate and I feel like I'm being watched all the time. I hate that. I don't do very good work under those conditions, and that's not fair to me or my customer/employer. I don't care if I'm the only person on Earth who doesn't like working in cubicles. I don't.
• I can set out on my own. I can start my own business. I've been trying to find some freelance writing assignments. I can also set up as an IT consultant or follow my Computer Coach idea.  I've also considered looking into Real Estate, and a few other ideas. 

I have many possibilities. 

Dice TV: 3 Questions To Ask In A Job Interview

Without a job, I finally have a chance to catch up on a few things. Going through some email I'd filed to get to "later", I found the following video from Dice.com:

I wish I'd come across this before. I've always done my best to be interactive during a job interview, but my questions usually revolved around benefits and career path. (NOTE: every company I've ever interviewed for lied to me about the career path.) Out of my last 3 jobs, I left 2 of them because there was no possible way to advance from the position I was in. Well, there was that once every 20 years when the moon aligns with a supervisor's retirement, but that was more than 15 years off.

Dice advises you to ask 3 questions:

1. Why is this position vacant? (Or, why did the last person leave?)
2. Can you describe what my first day, week, and month will be like?
3. Can you describe the ideal candidate?

When I was hired for the job I lost yesterday, I made a big hit by asking my program manager and the regional Vice President the question: "What do you like about this company? What makes you get up every morning to come to work here?" 

Reasons Why Micromanagement is Destructive

Last month, I wrote about "The Return of Micro-MAN-ager". It was about a comic type character that I created in the Navy and thought of again recently at work. I'm in a situation of being micromanaged. I've been wanting to write a post about why micromanagement is destructive. Apparently, it's been suffering the same fate as a post I started on why I don't worry about procrastinating anymore.

I came across a blog post by Ron Edmonson today about why people micromanage. It's pretty much what I would say: fear, insecurity, wrong team, bad vision, and control freak. I think all apply in my situation.

There are situations where micromanagement can be appropriate. I imagine those situations are related to managing teenagers and prisoners. It's not appropriate outside of some limited situations. I don't believe it's appropriate with professionals.

The Return of Micro-MAN-ager

I joined the Navy right out of high school. I served from 1992-1998, from the ages of 18-24. Then I got out and got a “real job”. I’m glad I served, and I’d do it again, but I’m also glad I left active duty when I did. I have a lot of reasons for that.

The military seems geared toward micromanagers. I ran into a lot of micromanagers. I don’t know if it’s just the personalities that stay in the military long enough to make it into managerial positions, or if it’s just the culture. Maybe the military trains its managers to micromanage. Also, I’m willing to bet that the fact the military is made up of younger individuals with little experience plays a part too. I’m sure it’s a combination.

In any event, I resented the micromanagement. There’s a difference in being told WHAT to do and being told EXACTLY HOW, STEP BY STEP to do it, especially if it’s a task that you’re already familiar with.

Why Are Job Descriptions So Poorly Written?

This is something that has always baffled me. When companies need to hire somebody, don’t they want to hire an experienced and talented person? If so, why do they make it so darn hard to figure out what the job actually is?

I like to keep an eye on what opportunities are out there. I wish I’d lived in a time when an employee could expect to stay with one company for an entire career. I don’t. While I do appreciate the company I currently work for, I’m under no illusions that their relationship with me can’t end at any time and for any reason on their part. Loyalty is a wonderful quality, but should not be misplaced.

Sorry For Acting Like A Jerk, I Had A Bad Day

Have you ever totally blown up with somebody for no good reason? Or have you ever had somebody blow up at you? Then, when (or if) an apology was offered, it was something like "I had a bad day". It's understandable. We all have bad days.

Today was my anniversary. 9 years! Wow. Our babysitting fell through. We ended up taking the kids out to dinner with us. Dinner sucked. We went to Charlie Brown's Steakhouse in Blackwood, NJ. We've enjoyed it numerous times in the past. Apparently, since the last time we were there, they reduced their menu options and raised their prices. I suspect quality may have been lowered as well.

Christina's dinner had something wrong with it. She had to send it back. Mine was so-so. Definitely not worth $14 at whatever inflation level my brain is stuck at. The kids wouldn't behave. Then we had to take them to karate, then to church for AWANA. Now it's late.

As I've gotten older, I came to realize that bad days never get better. I used to live in some mythical belief that once I hit the next milestone, the stress will go away and things will calm down. "Once the baby is sleeping through the night". "Once I finish my degree". "Once we get this bill paid off". Then I'll have time for whatever. Then I won't be stressed out and irritable all the time.

I think I'm finally getting the message that the stress and bad days just won't go away. They only get worse, and come more frequently. And they're no excuse for acting like an asshole. Pardon the language, but I wanted to make a point, if only for myself.

The Most Useless Career Advice

There’s a piece of career advice going around lately that I find useless. It’s comparable to frugality tips like “Just spend less than you make” or health tips like “Just burn more calories than you eat”.

It’s not that the advice isn’t sound in at least a few ways. It’s just that it’s what everybody says. To me, that makes it useless. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation. It sure as heck doesn’t add anything to my career.

The useless advice?

“If you have a job in this economy, just stay in it. You’re lucky to have it.”

Like I said, I hear it from everybody. I know it. Telling me (or anybody else) that piece of advice doesn’t help. I know that having a job, even a bad one, is a good thing in this economy.

Background Noise “May” Increase Stress Levels

From Lifehacker, and following a link to Scientific American, a study indicates that background noise may increase stress levels in some employees.

Though not definitive, recent research also suggests that noise-induced stress may decrease dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex, where the hormone controls the flow of information from other parts of the body. Stress resulting from background noise, then, may decrease higher brain function, impairing learning and memory.

I work in a cubicle farm. I hate it. Before I was fired, I worked in the corner cubicle right next to the hall and next to the conference room. There was so much traffic and noise it was a miracle that I got anything done at all. After being removed from that position in November, until today I was sitting in a cubicle with a printer. All day long, that printer would whir up, and people were standing behind me shuffling paper. I’m sure that some people don’t mind and would tell me to quit whining, but it put a lot of stress on me. On days when the printer was being used a lot, I was shaking by the time I went home. Sorry, those of you who love cubicles, I just can’t take having people standing behind me all day. It creeps me out and makes me really uncomfortable.

Finally, a computer came in so I got moved to a cubicle that doesn’t have a printer, but it’s still in a high traffic area, and people can still sneak up behind me. I’m going to have to get a mirror or something. And I’m going to have to start freelancing or get into an industry where professionals can have offices rather than work in noisy cubicle farms.

While I’m whining about cubicles, here’s a good one. Every office has that one butthole who likes to walk around, come up behind you while you’re deep in concentration on a task, and yell out “Hey, wake up over there!” Thanks, butthole, not only did you make me break my concentration, but now I have to worry about everybody thinking I’m sleeping at work. I hate you people. You know who you are.

Don’t Have Time, Eh?

I’ve had times in my life when I was really busy. I can’t say I’ve mastered dealing with being that busy, but I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned enough about being “too busy” to have little patience with some people  who are “too busy” to do things that should be vital.

In about 2006, a friend of mine had a position open up that he thought I was more than qualified for. It was for a Systems Analyst. He worked for the government, and the position was with a contractor. I already worked for that company anyway, was qualified for the job, and it should have been very simple to get me down there.

Except for one thing…

The program manager in charge of the position was “too busy” to hire somebody, for an open position, that his customer was demanding be filled.  It seems like in that line of work, filling open positions should be a PRIMARY function of the job. I sent him a couple of emails introducing myself, indicating my interest in the position and my qualifications, and emphasizing that I ALREADY WORKED FOR THAT VERY COMPANY. He never replied. I attached a read receipt to one email. It apparently went unread. I wish I knew what this guy was doing.

Alas, Mr. “I have other things to do” did not fill the position with either me or anybody else, and it went to a subcontractor. That was during the one time in the last several years when I could have gotten out of New Jersey easily. Now, there’s no way. I’m stuck here for the time being. My friend told me later that program manager got fired for being a bonehead, but it was too late to get my resume to his replacement. I eventually left that company for my current one.

It’s one thing when you ask somebody to meet you for coffee, but they’re too busy. I can understand that. Too busy actually means “something else is more important to me to spend that period of time on.” But when it comes to work functions, then I get ticked.

“Hey, I sent you an email last week. I cannot move on this project until you answer it.”

“Oh, sorry, I’ve been too busy to check email.”

Right, if you’re too busy to check your work email, then obviously you don’t get notices for pointless meetings, so you should have time to check email. It’s a Catch-22.

Before I got fired, I needed to get an answer out of our vendor for something. I sent him email after email for more than a week, and left a bunch of phone messages, all of which went unanswered. I finally blocked out an entire morning and called him every 15 minutes until he answered the phone and I got my answer, which somebody else was breathing down the back of my neck for.

I’ve been listening to Tim Ferriss’ “The 4 Hour Work Week” over and over and over again on my iPhone. If only I could find a company that read that book and tried to follow its philosophy, rather than the “You’re not working unless you commute here and sit in a stuffy cubicle for 8 hours” philosophy. Think of how much time at work is just plain wasted on minutia and pointless bull that doesn’t even contribute to the bottom line. Much of the normal office workday is about working for the sake of working. You have to be there for 8 hours, so you might as well fill it.

I keep hearing about how Best Buy is testing a program to allow their corporate employees to work wherever and how long it takes to get their work done. If you can do your day’s work in 3 hours at 2 AM, then do it.

I wish I could find a way (without placing my family in financial jeopardy in the process) to get paid for results rather than time. Want more money, then produce more results. Make enough money to be comfortable in less time? Then enjoy the extra time you have.

2010, Goals, and Direction

This will be a quick post, as I have to get somewhere soon. As the new year dawns, it dawns as a year of uncertainty. There may be some serious changes on the horizon. Or not. I don’t know.

As I wrote about before, I was fired from my position in November. Since I’m a contractor, my company kept me on board in the hopes that they’ll have another position to fit me in. They’ve had me helping out on one project. I’m grateful to them for keeping me around. It shows class, and shows a company that values people. Also, I know the recruiting and hiring can be expensive. I have skills that might be useful to my company in another position. But, if another project doesn’t come up, I’ve got the life of the project I’m on. No telling how long that will be.

Why did I get fired? I screwed up. The best thing I can do is take responsibility for it. There are always at least two sides to every story, but as the side that was dismissed, I can only assume I was in the wrong. I committed to a deadline that turned out not to be reasonable. When asked about progress, I replied “Oh, everything’s fine. No problems.” I didn’t ask for help. Help was available, but everybody portrays themselves as being too busy to breath, so I was afraid to take away from anybody’s busy schedule to ask for help. When the deadline loomed, I kept up the “It’s fine” facade, secretly hoping that “one more week” would give me the time I needed to get it together.

A deadline that seemed reasonable 4 months earlier suddenly became impossible. Equipment that wasn’t delivered on time and documentation that was either nonexistent or incomplete combined with my lack of imagination set me further behind schedule. Then there were other job responsibilities to be attended to. So, I blew it.

Then, to make matters worse, I got ticked off and cc’ed the wrong person on an email where my frustration was on full display. That’s only happened once, but it was the wrong once. I think that’s what ultimately did it, but I was probably on the way out by then anyway.

So where to from here? I don’t know. I’m hoping that my company comes up with other work that I can do. If not, I guess I need to see what else is out there.

After 5 years of blogging, it’s apparent that nobody is going to pay me to blog here. So I’m considering something else. I’m considering changing the focus of my blog to building my brand. That’s about what I’ve been doing, but I need a better focus. Whatever I end up doing next, I’d like to find a way to point people to my blog as an example of why I’m an expert in something.

I’m just not sure what that something should be right now.

Drive Safe...

Though I hardly ever stick to the topic, I chose the name "The Stand-up Philosopher" for this blog because I sometimes like to ask questions about the way the world works and the way the world is (or should be). I actually chose the title from a scene in Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part I", but I kind of like the idea of asking questions and provoking thought and challenging mindless conventional wisdom.

Some of my favorite questions so far have to do with should you really expect to get rich by winning the lottery, does watching TV really cause short attention spans, and is the Internet doing something to our brains besides making us think it's doing something to our brains.

I was going through my email recently. I sign up for a lot of email lists. Sometimes I just can't resist the "free report" being offered, or I think the newsletter will actually give me valuable information. I'm usually wrong, but often these free newsletters don't annoy me enough to bother unsubscribing. One really set off my "stand up philosopher" instincts though. The newsletter began with "I just wanted to remind you to drive safe this weekend" before launching into the marketing spiel for the guy's affiliate program. I deleted the email.

Why do we remind each other to drive safe upon parting? I've always wondered about that. Yes, I'm just as guilty as most of you at filling silence with words. It's the typical "I don't know what else to say but I can't let you leave without another parting comment, so I'll just say 'drive safe!'"

But really, does that add value to the relationship? Does it add value to the drive? Have you ever been in a situation in which you would stop in your tracks and grab the person in a bear hug and say something like "Thank you so much! I would have driven totally unsafe had you not reminded me to drive safe!"

Sometimes I wish we could some up with better social niceties to exchange than the ones we normally use.

I guess while we're on the subject of driving, let's address those emails our organizations like to send out around holidays reminding employees not to drink and drive. I've been around long enough to know that most people who drink and drive don't do it because a vice president of the company forgot to send out an email on Friday reminding them not to drink and drive. They also don't do it because NBC forgot to run a "The more you know" spot on Thursday.

I tend to avoid drinking and driving BECAUSE IT'S DANGEROUS AND ILLEGAL, not because the sub-vice President of administrative affairs forgot to send an email reminding me not to drink and drive.

What do you think? What social niceties could you use as a parting comment rather than "Drive safe!"?

Attention to Detail: It Could Save Your Life

I had a brief exchange on Facebook with a friend and former shipmate of mine. It brought back memories. During the course of the discussion, he sent me a link to a write up about a fire that occurred on the ship we served together on, the U.S.S. White Plains (AFS-4).

The fire occurred in 1989. I served on the ship from 94-95, and was part of the decommissioning crew.
As part of the fire, 6 people died. The article says 161 were injured.

In boot camp, they beat the phrase "attention to detail" into our heads. I have no idea how many of us came away from that experience committed to a life of "attention to detail". I can tell you that most of my failures came from a lack of attention to detail. 

The reason for the mainspace fire on the White Plains was a lack of attention to detail. It also came from not following standard procedures. There is more to the story than the article says, although it captures the important details. For some reason, we had the JAG investigation report in the CIWS shop where I worked. I read it. It was fascinating reading, and even involved an officer physically threatening men who refused to throw defective parts over the side of the ship to cover up the failure. I believe the report said that officer was convicted and served time in Leavenworth. The Captain and Chief Engineer were relieved.

One thing that always threw me for a loop was that while I was onboard the ship, we drilled that fire over and over and over again. OK, I was only involved in that my space lost air conditioning for the several hours it took to get the engineering plant back online, but in the South Pacific, that's torture. Seriously, it's hot! A gas turbine engine starts up about as fast as a car, but it takes hours to get a steam plant back online. When the White Plains drilled that mainspace fire, they'd kill the plant, let the ship switch to emergency diesel, and run through that fire scenario. Part of the problem during the original fire is that the ship only drilled one scenario, and as good as the fire party and engineers were, they weren't trained for anything but the one scenario they did. I always wondered why we drilled that one fire so much. I always figured if the ship had another mainspace fire, it wouldn't be a duplicate of the '89 fire. That's the military for you though. It seems like rather than preparing for the future, you spend more time not repeating the mistakes of the past.

After leaving the White Plains, I spent 3 years on the U.S.S. Oldendorf (DD-972), a Spruance Class destroyer. I was onboard that ship from 95-98 when I left the Navy. It was during a time when the Navy was transitioning from a Cold War mentality to a Persian Gulf mentality. I watched senior officers and enlisted men who spent entire careers preparing to fight the Russians try to switch mentalities to a Middle Eastern conflict. It was an interesting time.

If You Want To Win Me Over With An Unsolicited Sales Call...

...try pronouncing my name right, idiots.

Unsolicited sales calls bug the heck out of me anyway. I wish it were possible to outlaw them. So late this morning, I'm at work, and my phone rings. I don't recognize the number, but I answer anyway. My wife refuses to answer any number she doesn't recognize. I'll normally pick up the phone.

I hear some noise in the background. I say "Hello". More talking in the background. I say "Hello" again.

"Mr. Muller?" a stereotypical New York City accent asks me.

This sets me off immediately. I don't know a single person who EVER mispronounced Ferris Bueller's name. Put an "M" in front of it, and suddenly every idiot who gets my phone number can't pronounce it.

So, in a very annoyed voice, I say "It's Mueller!" Seriously, people, how hard is it? If I wanted to be Mr. Muller, I'd get the e dropped. If I wanted to be Mr. Maller, or Miller, I'd get it changed. But it seems like every buttplug idiot telemarketer is incapable of looking at the spelling of my name and getting it right. Seriously, how hard can it be?

So this New Yorker apologizes and tries to sell me a refinance on my mortgage.

Look, I don't work in sales for a lot of good reasons.

If YOU work in sales, seriously, the least thing you can do is TRY to correctly pronounce the name of the person you want to sell to. If you're not willing to do that much, then get a job cooking hamburgers or digging ditches or something.

You're not likely to get a sale if you've already got your prospective customer pissed off before you even confirm that you're talking to the right person.

Here's a VERY simple technique that you can use if you're actually serious about making a living in cold contact sales. Try this: "Good afternoon, Mr. (or Mrs., Ms, etc), I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude, but I'm unsure how to pronounce your name. How do you say it?" Then thank them, and start your sales pitch. I've never gotten angry with anybody who asked me how my name was pronounced (like it's that hard) rather than just plowing through it like a moron.

Is the "Open Door Policy" Really a Lie?

It seems like every manager I've ever worked for claims to have an "open door policy". They always introduce themselves that way. It's kind of like Dr. Kelso in the first episode of Scrubs. I've always been curious how many of them actually mean it. I don't mean direct supervisor. Most of them are forced to deal with you. I mean the levels above the direct supervisor.

Have you ever taken advantage of a manager who claimed to have the "open door policy"? Was he or she actually telling the truth, or was it a complete load of bovine fecal matter, equivalent to the Presidential candidate who says "I WILL NOT raise taxes"?

If you are a manager, do you claim the "open door policy"? Do you mean it?

What would be wrong with just being honest and saying "Leave me the heck alone! I'm not interested in your problems. If you bother me with a problem between you and your direct supervisor, you're fired"?

I'm just curious.

Update On Thursday

On Thursday night, I posted about how I was fired. It had never happened to me, and I'm still processing it. Fortunately, for the time being, fired in my case doesn't mean unemployed, although that is a possibility. As a contractor, I'm employed by another company. I was working embedded with my customer, and like I said, one of my tasks for some reason I never could produce at a level that met expectations. As I was the only person working on that task, I'm not sure how they expect not to fall behind while somebody else catches up since I was just starting to figure out what I was doing. I finally got the last few pieces in place, and in two or three weeks I would have been "there", but "there" was way past several deadlines. I had several other responsibilities, and it seemed like I was doing good work on those, but it wasn't enough. I guess I was assigned to that task because I'd done similar work in my previous job, but nowhere near at the level that was expected of me. I don't think anybody else on the team can do that work right off the line, so I'm not sure what they expect to do. I guess I hope getting rid of me solved all their problems. Other groups on that program contracted that kind of work out. We were the only group doing it in-house, and I'm not entirely convinced I was being supervised by people with much experience in that line of work. Like, they don't know what they don't know. It's in the past now.

I went into my parent company yesterday (Friday). I expected to be on overhead until somebody had time to review other listings and see what other positions I might fit in. I figured I'd go through the benefit information for open enrollment that I haven't gotten to because I'd been trying to meet yet another deadline on that task. Turns out a major project with a Monday deadline was underway, so when a team member saw me over there, he pulled me onto it. I at first protested, saying "I just got fired from my contract for my work on that kind of project", but they needed me enough. It turns out that I have the proper mentorship on this team, and within 2-3 hours I was off the ground. Why I didn't ask that group for help months ago will probably go down in my memoirs as one of my greatest mistakes. The project is big enough and the deadline close enough that I ended up with some overtime last night and permission to work on the project from home this weekend to get it finished up by Monday. Considering how close I could be to unemployed, I'm grateful for the overtime and the chance to redeem myself on this kind of work.

In the short term at least, things look good. I've seen my company go to great lengths for other people who ended up off their contracts. They may absorb some overheard on me for the short term, but if the project for Monday gets finished up, more work like that could come in and they might need me for that.

So, I screwed up pretty bad, but for now things look hopeful.

My Services Are No Longer Required

It happens to the best of us, and the worst of us too. I was told that my services are no longer required this afternoon. I'm off the contract.

How did it happen? I'm sure there's another side to the story. My analysis is that I was placed on a task that ended up being a little more difficult than I expected. I failed badly. I kept at it, and learned, and thought I was doing better, but somehow no matter how hard I worked, I could not meet expectations. I'm not entirely convinced that I was being directed by people with very much experience in this task. I was able to get help from people who had experience, but it was too late. Looking back, some of the direction I was given sent me in the wrong direction.

Somehow, rather than get somebody else on this task and put me on something I'm good at, I was allowed to spin my wheels on this task for months. I thought I was finally getting the hang of it. I put in a 12 hour day trying to finish up one part, then found out the next day that it wasn't good enough. I found out today that I was off the contract.

There is a good spot. Most contractors who are fired get fired while off site. I was politely fired in the conference room and was able to clean out my cubicle. I was able to get all my stuff out, as well as any files that I need for my own records. I also spent the time to clean up the dust. That cubicle was the dustiest place I've ever worked. I tried to leave it clean for the next occupant.

So what's next? I work for a really good company. They'll try to find another place to put me. They can't promise anything, but I've seen them go to great lengths for people in my situation. I'll go to my company's offices tomorrow and they'll try to find me something else.

In the meantime, if you're aware of anybody who needs an engineer or IT professional, let me know. Seriously people, you don't want me to have nothing else to do with my time but post to Twitter and Facebook.

I'm going to try to keep a good attitude. I could get caught up in whining and complaining, but I doubt it will help. I've never actually been fired before. I've gotten fed up with jobs and gotten new jobs, but I've NEVER been fired before. OK, once, I got fired from a paper route when I was 14. Some people report it's the best thing that's ever happened to them. No doubt, comfort zones are antithetical to success.

So, if you know of any opportunities (no, I'm not interested in network marketing type stuff) let me know.

Making A Difference: Are You An Owner?

Maurilio Amorim asked this question on his Making A Difference blog: Are You An Owner? The question doesn’t have to do with whether you own a business or the company that you work for, but with whether or not you take ownership. In whatever it is that you do to put money in the bank (and then spend it all), do you take ownership? Do you act like an owner or a worker?

I should be ashamed to say that I haven’t always behaved like an owner. I’ve usually been more of a worker. I show up, I do my job, and I go home. I’ve had times when I did my job as well as I could, and other times when I may have slacked off a little too much. Very rarely have I taken ownership, although the last few years I’ve been working on it.

Maurilio says:

This is not a legal distinction, but a psychological one. Interestingly, some business owners behave like managers or workers doing what's required of them and completely disconnecting from their jobs once the clock hits 5 p.m. Some hirelings whose heart and passion for their performance cause them operate more like owners. The more owners you have in your organization, the more successful you'll be, I'm convinced.

Do you take ownership for your job? In what ways do you take ownership? If you don’t take ownership, what is one thing you could do on your next workday to take ownership? If you actually own a business, or are self-employed, do you behave like an owner?

How To Become Patient

On Sunday I wrote about patience. If you read it (and thank you for being a reader if you did), maybe you were left wondering something like “Oh, you want me to become patient. That’s nice. How? Is this like Chevy Chase’s line in Caddyshack: ‘Be the ball, Danny. Be the ball’?”

No. Not exactly.

If patience is a discipline, then there should be some objective ways to practice patience, just as you would practice music, or regularly workout while getting in shape. Our patience, or lack of patience, can be broken down into habits and behaviors. We’ve learned these, and in most cases we can unlearn them while learning new habits and behaviors.

I have no idea how far any of us are capable of changing in the area of patience. Honestly, I don’t. But I bet that any of us are capable of at least a little bit of change.

The Benefits of Professional Membership?

The company that I work for pays for one professional membership. Last year, I attended a presentation about the American Society of Naval Engineers, and decided to join using that paid membership.

Yesterday, my department had an In Service day. We were all encouraged to attend. Many of us had a lot of work, but as our Department Head said "Your work will be waiting for you tomorrow."

I paid $10 for the catered lunch and ordered the Chicken Ceaser wrap. What I got wasn't a wrap; it was on a bun. It was decent, but I wonder how it was $10. That's beside the point. During lunch, a presentation about "The benefits of professional society membership" was to be given. I bet it was interesting, but I elected to carry my lunch back to my desk to check email and try to get a little bit of work done.

ABC News: Who Benefits from Keeping Salaries Secret?

ABC News has an interesting article/video about salary secrecy. I’d love to get a discussion going on this topic. They explore why companies keep salaries secret, and whether or not it would be a good idea to allow for salary transparency in the workplace.

ABC has a claim that salary secrecy allows for women to be underpaid. I know a lot of that has gone on. I have no idea if it still goes on at all. I don’t know if it’s some kind of conscious decision. Imagine a scene similar to a bad 70’s Christian movie. A bunch of evil looking men are sitting around a boardroom with cigars and brandy, and somebody says in an evil voice “Hey, why don’t we decide right now that any women we hire will automatically be paid 40% less than their male counterparts for the exact same experience and work!” to which the others reply in an evil laugh “Muuuw-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I’m sure it still happens though. I’m just saying that the thought process that leads to it eludes me.

Newsflash: Open-plan Offices Are Making Employees Sick

Well, it’s nice to have a scientific study to back up what we know intuitively. I like my company, I like my job, and I enjoy working on my team. My cubicle is the single-point of failure in my job satisfaction. To top it off, I’m apparently allergic to something in my office. I know there is a leaking pipe somewhere, so there could be mold. Whenever I’m at work, I’m sneezing my butt off and my nose is running like crazy. I have to bring tissues with me to meetings. How non-masculine is that? The funny thing is, I never even knew I had allergies until I moved to New Jersey. I work in Philadelphia, which is the same thing. New Jersey is little more than a suburb of either Philly or New York.

From the article:

"In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.

"The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.''

I can attest to all of it. I especially hate it when my wife decides that she wants to call and start an argument, because everybody hears it. I’ve been wanting to ask this for years, and this seems like a good time. Ladies, how often when you’re planning your day do you put on your to-do list “Call husband at work and start fight”?

It's taking all of my willpower not to quote the entire article. Here is part that I want to start posting all over this building:

"Based on these findings, I think employers around the country need to rethink the open-plan environment in their offices,'' he said.

"The research found that the traditional design was better - small, private closed offices.

"The problem is that employers are always looking for ways to cut costs, and using open-plan designs can save 20 per cent on construction.''

Technorati Tags: Cubicles,open-plan offices,job satisfaction

Advice Like This Frustrates Me

Ramit Sethi at the blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich is running a series about how to save $1000 in 30 days. Many of his tips are good and sound, but this one is impractical for many people, including me. The tip can be found here:

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/tip-24-cut-your-commute-expenses-by-40

Cutting commute expenses is an admirable goal. Ramit gives two tips, one is to carpool one day a week, and the other is to work from home. No doubt, both of these would save money. However, unlike his previous tip Go Cash Only for 15 to 30 days, this one is like saying “If you want to be a good stand up comedian, you have to be born with a talent for humor.” At the very least, that’s how advice like this sounds to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have somebody to ride to work with (there’s that darn $4 a day bridge toll in addition to gas), and I’d give quite a bit for the ability to work from home once in a while, but I hate to read advice that is impractical for most people mixed in with advice that is practical. Ramit includes an excerpt from Tim Ferris’ book, “The 4 Hour Work Week”  that includes a conversation about how to ask your boss to work from home. (NOTE: I have not read the book, but have included a link below if you’re interested in buying it). Obviously, this dialogue results in success. Here’s how it happens in my case:

Me: Do you have a minute?

Boss: Sure, what can I do for you?

Me: I’d like to be able to work from home.

Boss: No.

Me: Why not?

Boss: Because we need you here.

Me: I would happily come in for meetings. A lot of my work can easily be done on my work issued laptop with my work issued BlackBerry over our work implemented webmail.

Boss: No.

Me: Why not? I would be a heck of a lot more productive at home. Here I’m in the corner cubicle next to the conference room. I can’t concentrate because people are walking past my cubicle and looking in at me all day long because it’s a high traffic area. It’s unnerving. Because I’m near the door, people are constantly stopping to to talk as loud as they possibly can outside my cubicle. For some reason, everybody but me seems to get a good cell phone signal outside my cubicle, because that’s where they like to talk on their phones. I spend more time fuming and wishing they would realize that they’re being inconsiderate buttplugs than I do concentrating on any actual work. I could get so much more done if I could lock myself into my study at home.

Boss: No.

My: Why the heck not?

Boss: We have to be able to keep an eye on you.

Me: I’m a military veteran with a Bachelor’s degree and 16 year of professional experience. You’re also familiar with the quality of my work that I manage to produce in spite of this horribly located cubicle and a building full of people that I can’t describe without using words that I won’t use in front of my children. Why can’t you trust me to get my work done if you’re not walking past my cubicle, stopping and looking back at me all day long?

Boss: We just can’t.

And so it goes. I would like to note that “Boss” is not my direct supervisor, but a composition of my organization’s attitude toward concepts like working from home as well as a variety of conversations I’ve had with people about working from home. Obviously, I will admit that Ramit’s advice is sound. You can save a buttload of money on commuting costs by carpooling, even one day a week, and by working from home. However, all his advice today did was frustrate me by reminding me of the fact that I work in a cubicle for an organization that is still stuck in another time as far as a philosophy of employee productivity. The philosophy says that employees, even college degreed professionals, work best when crammed into cubicles and constantly scrutinized and constantly interrupted all day long by other employees with no concept that other people exist outside of their notice. Productivity and compensation are measured by hours present, not results produced.

I should also add that one short blog post cannot capture my entire perspective. There are obviously a lot of things about my job that I do like and there are people that I enjoy working with. This post is merely picking on the attitude about cubicles and whether or not experienced professionals with college degrees can be trusted to work without constant supervision in a fishbowl environment. And yes, the location of my cubicle is not something I enjoy, and I can’t move. I’ve asked. It’s called a “move of convenience” and is not allowed. I also have a workstation that is directly tied to my network jack and to my name, and moving that would apparently be too much work for somebody else even if I did the physical move and they just processed a piece of paper and changed a network setting on the domain.

Some Thanksgiving Career Counseling

I got this from Michael Hyatt's Twitter feed. I thought it was hilarious.

10 Reasons Gen Xers are Unhappy at Work

http://seanmichaellucas.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-reasons-gen-xers-are-unhappy-at-work.html

This was an interesting blog post, which came from a discussion on Harvard Business Review. At least, it could spark an interesting conversation. I’m considered to be a member of Generation X. I was born in 1974. My parents were Baby Boomers, from the early part of the generation. I’m reaching that point in my career where I don’t entirely have a lot of power, but I’ve built up more than 15 years of experience. I work mostly for Baby Boomers, and the Gen Y members of the workforce already have a few years of experience. I currently work with at least one person who was still in diapers when I started high school yet he is old enough to drink today. It’s an interesting position to be in.

Harvard Business Review makes some assertions that I don’t exactly agree with, but I’m only going to discuss this from my perspective rather than assume that all Gen X’ers see things my way. I do find myself frustrated as a member of Generation X working in a corporate type environment, but not simply because it’s a corporate environment. The original article states:

Many of you X’ers are not thrilled with corporate life. You tend not to trust institutions in general and deeply resent the Boomers’ confident assumptions that you will be motivated by the same things that Boomers have long cared about. Many of you have told me that you are planning to leave corporate life “soon” – to start entrepreneurial ventures or work for smaller companies – options you feel will suite you better than the corporate roles looming ahead.

Honestly, I don’t see it like that. I grew up in the Air Force, and served in the Navy, and I’ve been working around the Navy ever since. I’m honestly very comfortable with it. I don’t mind it one bit, and I’m mostly happy to continue my career in this direction. I’ll address two points that stood out to me, then put in my two cents:

2. When you were teens, X’ers witnessed adults in your lives being laid off from large corporations

I was in my class “C” technical school in San Diego in 1993 when IBM went through it’s historic layoff. That really shocked everybody. But to be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that an adult is an idiot to get into one job and expect it to last forever. I know that the WWII and Boomer generations were able for the most part to start working for one company and expect to retire from that company 40 or so years later. I’ve never been able to do that. I spent 6 years in the Navy, 1 year as an alarm installer, 5 years with one company, 3 with another, and I started with my current company this past March. I’m 34. In today’s work force, I realize that in most cases, the only way to move up is to move out. When I’m working for one company, I do the best job I can, but I realize that stagnation is my enemy. I always have to keep the next step in my career planned ahead. Today’s workforce is highly volatile, and I never know if I’ll get the axe. I haven’t had to worry about it, and I don’t expect to, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t plan for it just in case. I do the best I can, but I have to keep learning new skills to keep moving ahead. I’m honestly tired of having to keep moving from company to company, but I’ve come to expect it for the time being.

My dad’s career has been good to him. He served for 21 years in the Air Force, a few months in a pawn shop, then after getting his associates degree, he’s been working for the government. He hasn’t had to worry very much about job security. One thing I grew up watching my dad dealing with that I’m not about to is taking too much “crap” from his bosses. I guess my dad grew up and started working in an environment where you weren’t allowed to question authority. My dad was often under the influence of decisions that he disagreed with, but he would simply suck it up then take it out on us later when he gets home. I do my best to be diplomatic, but if I disagree with something or can think of a better way to do it, I will pipe up. I refuse to be complacent in that regard.

Back to job security, another point to keep in mind is that many markets are changing thanks to “globalization.” I don’t like it personally, especially since many policies coming from Congress and the executive branch seem designed to destroy our economy and move jobs overseas. Look into it. Like it or not though, it’s happening. People in manufacturing jobs are finding out left and right that those jobs just can’t compete against Communist Slave Labor in China.

8. Many X’ers’ are guarding a closely held secret: you’re not all as comfortable with the technology that is changing the way things are done as everyone seems to think you are. While it’s perfectly acceptable for Boomers to feign ignorance and ask for help, it’s embarrassing for X’ers to do so.

I don’t buy this one, but maybe I’m on the wrong end of Gen X. I’m not putting myself forth as a representative of the generation by anything more than my own experience, but I still don’t think this point widely applies to all of Gen X. I have an IT degree, for crying out loud. I’m perfectly comfortable with the technology that I work with. This is where I find myself running into problems in the workforce: it’s not me that’s uncomfortable with the technology, but I get highly frustrated dealing with people making policies about the technology who aren’t comfortable with it. Where I work, there are still a lot of Windows 2000 workstations. Windows XP workstations are just now starting to be widely deployed. Windows XP has been out since 2001, and although it will be supported until 2014, Windows Vista has been out for more than a year and a half and contrary to Apple’s “switcher” advertisements, is mature and stable. But the idiots making the policies need 20 years to be comfortable with the technology. By the time they deploy Vista, it will have been out of service for at least a year. One guy I work with told his company that he wanted a company cell phone because he was starting to use a lot of his personal minutes for the job while working on other sites. He was told to find a land line. Sumbitch, that’s cheap and narrow minded thinking for a technology company.

So to summarize, I don’t agree with most of the ten points, and I specifically don’t agree with these two. I don’t have a problem with Boomers (as long as they’re not setting technology policies) and I like the Gen Y people because I can talk tech with them.

Planes and Cars- Travel Woes

I went on travel this week. Perhaps you picked that up from my Twitter feed which at times became quite cynical as my frustrations grew and my time since awaking went longer. I went up to Maine for a meeting. The meeting went well enough, and I learned a lot, and I believe it was very fruitful. I even me some people that I dealt with in my last job. It was good to see them again.

The travel was another story, although in the end we met our objective, arriving home, 24 hours late. We started on a flight out of Philly. About the time we should be pulling away from the gate, the pilot came on the intercom. Apparently, the plane had been fueled twice, and had too much fuel and was overweight for takeoff, so fuel had to be taken out. That would take about a half hour. It finished within the estimate, and we pulled away from the gate and began taxiing. As we taxied, the plane pulled over and the pilot said that all of the fuel was taken out of one wing so one wing was full and the other empty so the plane had to transfer fuel, but had internal pumps. My piloting experience is limited to Cessnas and Pipers (about 12-16 hours total flight time), but I'm sure that like the small planes, the big ones have fuel gauges in the cockpit and the pilot is supposed to check these things before pulling away from the gate. Perhaps everybody involved was on his first day of work. I don't know. We eventually took off, and arrive in Portland, ME after our scheduled time. Most people book tickets for specific flights, especially during the workday, because they need to be somewhere by a certain time. Time is money, and incompetent pilots and fuel truck drivers could end up costing somebody money.
Our stay went well enough. The meeting was productive and we had a good time after work in downtown Portland.

Wednesday, we got to the airport around 4 PM for a 6:20 PM flight. We pulled up at the terminal and I got out to check the flight status. The monitor said "On Time," so we returned the rental car and checked in and got our boarding passes. We then entered the police state through the TSA checkpoint. We then holed up at the Shipyard brewpub with a beer. The other two guys broke out their laptops. I plugged my Pocket PC's cradle into one guy's laptop to top my battery off. The battery in my 6945 does kind of suck for serious business travel. We took turns checking on the flight. Everything from New York got canceled due to storms. We heard that our plane was on the ground in DC, but could not take off. Eventually, our flight was canceled. By this point, 8 people from our organization were at the airport waiting for that flight. It's "Parents' Week" at summer camps in Maine, so there is not a single hotel room or rental car available in the Portland area. The only hotel room we could find was over 50 miles away, but there was no way to get to that hotel or back to the airport. One guy broke out his cell phone and we all took turns rebooking on a 7:15 AM flight out of Boston while we worked on finding a way to Boston. Enterprise Rent a Car told one of my coworkers that they had two cars available so he reserved them, but when we called the local office for a pick up, they told us they had no cars as the email confirming the reservation dinged on his Motorola Q. By this point, we were hanging around the rental car counters looking at options. I took a few moments to chew out one of the workers. I said "This kind of thing happens every single year. You know it's coming, so why don't you have any plans to deal with it?" He suggested we take a 3 AM bus to Boston. Sure, great idea. At one point, I asked if we could find a copy of the classifieds. Perhaps somebody was selling a $500 beater that we could abandon in Boston.

We managed to find a limo service with a van that could drive us to Boston, so we booked rooms at the Renaissance hotel in Boston. We had no desire to stay at the Portland airport if we could help it. The van ride cost us $66 each, and it took 2 hours to get to Boston. We rolled into Boston at 11:30 PM, and decided that a 7:15 AM flight was a little too ambitious. We called US Airways to reschedule. The two guys I work with had unrestricted tickets, but because I'm a contractor to the organization and have to book my own travel, I didn't have that luxury. US Airways wanted me to either pay $700 to reschedule or I could buy a new ticket for $500. I'm not going to cry "poor" because I do have a corporate card and this is a reimbursable expense, but just because it's reimbursable does not mean this policy isn't bullcrap. I asked to speak to a supervisor.
By the time I got to speak to the supervisor, it was after midnight. Between the meeting and the travel time, I was already over 16 hours on my timecard and in no mood. I tried to plead my case to the supervisor, who in turn tried to explain to me that the other guys had unrestricted tickets and I had a restricted ticket. I cut her off and said "I understand what the small print says, but I'm not some silly teenager who overslept and is trying to plead for another flight. Your airline STRANDED me in Portland Maine where no hotel rooms or rental cars are available. I rebooked for 7:15 AM out of Boston and had to pay a lot of money to secure my own transportation to Boston. By now it's after midnight, and I'm not really in the mood to get up in three and a half hours to go back to the airport. Your airline put me in this, and you have the authority to make the change.This policy is bogus and is nothing more than a shell game..." At this point, the phone I was on died. This irony is that earlier in the day, I was complaining about the battery life on my phone and the guy who owned the Blackjack that died on me was bragging about how long his lasts. Ah, irony. I called back on my phone to find that like my coworkers, my flight had been adjusted to 11:30 and no charge was required. Sometimes yelling at a manager, especially when the policy is BS, does get things done. With that settled, one of our traveling companions bought us a round of beers at the hotel bar. I went up to bed in my room, which honestly was really nice.

Of course, the nice hotel was not without problems. I wanted to check email and my RSS feeds on my iPod Touch. I easily picked up a wireless network, but could not log on. I called the number and found out that you have to pay for wi-fi. Why do the most expensive hotels always nickel and dime you for little things? There were two tiny bottles of water in my room with a friendly note on them letting me know that upon drinking them, a $4 charge will be conveniently added to my bill. I kept checking the toilet paper for a similar notice.

I settled down into bed and could not sleep. I used my Pocket PC to read email on the 3" screen until I wound down enough to drift off somewhere after 2 AM.
My wife called and woke me up at 7:45. I had an alarm set for 8. I called her when I got to the hotel the night before, so I filled her in on my "conversation" with US Airways. My wife told me that the 7:15 flight was canceled, as was the 9:30. Even if I did get up at 4 AM I still would have been stuck at Logan. She suggested we get a car and drive. When I met with my companions to leave the hotel, I passed that along. We caught a cab to the airport and went through a LONG line at the TSA Checkpoint Charlie (East Berlin reference for those who forgot the cold war.) Our flight was listed on time. We got some breakfast. At 11 AM, I went to check on the status of our flight and realized that there was no plane at the gate. This was NOT a good sign, as our boarding passes CLEARLY stated that the flight would be boarding at 11. Not long after, we heard that the plane would be landing soon. The plan did land somewhere after 11:30 and we were told boarding would begin shortly. Shortly after that, an announcement was made that maintenance was called out to the plane because of a problem with the bleed air valve. If I remember correctly, the bleed air valve is what killed Payne Stewart in 2000, so the plane does kind of need that. We were told that there would be an hour delay. Then we were told the delay would be longer. At this point, we'd had it with US Airways, weather, and sitting around airports impotent to do anything. One of the guys called Hertz and procured a one-way rental to Philly. We left. The other guy checked a bag. Bad idea. I don't check. Even when my mom died, I only took what I could carry on the plane. The airport told him he couldn't get his bag back. He'd have to file a claim in Philly. The wouldn't let him file a claim at Logan. Throughout the afternoon, he kept calling US Airways about his bag, and was told something different each time. Finally, he found that his bag was in Philly and he could pick it up at baggage claim.

We picked up our car and started driving through the weather that was grounding flights left and right. As we left, the guy with the checked bag found out through his Q that our 11:30 flight was canceled. He checked again later and found that the 2:30 flight was canceled. We could have been sitting around the airport all day, but at least we were driving. We had some control over our destiny.

Of course, this trip wasn't as simple as driving home. We had to return the car at Philly, and two of us left our cars in long term. We picked up my car, I followed him to Hertz, then took him to get his car. I got home at about 9:10 last night. I was still at work at 6:30 this morning. I'm a real road warrior.

I got a funny text from my supervisor this morning. He was one of the guys with me on the trip. My company issued me a Verizon RAZR when I started, but because it's practically useless, I don't use it much. When I get home from work at night, I turn it off and throw it in my underwear drawer. I forgot to take it with me when I left on Monday. This morning, I took it out and turned it on to find that I had a new message. It was from my supervisor, dated this morning at 5:53 AM, saying that he was at a certain bar by our gate at the airport. I was a little groggy, and wondered "What the hell are you doing at the airport? Haven't you had enough at this point?" I figured out quickly that he sent the text when he got to the airport on Monday so we would know where to find him. Somehow the message was timestamped for when I got it rather than when it was actually sent. Great move, Verizon or Motorola. The Verizon RAZR sucks. It's good for making calls while I'm at work so I don't have to use my personal minutes, but other than that it doesn't DO anything. Verizon has it locked down so far it's pretty much useless outside of making calls.
Anyway, I'm back at work and I have to get ready for my next trip. I'm renting a car and driving for that one. I'm tempted to say I'll drive for any travel from now on, even if it's to Hawaii. Heh, heh, heh.

I might write a post later on about air travel. If you think about it, airports and airlines really aren't equipped, nor do they seem to care, when things go wrong during travel. We had quite a few discussions during our journey about the "Passenger's Bill of Rights" that went before Congress before being shot down. Stupid Congress. Of course, they get a lot more money from the airlines than they do from the people that the airlines screw on a daily basis. Of course they're going to protect the airlines. The airlines have no incentive to treat customers right, because if they screw up they'll get another taxpayer bailout.

Work Laptop

I was able to find a temporary laptop that I could work on. I work for one company as a contractor to another organization. I'm essentially an employee of that organization but my paycheck comes from the other company. My parent company has team meetings once a month. Let's just say I'm not the only contractor around, so they bring us together to keep in touch. Because of Friday's meeting, I found out about a meeting that I should have been at, but our group hadn't been invited. We will be in the future.
While I was at my parent company's offices, I stopped by the IT guy's cubicle to ask if I could borrow a temporary laptop. I needed something that would work with my Toshiba DynaDock, and the other temp solutions we have won't. I've been spoiled by a 19" flatscreen monitor. Besides. have you ever tried to translate dimensions on an Excel spreadsheet into a Visio drawing on a 1024x768 laptop screen? It turns out that he did have a loaner; a Toshiba with a Pentium-M. It's not my dual core AMD64 on my returned laptop, but so far it's getting the job done.

Technorati Tags: Laptop troubles,Work

Rain, Rain, Go Away, And Take the Traffic With You

Today was a long, long day. I was down in Norfolk for a meeting. We started yesterday afternoon and ended by wrapping up one last item this morning. I rented a car and drove down. After the butter knife fiasco last week at a Homeland Security checkpoint, I just wanted to drive. I decided to try Hotwire.com for this trip, and I booked a 3 star hotel in Portsmouth, VA. After paying for the room, I found out it was the Holiday Inn. It was nice, but next time I'll stay closer. I learned the "magic words" to get the hotel I want closer to our meeting location for a rate that my employer will reimburse. I'd never been to Portsmouth, but the drive over yesterday afternoon was nothing but painful. First, my GPS took me through Norfolk on a path that made me stop at every freaking traffic light on the way. Then I had to sit in traffic to cross a bridge and go through a tunnel. Then I didn't trust the GPS enough to make a turn where it looked like there was no turn, so I had to sit in more traffic waiting to go around the block and get back on track. It took an hour to drive 11 miles. Later in the evening, I met some of my coworkers at the Norfolk waterfront for a drink. Traffic was a little better then. I could see the Holiday Inn across the bay.

This morning was a repeat. I sat in traffic and took more than an hour to drive 11 miles again. Our meeting wrapped up early, and I started driving back to New Jersey around 10. It was raining in Norfolk, but I left it behind somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Then, about when I hit route 1 in Delaware, it started pouring. Traffic was holding at a steady clip, but the rain kept going for a long time. It kept up all the way to Cherry Hill where I dropped off the rental car and got my Kia Sedona back. It was raining so hard I forgot to take the GPS windshield mount out of the rental. I realized this while fighting my way home in 4 PM south Jersey traffic, only to have to head back out in 5 PM south Jersey traffic. My wife figured since we were heading out that way, we might as well swing by Trader Joe's in Marlton. I like the store, but like everything else in south Jersey, it's in a very bad spot and is a pain in the butt to get into and out of.

I only expected to die once during the trip. After getting back into New Jersey, I was heading up 295 and passing a truck. It was raining really bad, and the truck suddenly hit a huge puddle with it's left tires, and splashed water all over my car. I couldn't see a thing, not the truck, not the road, not even my windshield wipers. I just about freaked out, and put on the brakes, before realizing that I had no idea if there was somebody behind me or not. I'm glad there wasn't. I had to wait for a better patch of road to pass that truck. I had another car splash me farther down, but that car only had 2 tires on one side instead of 9 splashing me.

I'm back home, and about to go to bed in time for a new episode of Deadliest Catch.

Essential New System Software

Since I got my replacement work laptop, I'm doing some installation and cleanup to get it ready for my use. It's a Toshiba, so it's loaded chock full of crapware. Crapware is defined as software loaded onto your PC that you didn't ask for, nor did you want. Often, you really don't need it. Crapware can be anything from a 30 day trial of McAfee to the Yahoo! Toolbar. What do these idiotic toolbars do, anyway? As far as I can tell, nothing. The only toolbar I have ever really used is the Windows Live toolbar, because when I'm using IE7, it has a really good password manager. It's better even than Firefox, which is still my browser of choice despite serious instability issues and a memory leak.

In any case, I have a lot of crapware to uninstall from this laptop. I can do this with the help of free and highly useful products like the PC Decrapifier. It was originally designed for Dell computers, but has expanded to everybody else. The new version can delete the 60 day trial of Microsoft Office, which gets in the way of installing a real version of Microsoft Office.

Another essential product that I install on a new system is Spybot Search & Destroy. I honestly don't do much with it outside of immunizing my system in the beginning, but the Tea Timer utility that protects my registry is worth it's weight in gold. Nothing is able to change my registry, startup, or browser settings unless I say so. It gets a little annoying, especially when you try to run Quicktime, but I'd rather deal with the annoyances than having to clean out my Startup menu every day.

Recently, Sony tried charging a "crap tax", that is, when you buy a new computer, if you pay them extra, they won't install crapware on it. I believe that policy was reversed after much protest. Talk about mob business practices... That's like a car dealer saying charging you an extra $1000 on a new car to not rip you off with unneeded warranties or underbody spraying which is done in the factory anyway.

As I've been writing this, PC Decrapifier was running on my laptop. The new version did a stellar job. It couldn't uninstall McAfee, but I can do that manually. I also have to go back to uninstall Norton. Then I can get down to installing the programs I need.

Technorati Tags: New laptop,Crapware,uninstall

Travel

My current job requires a lot of travel. My wife is OK with it. However, as sort of a travel newbie, it seems to take me forever to get a trip booked. I have a disadvantage of being a contractor. My company gave me a corporate Visa and I'm told to take care of my own travel, and I will get paid back. No problem there. One thing I'm finding is that being a contractor puts me at sort of a disadvantage. The organization that I'm contracted to has it's own travel office, with different standards. I can only book a hotel within government per diem rates. In the location I'll be spending quite a bit of time at in the near future, I'm having a lot of trouble finding a decent business hotel within per diem rates. The last trip, I was able to get justification to stay at the Springhill Suites by Marriott. That was nice! Very nice, large room. It cost a lot more, but I was able to justify it as "directed by customer" so my company can bill for the increase and everybody is happy.
I'll be gone for a week coming up. I went to Hotels.com to find a room. Most of the hotels in that area that come back within my price range have terrible reviews. Some people say the hotel was great, others say it's dirty and smells like mold and has people yelling in the halls all night. I'm not going for that! For my week-long trip, I had a lot of trouble finding a hotel within my price range close to the meeting location, but I did find an oceanview suite 20 miles away. Well, I can turn my gas receipts in, so as long as traffic isn't too bad, I can deal with it. Since I have an oceanview suite, I'll just take my family with me. The location is within 5 to 6 hours of driving, so I'll just rent a car for the week on my corporate card.
I had to go back today to book a trip for one night. That same hotel was out of per diem for the time frame. Doh! I couldn't find anything on Hotels.com that sounded good for this trip. Last night, I saw a commercial for Hotwire.com. I decided to give it a shot. I found a 3 star hotel near my needed location for $79 a night. After I booked it, the room came up as a Holiday Inn. That is very nice! Maybe I'll use Hotwire again in the future. I've never quite had the guts to try Priceline.com, but maybe for my next trip I'll give it a shot.

Wasted Day Rant

Today seems like it was a total waste. I got nothing productive at all done. Nothing. Today was filled with frustration, futility, and shame.

 

First off, when I started my new job, I was told to go ahead and order a laptop. I was allowed to pick out what I wanted. I'm sick of being stuck with obsolete technology, so planning to be using this laptop for several years, I asked if Windows Vista was OK. I don't care what technology journalists and TWIT panelists say, I like Windows Vista. I think it's safe and secure and one hell of a graphical shell improvement over good old Windows XP.

 

In order to gain access to one of the networks I need, I have to get my laptop approved by the people on the network. I will say that I have a very hard time holding my mouth back when up against other IT people. I have an IT degree and have been playing around with computers as a hobby for more than a decade, although my experience led me into an engineering position. I hate running up against large IT bureaucracies, as I know that most of the rules and requirements that they have are nothing more than organizational preferences, most of which are BS policies. When I picked out my laptop, I asked if Vista was OK and I was told yes, so I went with Vista. (I wasn't told yes by these network people, whom I knew nothing about at the time.) I know that you XP Luddites are hoping that XP will last forever, but the truth is sooner or later, Microsoft will HAVE to stop supporting it and I'm planning for that. But, I was told that I can't get my laptop approved for network access unless I put XP on it. OK, I found a copy of XP, wiped the drive, did a base install, and dropped it off with the techs.

 

Then I had to deal with another issue. We're still trying to sell our home in a market that sucks really bad. I hadn't heard from my realtor in a while, and I left a message last night and another this morning. I broke down and called the brokerage manager. My realtor called back right away. She had sent me an email, but I don't have access to my gmail account at work now like I did on my last job. I did feel a little bit bad about having to escalate, but I had no way to know that she planned to call me later in the day. I still feel a little bit of shame, but not much. In order to get a signal, I had to go outside. I work in the approach path to Philly International, so while I was talking on my phone low flying jets passed overhead.

 

Then I got a call from the network people. My laptop didn't have network card drivers, so they couldn't do anything. I went to get it back. Go figure, since this laptop was designed for Windows Vista, nobody bothered to write XP drivers for any of the hardware in it. I spent an hour and a half trying to find them, but to be honest, if I wanted to work that hard to find drivers I would have installed Linux.

 

By then, the workday was over. I just wanted to drink myself stupid. Nobody from my group was around, so I can't even ask my supervisor what to do about my laptop until Monday. Oh, I can get my laptop on the network if I want to, but if I get caught there will be a lot of trouble for everybody. It's highly unlikely that I will be caught; I've had the laptop on that network with Vista already. I know a workaround, but I don't want to cause trouble. However, stupid Luddite policies like that one are just begging a geek with my skills and lack of patience to use a workaround. Seriously, this network JUST started supporting Window XP THIS YEAR! Windows Vista has been out for more than a year now, XP has been out for more than seven.

 

I need to get a job in the group that makes these policies. Anyway, this day was a waste, I got nothing done, I feel a little ashamed at calling my realtor's brokerage manager to get her attention, and this ranting blog entry is the only thing I have to show for this entire day.

 

Oh, well. My birthday is Monday. My dad might be willing to get me an iPod Touch, so I might call and ask if I just buy it myself can he send the money. Maybe I'll have an iPod Touch to show for today. That would be nice. That or at least a six pack of Yeungling.

 

Actually, there was one good thing this workday. We had a team meeting early. It was my first one, and I met some new people.

 

Technorati Tags: Wasted day,Luddite network policy,Windows Vista,Windows XP,Realtors

Labels: Work

How Dangerous is Your Commute?

Recent construction on Route 42 in New Jersey has added an "express lane" to the southbound lanes. After an occurrence yesterday, I am close to figuring out how to contact the commission in charge of planning this travesty and asking them to remove the express lane before somebody gets killed (like me.)

 

I was driving home like normal, heading southbound on Rt. 42 and approaching the express lane. Like any highway configuration in south Jersey, the 42/I-676/I-295 interchange cannot be described but in words that are not suitable for a family blog. Idiotic might be an understatement. After crossing from Pennsylvania on the Walt Whitman Bridge, Rt. 42 is met by lanes from Rt. 130 and I-676. As the route progresses toward I-295, drivers really need to plan ahead. The exit for I-295 south is the left hand lane of Rt. 42, and traffic headed for I-295 north needs to get in the right hand lane of Rt.42. The express lane starts just before the I-295 south exit, so the two left lanes are split off from the rest of the highway by a cement divider. I assume that the purpose for the express lane is to save drivers a few seconds of driving by not having to worry about drivers who are not capable of reading road signs and planning ahead by getting in the proper exit lane ahead of time. I have already been stuck in traffic backed up to the I-95 exit to the Walt Whitman Bridge because somebody plowed into the safety rail before the cement divider for the express lane.

 

Yesterday, as I was approaching the express lane, I saw a Dodge Caravan style mini-van jam the brakes on right in the middle of the highway just at the express lane. As I realized that they weren't joking or slowing down for some perceived traffic impediment, I hit my brakes hard lest I plow into them. I saw a large Ford pickup truck jam it's brakes in my rearview mirror. The minivan in front of me came to a complete stop as cars began flying around the Ford behind me until the lane I was in started having to stop. I hit my horn twice "beep, beep" as a little "Uhm, can we start moving? Stopping in the middle of a highway, especially in New Jersey, is like very dangerous or something." Then the minivan's backup lights came on and the van started backing up almost right into me. Apparently the driver couldn't read the road signs for the past two or so miles and came to a complete stop with the front of his or her car past the guardrail, making it impossible to change lanes. Now the driver was backing up apparently in the hopes of backing up far enough to somehow get over a lane with oncoming traffic to make whatever exit he or she needed. As I saw the van's bumper approaching the front of my Sedona, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore. I NEVER use my horn, but in this case I placed my fist on the horn and held it down until I saw the minivan stop and the backup lights go off.

 

Now that the driver had nowhere to go, you might expect forward motion, but this driver sat for several more seconds. I was about to roll down my window and scream something like "If you're too stupid to read road signs, get off at the next exit and turn around!" It was the most charitable thing I could think of to say at that moment. Finally, the minivan started moving forward, so I could and the traffic now stopped behind me could as well. As soon as we cleared the express lanes, I changed lanes and flew around that minivan. I always wonder, is it smarter to have a clueless driver in front of you where you can see them, or behind you so you can get away from them?

 

If anybody from whatever commision that is in charge of the Route 42 construction is reading this, please get rid of that express lane before you kill somebody!

 

Technorati Tags: Route 42,afternoon commute,driving hazards,stupid highway construction

Labels: Work

Brief Update

I'm sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth again. I got a new job. I had been wanting to write about some of my experiences during my job hunt, but on the off chance that somebody from my previous job read this blog, I figured I would keep my mouth shut.

 

I didn't leave out of bitterness, or hard feelings. Not many, anyway. I worked with some fine people in a very laid back office. I'd never experienced the freedom to set my own schedule and manage my responsibilities as I did on that job. I had it very good there. But, I worked in a field office with one contract to support one customer and the contract was winding down. Many of the people in that office were at the end of their respective careers, and expected to retire when the contract ended in a few years. I still have at least 30 years left in the workforce by conventional wisdom, so that luxury escaped me. I was also itching for more responsibilities (and more money) and there was no room to advance in that organization. I put my resume on Careerbuilder to see what would happen. I'll probably try to write up a more detailed post later.

 

I still work in the same industry, but on an entirely different project. I'm also an engineer now. I'm an engineer in an engineering company, which is like being a pilot in the Air Force. It's wonderful being what your organization is purposed to do. I also changed states. I now work in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My commute is only a few miles longer than my previous commute, but I now have to contend with Route 42 rather than Interstate 295. I'm finding 42 to have plenty of challenges. Oh, yeah, there's also that pesky bridge toll every day. It's free to enter New Jersey, but there's no way out without paying for it.

 

As I said, I'll try to put up more details later. I just wanted to make this blog active again. I get about 10-20 hits per day. It took years to build that kind of traffic.

 

Technorati Tags: Careers,Job search,Engineering,Changing Jobs

Labels: Work

Career Advancement- Move up or move out?

Have you ever reached a point in a job where you feel that you've done about all that you can and it's time to either move up or move on? Have you ever found yourself in a position for which there really is no place to move up to, so you're left with the obvious conclusion that you have to move on?

 

A year ago, I wrote a post on this blog regarding my annual performance review. This past week, I had my performance review for 2007. It went about the same. Everybody got a 3. Period. When I got my Bachelor's degree, I asked my manager to see if the company would do something for me. The company's official response is "We hired you to do this job. A Bachelor's degree in IT has nothing to do with this job." Honestly, I don't believe they bothered to look at the curriculum that I took. In any case, that pretty much defines my new short-term goals for me.

 

I've had two jobs in the last nine years. On both interviews, I asked if the company had a healthy "promote from within" policy. I asked if the company was a suitable environment to plan for a long term career. It turns out that I was asking the wrong question. I should have asked "Does THIS position have a logical and reasonable career path?" Obviously, they'll tell me that they like to promote people from within, but I tend to end up in dead end positions anyway. I'm getting tired of that. Most companies seem to think a career is one of two things: find one job and do it for 40 years, or find a new job every 3-5 years. I'm not happy with either option. I would love to find a company within which I can expect to grow and rise. I'm tired of having to start over with a zero vacation balance, and I'm tired of having to make sure my family's doctors take the new insurance.

 

It's not that I haven't tried to stay with this company. I have tried very hard. A friend of mine works for the government in Washington D.C. He had a contract with my current company and a couple of Systems Analyst positions opened up. He submitted my resume to the program manager and things looked really good for me. I was obviously qualified for the position but one thing got in the way: for some reason, this program manager was TOO BUSY TO HIRE SOMEBODY FOR AN OPEN POSITION. My friend, as the customer, was demanding that somebody be hired because the open position was affecting his operations, but this guy was too busy. I kept being told that they were interested in me, but I never got a call. Eventually, the position was filled by another contractor. In the meantime, my personal requirements have changed to the point where I need to stay in south Jersey, as painful as that admission might be.

 

I've tried to move within my current organization. In 2006, an employee of another company that works on the same task as I do left. I applied for his position. I was told that it would be a conflict of interest to hire me to another company within the task, but I could help out. My company has several people on that effort. I ran into a problem though: that effort works in another office, on another network. There was no desk available for me, my company would not buy me another computer to use in that office even if there was a desk, and I couldn't get VPN access to the network to access from my current cubicle. I had a lot of fun helping out and I got an award for my help with a cash incentive, but after that I gave up. I could only help with testing but could do little with the documentation and preparation that led up to testing because I can't get on the network and carrying files back and forth an a USB stick was highly inefficient. I eventually gave up even though I really enjoyed that work and would love to have moved over to that task.

 

I tried last year to move to our Systems Engineering group. I talked to the manager in September while I was finishing my final class at the University of Phoenix. I was told once again that he was very interested in me, and would check with our Department Head and my current supervisor and would get back to me by the 1st of November. It is currently February 15, and I haven't heard anything. I see him in passing. Another guy from my group has been moved over there, but I haven't even been given the courtesy of "no". I think something is seriously wrong with a company when a manager is too darn busy to hire people, but I also see this as a serious lack of integrity and professionalism. When a manager-level employee says "I will get back to you by a certain date," should you not be able to depend on a response by that date?

 

What is all of this leading up to? Well, let's just say I'm waiting for a phone call. I've been in this position for more than three years. I've done all I can. Obviously, there is always something to learn, but for the most part I'm ready to move up or move on. I doubt anyone from my current company reads this blog, but I'll leave things vague. Let's just say that I'm waiting for a phone call from somebody who is both interested in my experience and has enough integrity to "get back by". I have also come to the conclusion that just like my previous company, when I asked this one during my job interview if they have a healthy career program, they lied to me when they said yes. I used to joke when I was in the Navy that my Navy recruiter never lied to me. I said that he left out a lot of details, but never lied to me. In this case, I'm starting to think I've been lied to. I've tried in three ways to make a career move within my company, and hit a brick wall all three times. I work in a wonderful office with wonderful people, and I truly appreciate the freedom and flexibility I've enjoyed in this position. I am able to set my own schedule. When my son Caleb stuck his hand in the car door as it was closing and I had to meet my wife in the emergency room, I literally just got up and walked out. I came back a couple of hours later and worked late that night. I didn't tell anybody and nobody asked. That kind of flexibility is priceless, but when job satisfaction isn't very high and there is NO POSSIBILITY OF ADVANCEMENT, that kind of flexibility doesn't go very far. It definitely doesn't pay the student loans for the degree that apparently has nothing to do with the position. Looking back, I took this position based on two very short term immediate goals. I needed to:

 

   
1. Make enough money to allow my wife to stay home and raise the children

 

and

 

   
1. Get out of my previous organization as quickly as possible.

 

I also hoped to move into a position from which I could expect a long and fruitful career, but the entire subject of this post is why this position did not meet that goal. It did meet the other two though.

 

Someday I may write about my previous organization and the turns that were taken that led to my decision to leave. I was hired in 1999 for what was originally a fun and fascinating technical job that over the course of 5 years changed to the point of being intolerable. A coworker of mine took a job in Iraq to get out of there. I'll leave the story hanging there for now.

 

Technorati Tags: Career,Job search

 

Labels: Goals, Leadership and Discipleship, Work

How Much Professional Experience do YOU Have With Linux?

That question was presented to me recently. At first I was at a loss for a proper answer. What would you do if a potential job hung in the balance of your ability to answer that question?

Professionally, I worked with Unix for about five years on my previous job. My current job requires nothing more than Windows XP Pro. I have worked with Linux off and on as a hobby for about eight or nine years. Each time I pick up Linux, hack around for a while, then find a blinding limitation and drop it until next time. Currently my biggest problem with Linux is the lack of native support for the Broadcom BCM4318 wi-fi chipset, one of the most common in use today. As time goes on, I invest more time and money in applications for Microsoft Windows, which makes it harder for me to use Linux for anything BUT a hobby. Until Wine/Crossover Office get easier to use and support more Windows applications, I'm pretty much going to stay with Windows.

In any case, here is how I handled the question regarding my lack of professional experience with Linux:

"In my previous job, I worked with Unix on a daily basis for more than five years. My current job rarely requires the use of Unix, but I do occasionally play with Linux as a hobby, which I have been doing for almost a decade. Unfortunately, in my industry, it is very hard to work professionally with Linux, as my industry requires professionally developed and supported systems for mission-critical applications. Although some people tell me that Linux and Unix are entirely different, that has not been my experience and I believe I am able to move between the two easily."

I believe that answer satisfied the question. Feel free to use it if you need to, although substitute your own experience, as you can't use mine :-p .

Technorati tags: Professional experience with linux, interviews

 

Labels: Linux

Military.com- 6 Interview Questions You Should Ask

Military.com runs a lot of good career articles for veterans and soon-to-be-veterans. I opened a Firefox tab to one a few weeks ago and just got around to reading it. I think this is wonderful advice.

Though there are many reasons why you might be looking for a job, considering my lack of journalistic training and desire to keep this post short, I will summarize them in two points:

• You're not currently employed, you're out of money, starving, your car is almost out of gas, and you may soon be forced to cut back to basic cable (a fate worse than death).

or

• You currently have a job but you're considering changing jobs for better pay, more responsibility, career advancement, or any other reason but you do have a job with a paycheck that for all purposes will continue if you choose to stay in it.

If you fall into the first category, you're not going to be very picky. You may be willing to take just about any job as long as it pays and you will tell the interviewer whatever he or she wants to hear to get that job. I honestly don't blame you, and I have been in that position myself. It's not pretty.

If you fall into the latter category, you have a little bit more leeway and freedom to be selective in choosing a new job. Even if you're not happy in your current job, you still have a job and you don't want to end up in another unhappy job if you can help it. That is where this article about 6 Interview Questions You Should Ask comes in.

I've always believed that it's healthy during a job interview to express a little bit of interest in the company and your potential future there. Joel Spolski talks about allowing job candidates to interview him. I normally try to at least look up a few brief facts about the company just to show that I care enough. You spend time explaining to them why they would want to hire you, so it's only fair for them to give you a chance to show why you would want to work for them. That doesn't mean a company won't lie to you. On both this job and my previous job, I asked if there was any kind of career path only to find out that their answer was BS and the only real way to move up is to move out. I think on my next interview, I will follow the advice in this article and ask my interview about his or her career with the company.

I expect to complete my IT degree in the next two or three months and I am giving a lot of consideration to floating resumes to see what turns up (no headhunters please!)

Technorati tags: Career Path, Job Interview

Labels: Misc comments

Where Have All The Careers Gone?

About two weeks ago, during a really bad rainstorm, our program manager came over the office intercom in a somber voice asking if everybody could come to the conference room in five minutes. He said that he had something important to put out.

My first thought was: who died? Bad rainstorm, something could have happened to somebody on the way to work, either in our office or our customer or the other company on our contract. We work in a large community. Or, could we be going through a layoff? All kinds of really bad images went through my mind that morning as I headed for the conference room.

The news was much, much better than I expected. What happened was a company Vice President resigned suddenly and unexpectedly. I barely knew the man, but during visits to our office, he always brought lunch and was very likable. He answered questions honestly and openly. Apparently, he had a dramatic influence on our program manager and department head, as well as other people who have been with this company for a while.

I've been out of work for three workdays dealing with a home improvement project that went wrong, but when I got back in today I discovered an email from somebody around the Vice President level explaining that many of them frequent meetings with people from other companies and they often get job offers from each other. That caused something to occur to me.

In my experience, modern companies really don't provide a way to advance. You get hired to do a job, but there is no career path. Normally, when a management position opens up, companies go out of the way to hire somebody from outside to fill that position. I'm sure the same problem is faced at the Vice President level. After working with a company for a few years (or many years), you may feel ready to take on more responsibility or power, and certainly you want to make more money. A 3% pay increase every year does not keep you current with the new people a company hires at a higher pay rate.

On my previous job, when our first son was born, I realized that the only way to make more money was to leave. That organization would not work with me in any way. When I turned in my two week notice and was asked what my new salary would be, I learned that they could not match the salary. I left. On my current job, once again, there really is no place to go. I like this organization, but the day will eventually come when I will want more responsibility and a 3-4% raise each year is just not keeping up with the cost of living. I will eventually have to leave.

There was a time when a man (or woman) could begin a job with a company while young, and work for that company all the way to retirement. There was somewhat of a career path, and by retirement that person could have moved up to at least mid level management.

I wonder if companies will ever again provide a career path for employees. There really is no career development either. I hate job searching. I would love to know that my company was interested in helping me progress in my career. I guess this is not to be. From what I've managed to piece together, this company doesn't have a career development program or career path for VPs either. Just as at my level, the only way to move up is to move out.

 

Technorati tags: Career, Career Path, Career Development, Advancement

Labels: Leadership and Discipleship, Misc comments

When Your Actions Could Affect Somebody's Career, Please Pay Attention To Detail

I walked into work this morning to find a situation that was less than pleasant. An email had been sent to me on Friday from somebody in a corporate finance office stating that I had a past due balance on my corporate American Express. The email stated that the charges appeared to be personal in nature and no expense report was filed, and my account was being closed because a fairly high balance was more than 100 days past due. Ethics was cc'ed on the email, as well as some people so far up in the chain of command that it is likely I will never meet them.

My first action was to reply to all with a statement that there must be a mistake or fraud on my account. I have not used my Amex since a trip I took last November and that bill was paid. I have seen no statements since that time. I also asked if it was corporate policy to notify Ethics without even contacting the person first. If my card were that far past due, couldn't this person have, like, called me first? Why do we even have a Global Address Book if we don't use it?

I also called the person and left a message. I like to get in early, and this person is on the "other" coast and would not be in the office for several hours. I did send the email, however, so there was a paper trail with the higher ups who had been involved by this person.

My next step was to notify my program manager. It turns out that my "chain of command" up to him is out today, and I wanted somebody in my immediate leadership to know about this issue. His advice was to call American Express, who said that my account doesn't have a balance and is currently active.

I looked more closely at this person's signature file. He apparently works for another branch of the company. I realized that I would probably have been notified by somebody within my own branch of the company if it were my account. I know there is a person in the same area as the person who emailed me with the same name as me, at least first and last, in fact with the exception of my middle initial, our corporate email addresses are identical and the area code of our phone numbers is very similar.

I opened the original email and did another reply to all with the update that my Amex account appears to be fine and I asked if this person is sure that he has contacted the right person.

When I was in Recruit Training (otherwise known as Boot Camp), our Company Commander tried to beat into our heads "Attention To Detail!" When you're dealing with other people's careers and financials, please pay attention to detail. Mistakes do happen, but as they say, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. To "almost" get the right person for a corporate finance matter is far off the mark. I can't tell you how much paperwork I have had screwed up in the past, how much financial strain I've been put under, and how many opportunities I've missed out on because somebody "almost" did their job. Patients die in hospitals when doctors and caregivers "almost" do their jobs. Computer programs are buggy  when programmers "almost" do their job. Safety features on all kind of products fail when people "almost" do their jobs. Get the point? Almost doesn't cut it.

Labels: Misc comments