So my co-worker put in her two weeks’ notice and moved on to greener pastures. Good for her. Though she was good at her job, she could be so bloody profane and abusive and has a hair-trigger temper, that it’s actually kind of a relief.
Except…she did this a couple of weeks before I leave for a long-planned, mostly paid-for European vacation. She was my backup here when I’m away. I’m still going, the company owes me a lot of days, and the philosophy has always been “we managed before you got here, we’ll manage when you’re gone.” So my immediate manager is going to sit at my desk for the eight work days I’m away. Which is filling me with dread because I imagine coming back in a few weeks to be greeted with “Now that I’ve gotten a look under the hood, I’ve decide to totally change around how you do your job.” Similar stuff has happened in the past.
When my last co-worker quit back in 2019 (it was her third “stress leave” but this one turned into short-term then long-term, then she never came back), I took one day off over the next six months, out of a ridiculous sense of responsibility. I’m just wired like that. I didn’t have anyplace I particularly needed to be, and I suck at staycations, so it wasn’t the end of the world. But I need this one. I’ve also got a four-day weekend booked in early December, I need that septum surgery in the new year, and oh yeah, my dad’s dementia and other health issues have progressed to the point that I’ll inevitably have to take some leave to travel and deal with family out of town. I won’t be able to work for the next six months without a break, and I wouldn’t do it again.
I’m pissed that my recently-departed co-worker chose this particular month to leave with virtually no warning, resulting in not only all this vacation chaos but also a bunch of her duties getting dumped in my lap for the time being. My company, of course, is thinking about making a job posting for her now-vacant position, but needs to kick around some ideas for redefinining the scope of the position first…
Easy to say, hard to do: Leave work in the States. Hopefully you’ve got enough fun/fulfilling stuff planned (even if it is sitting on a Mediterranean beach) to keep your mind of off work troubles. First few days are the hardest.
I have never had this problem. If I’m on vacation, fuck work. That’s Future Maus’ problem. I still think fondly of about twenty some odd years ago, Getting back on the beach after some choice waves, cracking open a bottle of cold beer, seeing my pager go off, and thinking, “Not my problem.”
Well, leaving it in Canada. I pack a lot of living into my trips: I hit a city and cram in every bus tour, museum, concert (if possible) and landmark that I can, then move on to the next city. And when I’m in London, I’m spending four straight days going to West End shows. I don’t have the kind of brain that can shut off, sadly…I’ll worry about what kind of mess will be waiting for me no matter what.
My elderly folks also called me yesterday to say they have to sell their house. Also just found that my company is getting new owners. Big meeting in half an hour to fill us in. As if I didn’t have enough on my mind…reaching the breaking point.
Nearly 20 years with this company, and I get passed over for a promotion. No real surprise, knowing the culture of this company, but what makes it genuniely insulting is that they’ve hired a guy for this position who was ‘let go’ several years ago after failing a drug test (and generally failing to do his job, based on my interations with him).
New job found , offer signed and resignation in.
I was looking due to the ever ongoing corporate reorganization, more silos and more initiatives to understand why we are inefficient, and currently they are burning the furniture just to make this years numbers good for Wall Street , so next year is beyond fucked. ( products can have 6-9 month lead times so not buying inventory this year for balance sheet sale will make selling stuff next year a tiny teeny bit difficult, but apparently we just need to do more with less and think of some super initiatives to solve that problem because PowerPoint slides are an excellent material substitution for 140ksi 718 nickel alloy ). I won’t get into the product development and engineering process.
Fortunately a job came up in a place we lived in before and wanted to move back there, out of oil and gas , and for a company that realized ‘corporate silo hell’ was what caused them a bunch of problems and were reorganizing and changing direction, so it was a no brainer.
I really like my team, my peers, what our products were, and my boss, but the enjoyment was sucked dry by just too much stupidity. I guess I could have had a rant at my boss , but he is a stand up chap, and also knew the issues so I just left it ‘ lifestyle and industry change’
2 weeks to go and I can’t tell my team or others as we sort out who/ where they will report into and all that.
Anyway bit of a non rant because hopefully I won’t have to anymore, and if I do in the new job that will be my own fault.
Someone wants me to generate a pull request to add a single + to a file (he has = where it should be +=). So I have to fork the whole repository, edit the file, make a new branch, and create the pull request. It’s your software, just fix it! Perhaps the changelog should be “Makefiles are hard.”
By the time I’ve gone to all of that trouble, I may as well just build it from my own fixed sources.
Only took a bit over a week for my new supervisor to ask me how to do something.
And today new desk phones were distributed, so all afternoon I was treated to the loud booooooooooonnnngggg that now plays before an intercom message. I think it may also play through the speakers on the phones?
It’s an oddly liberating feeling, being that close to retirement (I’m 65 and a bit). If they lay me off… oh darn. On the other hand, if I CAN keep working another year or so, it’ll be that much more money saved / less retirement savings used.
There’s three of us nearing retirement in my tiny department. They will be so screwed, and they aren’t doing anything to offset the loss of expertise. Oh, well!
Oh, yeah! Apparently, it’s Quantum Mechanics to a lot of people.
I hope aliens, if they are studying our behavior, aren’t watching our behavior at 4-way stops. They may decided to cleanse the planet and seed it with a species that has a brain.
Heh. We lost one of our little group of seven in July to an unexpected retirement. For reasons related to administrative issues, they weren’t cleared to be replaced until this month. That process is currently ongoing. Meanwhile me and another of my co-workers are going in the next several months. Three down out of seven to replace over the next few months, combined experience of 109 years in a place notorious for requiring some seat time to get comfortable.
Will upper management bring anyone in before-hand to shadow retirees before they go out? They will not. My immediate boss is dreading the next year, poor bastard .
I was late to work this week because of seemingly random construction that’s being done on a major highway (a FUTURE INTERSTATE, according to the signs posted along this stretch a few years ago). I mentioned this to the front desk receptionist, and she immediately started ranting about the local roundabouts. The roundabouts had fuck-all to do with my lateness, but this coworker never misses a chance to complain about all the new roundabouts that have been installed near the workplace. It grows very old.
Along the same lines, I have another coworker who will rant about electric cars with no provocation. I don’t own an electric car, but I’m starting to suspect she thinks one of mine is electric because of the color (blue). I can sort of see where she might be confused, since this manufacturer has a special blue trim for its hybrid electrics, but…it’s blue paint. On what - to my eyes, at least - is clearly an ICE vehicle.
.
The roundabouts had fuck-all to do with my lateness, but this coworker never misses a chance to complain about all the new roundabouts that have been installed near the workplace. It grows very old.