Category Archives: Work

Slacker…

Posted on by

I’ve been away for a while, I guess life caugth up with me over the past eight months. Things have been utterly hectic and weird lately in all aspects. My assignment finished in January this year, I was told the second week of December last year just when I was about to take my well-earned two weeks off. Because the board member -responsible for the web team and redesign of the government website- stepped down and removed herself from this project it was cast adrift all of a sudden. Never in my entire career have I faced a situation like this. I was stunned by the unprofessional ways this organisation was dealing with their employees, the repetitive mistakes and the arrogant attitude that came with it. It was like walking through a maze, not sure what to expect around each corner.

And so my assignment ended the day before my birthday, what a coincedence… In the meantime I’d already had two intakes at two different clients. The latter wanted another interview planned as soon as my assignment had ended. Then after I also had to give a presentation including answering questions, and once that was done they would decide if they wanted to take me on for this project. Five minutes after I had held my presentation, -I was on my way back to Amsterdam and just gotten on the train when I received a call- I was told that I was hired for the project. I was surprised because I didn’t know what to expect after giving this presentation to about fifteen people. I guess I must have left a good impression with at least half of the group or else they wouldn’t have hired me ;)

Things went all way too fast as I didn’t have a moment to relax and adjust to the new situation. Last time I was in between projects I had a few months where I could relax a bit, finish work-related administration, backup files and documents, and get my Mac ready for the next assignment. This time, I only had five days of which three were over the weekend. So yes things have been pretty hectic since and I’ve been juggling work, ‘me-time’ and the demands of daily life in general. It’s one of the largest projects I’ve worked on so far as it involves three levels of government, municipal, provincial and the water boards (the oldest government authorities in the Netherlands). This makes it all very complex, but at the same time it’s a really cool experience and a great opportunity to gain knowledge!

Then at the beginning of this month our department moved further south, so my already long distance commute doubled in km and time. It’s ok for now, the project is worth the trip but I’m not sure if I can keep up with this for a couple of years. I’m already told that if they’re happy with my skills and input, I could easily have this assignment extended to up to three to five years at least (…). I’m trying to get approval to work from home one day per week which will give me an extra two hours in the morning to catch up on sleep and I could do some chores during the day. Yup, I have been a total blog slacker but it has been out of my control all these months. Whenever I started to write I couldn’t finish due to a serious lack of time. I will try and write at least once a month and I’ll catch up when I can ;)

Bye Bully Bye!

Posted on by

It’s interesting to see how quickly things can change over time, how a situation can change. I’ve only written one post instead of two last month because I was too busy (working overtime 16 hours a day) and when I logged into the backend of this website I noticed the post I wrote about a month ago about the bully at work. I was so fed up with the guy at the time that I really wanted to leave and look for another assignment. Actually I’d already taken the necessary steps to leave this assignment and informed everyone who needed to be informed on my employer’s side and on the client’s side as well. I was pretty blunt in doing so as I feel no-one should cross my line the way that assh… did.

Still it took about three months to accomplish what I needed to accomplish causing lots of stress that I had to deal with. The moment I had made it clear that I was going to leave, Mr Assh… turned into this slick self-righteous smooth-talking colleague who seemed to be utterly relieved at the knowledge of me leaving. Well… hate to disappoint him but I wasn’t going anywhere at all. I was working for another large project besides his project -a migration of the main website- along with two other colleagues. One is also hired through an IT company to act as the product owner/manager. They both wanted me to design the new website and asked me to join work sessions on this.

In the meantime -during a meeting- he’d told the attending people including this other product owner that he’d refuse to work with me. So whilst one project was ending due to me leaving, the other just started, by me joining. The fun part is that this project outweighs the other one, also by being one of the biggest projects I’ve taken on so far. Basically I totally outsmarted him and he wasn’t aware until the moment the product owner told him she’d asked me to join her team. He was mad as hell but since he’d planned his two weeks vacation he had no time to do anything about it as the deal was already done and all other parties involved had given their consent without informing him.

The day he was told, (one day before his vacation started) he did something utterly childish which only confirmed my stated facts about him. I play this augmented reality game (which is all about capturing ‘portals’ and destroying the opponents’ portals) and so does he, he’s an opponent in the game but he told me he’s not very active, he hadn’t been playing for months. That day someone destroyed the portal at work which I barely use -just the one- surrounded by other green fields/portals, he probably thought I use it daily. Whilst on the bus home I checked to see who trashed it and managed to trace it back to him (I didn’t know his nickname I just googled and found solid facts that it was him).

It made me laugh… During his absense last month I’ve worked on this very important presentation and got everything ready for the big day where the board of executives was going to take a look at it. They were very pleased and all of my designs were approved. I’ll be working on different projects still but at least there won’t be anyone trying to take the wind out of my sails by being a total jerk. I’ve managed to change the situation into one where I’m thriving and enjoying my job again, as I should! He’s still trying to get control since he asked the product owner to join us by sitting in ‘our’ room… We were assigned a particular team project room -two actually- for the three of us.

What he doesn’t realise yet is that his remark about refusing to work with me is going to cost him. If it’s up to my colleagues and team mates he won’t be sitting anywhere near me, I avoid him like the plague and ignore him whenever he is in the room. In the meantime his ‘power’ as product owner is slowly reducing to zero and soon he nolonger will be needed in that role as someone else in a higher position is already appointed to this who should’ve been product owner to begin with. Then he can go back to his former role which is a few steps lower on the hierarchical ladder. I’m pretty sure he is not going to like it a bit. Do I care? Nah… I just can’t stop grinning like a Cheshire cat.

It can take a lot to piss off a Capricorn, but if you do it won’t be pretty and no matter how many times you try to break her she will always come back 10 times harder.