This is not the time to criticize my performance

The BBQ Pit
1

Microsoft BizTalk Server, version 1. The words “Microsoft” and “version 1” tell you all you need to know. Clunky, complex, counter-intuitive, loaded with wizards whose sole purpose seems to be to conceal vital information. And I have a job to do with it.

Fine. I’ve been on a two-day training course. And I have two thick folders, a thick textbook, and a stack of CDs; the answers I need are all in there. Somewhere. Probably.

But it’s slow going. And my immediate boss, who swallowed all the MS glurge about how BizTalk was easy to use and generally the best thing since sex, is not happy with me. “Steve,” he says, “you’re a senior developer, I expect you to solve these problems, we need results now, yadda yadda yadda”.

Well, fair enough. After all, my problem solving expertise is what they pay me for… hang on a moment…

They’re not paying me.

Yes indeedy. “Cash flow problems” have led to a freeze on unnecessary expenditure like, well, salaries. Purely temporary, I’m told. Will be sorted out by the end of this month. Possibly. As Norman Lamont once said, it’s just a blip in the economy.

But until it’s sorted out, I’m working here for nothing. And it seems to me that not paying me, and then expecting me to wave a magic wand over BizTalk Server and get it to configure itself, is just pushing it a little bit too far…

Hmm, what’s this? A floppy with some documents on it…? Ooops! I seem to have accidentally right-clicked on this on this one called “Curriculum vitae”, and inadvertently emailed it to several dozen recruitment agencies! I do hope nothing untoward happens as a result of this nasty accident…

2

Dude, you better be working in a hospital for infant nuns and puppy dogs.

Otherwise, what the FUCK are you thinking? You have marketable skills. Get the hell out of there! If nothing else, you’ll be able to sleep in.

3

Don’t worry, in the current economic environment nothing will except you’ll get spammed.

Hmmm, must be spending too much time lately on the very cynical fucked company message boards…

4

Flymaster: no, no infant nuns. Though my colleagues include a number of sick puppies…

SirRay: no, it’s not a good time for us techies, is it? I’ve had one interview, where the interviewer spent most of the time trying to convince me that the fact that the company had lost 95% of its stock market value and about 20% of its workforce was a mere detail - just a stubbed toe on their inevitable march to world domination - and I should feel privileged to come and help them sort out their intranet. I said I’d think about it.

5

When I opened this thread I thought it was gonna be suitable for addition to this thread. Hehe.

6

Man! I was all prepared to come in here and make jokes, too, (Now? How 'bout now? Is now a good time? Now?) you know the drill. But God, that totally sucks. They are not paying you? What the bloody hell? Not at all? Not paying you…

::shakes head, trying to comprehend::

Not paying you? Your boss, who is not paying you, is, in addition to not paying you, criticizing the speed/ quality/ whatever of your work, all the while not paying you? Oh… My… God! They’re Not Paying You!!! How are they not paying you and still being a business? Are they not paying anybody? Do they run the air conditioner? Have the lights on? I mean, if you’re a business big enough to have a person titled Senior Developer, you Have to Make Payroll. Will they make good on it when they get it together? Are they looking like getting it together? Are you collecting on your unemployment insurance? Can you?

Somebody ought to tell your pissant ‘immediate supervisor’ that They Are Not Paying You, and you could do just as well to sit the fuck at home for the summer and not have some shiny-suited (or Sans-a-belted, if you’re business casual) yes-man breathing down your neck to hurry, hurry, with the crap program! Let me guess, they spent your salary on this new MS Crapware and server?

'Scuse, me, but my indignant meter seems to have gone off the scale.

::walks away muttering to self ‘They are not paying this guy…’ and shaking head::

7

White Lightning: yes, I thought about putting “job” in the title, just to make it less ambiguous. But then I thought, everyone will just think it’s about sex anyway. (“He said on the job, heh-heh-heh”)

missdavis102, thanks for your concern! The official line is that our clients are being slow paying us, and our bank is being intransigent about extending credit, therefore no cash on hand - as far as I know, it’s hitting everyone in the company. So, my immediate boss and I are in the same boat… which does not make his comments any more welcome. (“What you’re doing isn’t rocket science,” he said to me this morning. He might change his mind when I go through the ceiling and explode…)

8

Steve,

I feel your pain. About 5 years ago I had the “pleasure” of working at a similar company. Pay day rolled around, but no paychecks distributed. Why? No cash in the bank. When will we get the checks? Who knows, depends on when we get some money in. The 3 times this happened we’d get our checks typically a week late.

I realized right away this was not a place I was going to be at long, and started wasting company time sending out resumes (great bit about right clicking your CV, BTW). I found a new job fairly quickly (entry level positions in my industry aren’t hard to find), and was on notice by the time the 3rd paycheck was delayed.

What makes this experience even more fun was that I was hired as a Staff Accoutant. So I saw how money was spent and how money came in. We blew money paying for ridiculous stuff, but had none left over for payroll. The controller and I would sit around and troubleshoot on how much money we’d save if we could do things “our way”. It was ridiculous. We’d cut a check for $40K to a vendor that was screaming, knowing all along that it would mean our paychecks wouldn’t be good.

Final paycheck - I walked out the door on my last day with my final paycheck in hand. No one else would be getting theirs. I was told not to cash it. The controller came into work the next day (Saturday AM), checked the bank balance, called me and told me there was enough there to clear my check. I hightailed it to the bank, CASHED the check, and deposited the cash across town at my bank.

What a nightmare. We had people with families, car payments, house payments (huh, imagine that) who were stressing because they were “working for free”. It sucks.

Hopefully you’ll get a better gig, or if not, that cash flow improves. Ain’t no shame in getting out, though. Every man for himself!!