Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Long day at work

Just got home. I hate, hate, HATE it when critical infrastructure goes down and you're the only one who knows how to fix it...

-- Badtux the Tired Penguin

10 comments:

  1. b b b but that's why you make those huge bucks

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  2. I agree with One Fly, that's why they pay you the Big Bucks. I mean a guy that owns a Jeep has to be rich, right?
    Of course, being the only one with the knowledge to fix something at work gives you a 50 - 50 chance on keeping a job during a RIF (Reduction In Force), plus it's nice to be needed by somebody. LOL

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  3. I once had the black humor version of that type of job.

    I had a V.P. believing I was the only person on Earth capable of creating her PowerPoint presentations, or even editing them. There were times I had to drop everything and go to her office to drag slides around in the sorter, or make simple text edits.

    The woman had a full-time admin.

    I had complete job security because of the tiniest, shittiest sliver of my knowledge, and not because I saved the company six figures a year in advertising costs.

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  4. One Fly, uhm, no. I make the big bucks for my engineering knowledge, not for my IT knowledge. For some reason Silicon Valley doesn't think they need good IT guys, so they won't pay IT guys what they pay engineers. The problem with IT is that you work on the schedule of the broken equipment, not on your own schedule. IT people can't even really take vacations, because the cell phone starts ringing if they're at the beach or something, "the network's down and nobody can do any work, help!".

    Dave, I'm pretty much RIF-proof at the moment, their entire new product line doesn't happen without me.

    Nangleator, I'm not surprised. The "perfect efficiency" of the "free market" is as mythical as Santa Claus. Crazy, eh?

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  5. I get stuck doing crap that I shouldn't and don't want to do. I just had a go around with my boss about a handicapped parking spot where some things are encroaching a bit. Never been a handicapped vehicle or person in 12 years drive in here or let alone unload anything. Ther eis plenty of room to unload and park and in addition about 6000' of other area to uload anything they want. I;m so sick of the dumb ass ! Two months to go and no more.

    Time for a major raise there penguin.

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  6. I'm pretty much RIF-proof at the moment, their entire new product line doesn't happen without me.

    You've been there - what - a few months? What the hell did they do before you showed up?

    Cheers!
    JzB the gone Galt trombonist

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  7. Clearly, and good on ya, Penguins are not an endangered species.

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  8. JzB, it's been 8 1/2 months now. As for what they did before I arrived, it wasn't the new product line :).

    MandT, nope, penguins aren't an endangered species. They're rather in demand, actually, especially penguins who know where all the herrings are buried ;).

    - Badtux the Busy Penguin

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  9. I once worked for a startup that struggled, and in one of their late RIFs had to get rid of their IT guy (and me and a lot of other people). But they still had Good Ole Bob, a system engineer who had a lot of IT skills. Money came and went; the companybankrupted, the technology was bought; the buying company was bought; every time there was a new crisis, they laid off IT, because there was always Good Ole Bob.

    I connected with Good Ole Bob on Linkedin the other day. I couldn't help but notice that, although the company is finally doing well, Bob's moved on. :-)

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  10. One definition of 'critical' :

    There only being one guy who knows the product in depth and he ain't teachin' nobody :-(

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