I'm a happy employee these days. I have a decent job, a nice work area, a reasonably fast computer, tasks that are matched for my skill level and provide challenge, colleagues who understand the meaning of teamwork, competent managers and a company that matches my career goal: make the world a smarter and better place to live in.
But not all was always well though. My previous company was an ass. To be specific, its employees. No, they didn't try to kill me or call me names, but it was a death sentence for a career that wanted to reach far above the clouds and the stratosphere.
My line of specialty has always been in software engineering. Building web sites. Yeah, that's what I find interesting. The crazy thing is that I was only able to do that abour 20% of the time. The rest of the time, I was busy attending equipment evaluation meetings, connecting printers to the network, cleaning computers of viruses, answering odd queries on the phone like, "Where should we buy a camera?", and 7 dozen things that aren't remotely related to web development.
so I resigned last May, hoping to end my disastrous streak in that company. Wrapped up my work, but had to turn things over to someone who had a different skillset than mine, so my documentation was deemed inadequate. Yeah, I know. Kind of like a dermatologist getting scolded for not being able to do a heart operation because the heart surgeon left for another company and didn't give a 50-volume crash course on how to do a bypass.
Next up was my clearance. Oddly enough, every single office signed it without a fuss. Know why? I had no administrative, property or financial obligations left to satisfy. So my clearance was good to go right?
Hell no. A few weeks right after I left, one of their systems that I built before broke down. And before I know it, my clearance was on hold indefinitely for that reason. I tried to help them out, which was the professional thing to do, but they wanted me to go over and fix it. My new company had restrictions that prevented me from doing so, so I told them I could only provide limited assistance. Their answer? They believed what I was saying was a bunch of crap and the second to the last signature required on my clearance was signed hoping that as friends, I would go the extra mile.
Such a comment was said in an outburst and might have been reasonable to them given the circumstances, but it was still unacceptable. And in any case, it is a wrong assumption to bring up the clause of friendship for business. Even now, I'm at a loss on how they arrived at such a conclusion. So if it's to each his own now, I'm going to defend the honor of my company. Because so far, they've proved they deserve it more.
So I played along, even talked to someone who might be able to help and a demo was scheduled. Took several days before I even got a realistic date, but at least it's on. Two days from now. They've been throwing petty distractions at me like, "Oh, where's your key?" and "Hey, the evaluation for the first half is done. You'll get some extra cash if you make yours.", just so they can prolong the discussion. I cannot count how many times I've said to myself, "Yeah, whatever. Can we just finish the important matters first?"
I now know what I have to do. Demonstrate that it works. Get them to say that my clearance will be released upon seeing it work. Hope for the best. If the best doesn't come and in its place the worst, then it's time to burn bridges.
I officially want nothing to do with your company or its people again.
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