Forum Moderators: open
So I've just finished the movie, and have done the happy dance around my apartment, and have put my jammies on and put up the Christmas lights...
What next? I figured I'd share my joy with y'all, and fish for suggestions.
I was planning on quitting soon to go freelance full-time. So... I gotta get my website lookin' sharp... I suppose I should get my networking on... Perhaps I'll start researching markets and so on. (Thinking of doing some fiction writing too. Might's well try.)
But mostly, I just wanted to say, Ha ha! I got fired! I never have to see those blue-gray-green cubicle walls under those flickering fluorescent lights again! I don't ever have to go back to that soul-destroying place! Hallelujah!
I have no doubt I will discover catastrophically where my weaknesses lie
And maybe that's where we come in! Good luck and enjoy a bit of free time so close to christmas!
I am so psyched. I've never been fired before. I freaking hated that job.
So I packed up my stuff (I'd already cleaned out my desk because they'd asked me to quit and I'd said no, so I figured a firing couldn't be far off) and went home and had cheap Chinese takeout and beer and watched Office Space with my boyfriend.So I've just finished the movie, and have done the happy dance around my apartment, and have put my jammies on and put up the Christmas lights...
What next? I figured I'd share my joy with y'all, and fish for suggestions.
I was planning on quitting soon to go freelance full-time. So... I gotta get my website lookin' sharp... I suppose I should get my networking on... Perhaps I'll start researching markets and so on. (Thinking of doing some fiction writing too. Might's well try.)But mostly, I just wanted to say, Ha ha! I got fired! I never have to see those blue-gray-green cubicle walls under those flickering fluorescent lights again! I don't ever have to go back to that soul-destroying place! Hallelujah!
Hahaha! This brings to mind that good old Johnny Paycheck song! Congratulations!
My last job was rather like your description. I've never worked for such completely soul sucking zombies before this place and I shudder at the thought of jumping back into electronics to end up back with these same type of people and work.
At this point in my life I honestly feel if I'm forced to accept that, I WILL have a heart attack, my feelings are SO strongly set against it.
They have a very high turnover rate, something I'm told by the head technician, in the 50% range. Management was filled with soulless blatant liars and expert bull-shooters. Most of the equipment in the place didn't work but it didn't matter - it only existed to "impress" any visiting customers, some of whom are representatives of military interests.
The electrostatic precautions the customer expected people in the lab to wear - the funny lab jackets, etc...., well once the customer left, they were discarded. They even had special electrostatic dissipative shoes for everyone to wear on the conductive floor. The shoes never worked either, whether new or used - nobody ever passed the ESD conductivity tests with those shoes on. Everyone always touched two fingers to the tester - one to the test pad, the other to a grounding point, in order to simulate a pass from finger to shoe ground.
The "calibrations bench" was full of test equipment which was all broken but looked good. The BGA soldering/desoldering gear, worth about 100 grand, was incomplete and could not work at all. Not that it mattered, only one person in the whole place actually knew how to use it, were it complete.
Their US offices are a joke. They aren't staffed, they're only there to offer a US mailing address so the busted electronic stuff can cross the border and get looked at in the sole Canadian office. It's all just for making appearances at the expense of honesty even to government and other customers.
So now I'm on unemployment and using my time to reinvent myself. I'm really looking forward to pursuing my music professionally and full time. I've set up my computer for audio recording/editing/mixing purposes and have already composed a few accompaniment-instrumentals on piano/keyboard in collaboration with an artist who currently has radio play in my area.
But there are and will be times of doubt and fear. During those times it's tempting to jump at the first job that passes your way, no matter what it is.
Try to understand that fear and doubt, and hold on tight to the core of your hopes.
My company was actually... well, they made good software, but it didn't occur to them to advertise, for example. At least there was a good product to occasionally restore my faith in what I did. But the rest of it was just so upsetting and difficult to cope with, that I found it entirely unrewarding to try. Ugh, temper tantrums in upper management. Unpretty. The CEO's habit of spitting on me when he talked didn't help either.
I attended the office party of my boyfriend's company last night, which was really impressive. There are only ten of them: the president and the VP are husband and wife, and the president's son is the chief of R&D. But each of those ten people is a bright, talented person, who does his or her job well. The founding family are all fiercely intelligent and extremely competent at what they do, but have poor people skills. Still, they're generous with paychecks, year-end bonuses, and Christmas gifts-- they're understanding about vacations and leave time, and supportive in employees' personal crises. (They gave Dave two weeks off, no question, when his father died unexpectedly this spring. My company docked me the days I used to drive Dave home and attend the funeral without so much as a "sorry".) They recognize both effort and talent within their employees and reward them-- the receptionist rose to become the head of Production when she demonstrated that she was both talented and dedicated, for example. It remains a difficult work environment, simply because the upper management are difficult people to get along with, but the company does exceedingly well because they're just extremely good at what they do. There's no dead wood in that company-- there can't be, in such a small company, but there isn't even marginal wood. They're really impressive.
And, they throw a mean christmas party. I haven't had that much to drink in a long time, and I'd never had lobster bisque that rich. Sadly, this year the VP didn't get drunk enough to start hitting on Dave, which robbed me of much of my anticipated entertainment. But I did get to do kamikaze shots with the Sales Manager.
And, I may well have gotten a freelancing job out of it. The CEO asked what I was doing now, and when I told him he said ahh, our website's copy needs to be rewritten! And when I mentioned that I knew a bit about how to make your site show up for relevant searches, it turns out he'd been researching SEO services and had been quite curious about them.
Anyway. So, not all office jobs are a crock, but I think companies like that are few and far between. And, it just goes to show you-- keeping your eyes and ears open, and perfecting your quick pitch about "just what you do nowadays" never hurts! :D
Wow, Snowman-- best of luck to you, too! Music's a tough field but it can be so rewarding. I have a dream in my heart to front a revival hair-metal band, but my lack of actual talent is what's decided me in pursuing the writing thing instead.
dragonlady7 -- Hahahahaha! Yea, it is very tough. But I figure technology has been plowed under to the point where it's not providing me with a steady income either - hasn't for the past 3 years and the trend is going further and further from repair to disposabilitiy. My new firewall/router that had done such an admirable job of stabilizing my internet connection against DoS probes? Made in China. They're getting better and better!
Geez can you believe at one time I could earn some kind of living by installing and fixing office fax machines only? Yup, back in the late 80s I did that, for $8/hour.
This was when a cheap model used thermal paper and cost $3600. The expensive models with a whole whopping 2 meg of RAM sold for something like $5000. There were maintenance contracts on these things, even 24 hour paged service (I hated that). They used to use fax machines in the Stelco plant in Hamilton Ontario, instead of telephones - too much noise on the shop floor. Picture going into a smelter in a 3 piece suit to service fax machines! What a joke!
Now you can buy a fax machine at a discount store for $100, give or take. If it breaks, you're better off to buy a new one. Or if you're savvy with computers, just use a fax modem.
So my line of logic goes along the lines as: if I'm gonna have to endure instability it might as well be while doing something I enjoy and am good at. At least I'm suffering for something I believe in, not for someone else's ego or car payments.
Earlier this year I was taking piano lessons to enhance my bass playing abilities and to my surprise I found I could play the piano well, so I've started looking at live collaboration opportunities, even via high speed Internet connection.
Hey if I can't earn a living fixing cheap high technology I might as well try doing so Using cheap high technology in a creative way! At this point I really have SO little to lose!
:)
Sounds like your approaching things the right way. :) Best wishes, and good luck on whatever you tackle next!
Good luck with the writing endeavors. It appears that lots of webmasters are looking for people to write "relevant content" now post-Florida. Maybe you could do that for a living.
Good luck.
First, dragonlady, congratulations!
Sometime back in '99 I looked out the window of my little 'cubicle of a world' and decided enough was enough. My daughter was grown up and moved out, I didn't have a mortgage or a wife or much of anything else to tie me down. And I had developed a good sense of being tired of it all. So that morning, I turned on my desktop and typed a "Notice of Immediate Resignation".
Yesterday I was reflecting on the elaspsed time. I am infinitely happier, despite the fact that I've been officially 'homeless' since 99. I don't worry about having my 'stuff' stolen since I gave most of it away. I have travelled farther, met more people, and done more interesting things in the last few years than I ever did while I was 'being a normal productive member of society'.
OK, agreeably, it's not the life for a lot of people, but it suits me just fine. And it did take a little getting used to.
Dragonlady, I don't see you heading down this same path at all; you mentioned a few pursuits. But keep in mind that the 85K yearly income (my last figures) can hold a person down. Take a little time to enjoy life - smell the roses and the knapweed.
The pursuit of personal happiness far outweighs the pursuit of anything else.
best wishes,
grandpa
