More on the new J-O-B

I'm stoked (is it OK for someone in their mid 40s to say that?) to be working at my new job.

I'm settling in and feeling good about what I am doing. Of course, I said that after the first month at my old job too. Just before the "football bat" situation started. Anyhoo, I've been sent out to work on another site in the DC area that wants to increase their knowledge, improve their situation, and win the re-bid coming in about 18 months. I'm proud to be included in the group that hopefully will help them out.

I'm still waiting on my own personal company laptop. They've issued me a company credit card (God only knows how that went through), too. My buddy is going to Florida for a week to hash out some issues with a project down there. I was thinking that I was going to go, but he's gonna plan for a week down there and I'm sorry....I've got too much going on at home to spend the week hand holding. I'll be ready to support him from a distance. Plus I have to review a bunch of material for my site review. I'm hoping that goes well.

Later,
Clark

I'm saved!!

I can happily tell all of you that your ol' pal Clark has found a new job!! WooHoo!

I'm going to work with the first guy who left the team. He's a good egg and put in a good word for me at his new job cuz they had a need for a new team member. Two weeks later, Ta Daaaa! Clark has a new gig!

I won't get paid anymore because I was at the top of their scale, but that's OK, I'll be half as far away and getting better bennies because it's a bigger company. Plus, I don't have to necessarily spend all my time on client sites! It's as near a perfect gig as I can get!

As you can see by all the exclamation points, your ol' pal Clark is stoked to get started. My first day is September 2nd. I've already turned in my notice to my old employer. I think they were glad to see me go because they really haven't said much except congratulations. I tried. All of the stress and bother (not to mention the chest pain and weight gain) of this job seems to be all for naught. I really haven't felt like a part of the company much. The new guy gave me some interesting insights as to what he feels is going on there. It makes a lot of sense. He feels that they are only interested in making money and they are going to get whatever gig they can to do that. I agree that its in the best interest of all CEOs to make money for their business, however, you have to have a plan of action. I sometimes feel that we are the cash cow that is supporting all of the other activities of the business.

All that being said, I feel bad that no one at corporate seemed to take an interest in what we were doing. There is one guy left. He's feeling left out. I think he got a late start on the job hunt (although my gig was achieved with help) so I extended contact information to him as needed. The other guy who left is trying to set up something else at our new company for him. I'm hoping that works out.

Thankfully, I won't have to deal with the "football bat" anymore.

Clark

The new guy is gone!

Yep. His time was up (he actually stayed an extra week) and now he's gone. All the work he was doing with "football bat" now falls to me. Great.

Clark

The emigration...

Shockingly, one of our other teammates gave his notice and was out faster than the new guy! I don't blame him. He left about a week ago. He gave me some contacts where he is now going to work (half as far away from home for him and the same for me).

I've had some contacts from recruiters and a couple of phone interviews, but nothing firm. I am dreading the day that the new guy leaves.

Clark

The new guy is audi5000

A few posts ago I mentioned that we had a new guy at the office and that he was put in charge of the project. As a result of the messed up environment we have at work, he's decided to put in his resignation. He'll be around for a few more weeks, but the middle of august comes around pretty quickly.

It's sad that this environment is so toxic that talented people won't stay around. My resume is already on the street as a result. The "Football Bat" is still in charge of our ITSM project for which we have to complete tasks. I can't stand that woman. We had to sit through a presentation that was so screwed up (death by power point bullet, mispellings on the screens, lack of a coherent message, etc.) I wanted to walk out.

I'm wanting to stay around for the trip to SF, CA in the fall, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it. If the right job comes around...I'm gone.

Clark

What's new

Hey!

It's your old pal Clark. It's been a little while since I last blogged. I'm not very good at this yet, so time passes before I can get back to writing here.

The Speck is running fine. I still don't have a radio...but I have been getting consistent gas mileage...around 27 to 28 mpg.

We have a new guy on the team at work. He has more experience than I do, so the CIO put him in charge of the project while I retained a corporate management position. He's the subject matter expert, so there is a ton of hope that he can right some of the messes that are going along with things. One things for sure, I already like him. You see, he has a way about him. In fact he called "she" "weirder than a football bat". In his honor, "she" will now be known as "football bat".

The kids are doing well in school and their teams are doing reasonably well for their spring seasons. Oldest has done a great job on her varsity team. The middle has done a super job on her house league team. She's played first base and pitched well. Youngest has done a super job being toted around like luggage. She's been practicing her hitting in the back yard. I must say she can smack a whiffle ball pretty good.

Clark

I can't make this up folks....

Hey folks!

I am really not making any of this up. Really.

"She" is back and "she" is in charge of a project that I will have to work on. We are upgrading our IT Service Management product to the latest version and "she" has been put in as the Project Manager working for the PMO team. I kid you not.

This "person" is serving out a settlement of some kind or other and has a contract to not work on the same types of projects that I work on. Now we are working on the same project.

It looks like your ol' pal Clark is in for a rough summer.

Clark

Teamwork

I've spent a great deal of my career working with people. I must say that I've gotten along quite well. Except for "she", I can't recall too many people whom I would label "enemies". However, I'm struggling with the group of people where I work that don't seem to want to participate in the concept of "teamwork".

In general terms, being a member of a team means that there is a common goal. In most sports, the goal is to win the game, match, or tournament. Having been a coach I can tell you all that a single person who spells the word "team" with an "I" can really bring a team to its knees. It's really not that different in the IT world. When you are a consultant, contractor, or employee, we all get our goals from our leadership and we try to make the goals happen within a specific time frame.

Not so recently where I work. For some reason, some people on the team have decided not to cooperate. They have no professional ethic, they are disrespectful, and they have their own set of goals that aren't necessarily in line with the rest of the organizations. It's sad. I guess they are selfish and only have their own best interests at heart. But, if they participated in the team dynamic, they would be part of a larger success. Win as a team, lose as a team. It doesn't matter if you think you spell it with an "I", the team falls when those around it are marching to a different drum.

Clark

Final Chapter?

You'd think by now that everything would be back to normal regarding "she who's name will not be spoken" (heretofore referred to as "she"). I guess I was wrong. However, I think we may be at some sort of crossroads.

I can pretty much guarantee that "she" won't be going away. She's managed to leverage all of her friends from the government and land a job supporting some kind of IT project for the same division where I work. According to the folks in the know at my company, some sort of "settlement" was reached between my company and "she's" company and mine. From my position, it would have been nice to know the terms of the settlement. Regardless, she's been slithering around my area recently. I ran into her two times in the space of a week. I overheard someone say to her: "sometimes things happen for a reason". I'm sure that she was talking about her "ordeal". Lest we forget about the things that lead to her "dismissal", here they are:

1. Constant disagreements with other team members
2. Lack of communication with the team to the point where important information was not disseminated, resulting in embarassing situations and emails
3. Emotional ourbursts in public and private
4. Inappropriate social relationship between her and the client
5. Falsified credentials - she claims to have a PhD. However, the college from which she received this PhD. is a "diploma mill". While this didn't really contribute to her dismissal, it was more of the same kind of dis-information she touted as "real"
6. Refusal to accept the generous offer of a paid leave of absense from the company. This would have given her time to get her head together (something that I personally recommended to her)

There were a couple more, but those were the big ones.

I have to live in the environment where each time I run into her I'm reminded of the stress and turmoil she put me through (the nasty comments, emails, dirty looks). Perhaps your ol' pal Clark is a little paranoid? I personally think it sucks, but I have to stick it out in order to pay the bills, if you know what I mean.

Clark

New job!

I'm proud to announce that my dearest Ellen is back to work full time!

Since money has been so tight, Ellen decided she would get a full time job and we would put the baby in child care full time. It was really weird...it took her three weeks to get her resume together and about three days to land this job. She is working at a call center for a pharmaceutical company. You know, the folks at the end of the 1-800 number on the back of the package? She loves it and she's making good money.

I'm very proud of her.

The kids have made the transition fairly well. We found a neighbor with a set of home-schooled kids that agreed to watch my 11 year old. The baby has even taken to the day care setting. It took a while and a great many tears, but she is almost completely transitioned. I have had kind of a harder time because I have to get up at about 5:30am in order to be able to leave work at around 4pm to make sure that I am home in time to pick up the baby from daycare. By Friday I'm pretty exhausted. I've also picked up all the dinner obligations. I really don't mind cooking, but the cleanup really stinks.

You'd think I was making this up...

...but since there's already one writer's strike going on....ha!

In all seriousness, I have found out some interesting information about "she who's name will not be spoken" and her whackyness. It turns out that she was hired back on by a competing consulting firm on a contract WITH THE SAME GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION!!!

I also found out that she DID INDEED sign a non-compete clause in order to get her last two paychecks. Therefore, she is working on our job site illegally. Let the lawsuits begin!

On a side note, I also found out that the whacky wonder has a fruadulent PhD. HA!

clark

Another Chapter?

I guess that perhaps I had relaxed a bit too soon.

I noticed on two occasions that the government project manager was emailing (or had received email about) the wacky nutjob!

I suspect she's trying to get nutjob back to the office in some squirmy way.

I hope to hell not. She's contractually obligated to stay away from people in our company. Maybe she WANTS to get sued.

Ugh!

Clark

Finally...

I've survived!

The two week "transition" is over and I've now finished my first week as project manager. As a result, I've started drinking, smoking, and mainlining heroin!! (Just kidding, your ol' pal Clark's only vice is food and the internet).
In all seriousness, the past two weeks have been hell. The wacky wonder managed to get paid for doing very little. I tried to keep up with her hours, but she spent very little time around us. We got very little transition during that time, but we did have a nearly 5 hour meeting on her last day where she made up this "list of activities" which really told us a lot of the stuff that she kept hidden from us. The rest of the stuff was mere fluff designed to make the list seem long and to "scare" me.
I spent few moments along with "she who must remain nameless" but when I was, the nasty comments flew out of her mouth like vomit. She accused me of plotting against her to take her job (like I really wanted that in the first place). She told me that I could go on and report all of the nasty things she said because she would deny it anyway. And she finally suggested that I stop by the street corner where she planned to stand with a tin cup to collect change because she had no job (remember folks, our company offered her a paid "leave of absense" for several weeks so she could get her act together, but she burnt all the bridges and quit).
I couldn't have done this without all of the support of my company. I hope that it all works out in the end.

Clark

More changes

The saga of the workplace continues!
One of our team members, the other half of the fighting females, has been ordered off the contract. Fortunately, our CEO is smart enough to know a valued employee from a nut job, so she's been transferred to a new contract.
The whack job is allowed to stay on as a 1099 based contractor for a specific daily fee. I have to keep track of her hours and I've already made requests to have materials downloaded from her desktop computer.
The next two weeks should be very stressful...as if I need any more stress.

Clark

It's Not Over....

....until the psychopath sings!
Truly my friends, I am not making any of this up. In my last post, I told you that my crazy project manager had quit. Sadly, in the intervening days between the end of the week and the beginning, she managed to worm her way back in to the office.
I believe it to be the work of the government manager and her nearly illegal social relationship with this wacked out wonder. As a result, I have to endure an additional two weeks of suffering. While her resignation was officially accepted by my company, the government manager made it clear that she wanted the spaz to stay behind and "transition".
I fear that this woman will continue to make life difficult for us on the account, both during and after she leaves.

Clark

Out with the old and in with the new

After two weeks of Dante's flames, my micro-managing control freak of a project manager has burned her Kwai River bridge and quit. The company upper management tried to do right by her by giving her some paid leave to perhaps go off and clear her head, but she threw that back in their collective faces and was quite disrespectful. What's worse, she called the client manager (with whom she is VERY social outside of the office) and tried to undermine the whole team. The client manager called each of the members of the team to try and make some sense out of it all (a rare thing and usually something that will get an account cancelled), but that didn't lead to anything that would change what had already happened.
As a result, there were many late evening phone calls and meetings, a ton of added stress, and more than a few emails. The project manager has sent more than a few hate-emails, so I've blocked her from sending me email (at least to my work accounts). It's over now and the team has regrouped with the help of upper management. As a result of my level-headedness (not my words, upper managements) I've been named project manager.
I never intended to march up the corporate ladder in this fashion. I was quite content being a team member until the former project manager decided to make life too miserable. I haven't detailed all of the strife in my previous posts, but there's enough there to give you an idea. After all is said and done, I've managed to stay above water. Now all I have to do is sail the ship (and try to save face with the client).

Clark

My new job stinks

Well, its been nearly two months (since early May) on my new job and from what I can tell you, it is really stinking right now. It seems that I've walked into a real hornet's nest. Over the course of the months of June and nearly all of July, I've found out that one of my teammates and the project manager can't stand each other. I've also learned that the project manager is a micro-managing control freak that keeps information from the team so that she can be viewed as the only thing holding the project together.
The fact that my one teammate (a white female in her mid 40s) and the project manager (a black female in her mid 40s) can't stand each other was pretty much a forgone conclusion between them as I arrived on the scene. Over the time I was there it got pretty apparent and vocal between the two of them. I hated being in meetings with the two of them. The icy tones and the rigid body language made for tense and unproductive meetings. The project manager accused her rival (at one point, the white woman was being considered for the project manager position) of being a loose cannon and only doing what she felt was necessary. The teammate accused the project manager of purposely holding back information, talking poorly about her both behind her back and in front of her teammates, and yelling and screaming at her when they were alone or speaking on the phone.
The real problems started when the project managers lack of leadership started to affect my job. We were already pigeon-holed enough because the project manager required everyone to publish all their work through her before going to the client, but when it took days to get work reviewed, it started to become frustrating. When work was reviewed, the changes requested were more cosmetic than substantial. The other team member (a black male in his late 20s) privately made comments and then when he'd heard me make a comment, he called me in privately and agreed with them. Information was starting to be held back from me, information that would have made my job easier. One afternoon, the project manager started to talk to me privately about some really difficult private matters (matters that probably shouldn't have been disclosed). After listening to it all (and feeling pretty bad about feeling negative towards her) I suggested that she take a couple of weeks off to collect her personal life, reorder it, and relax. With all of what was going on at work and her personal disasters, I felt that it wouldn't hurt. I don't think she minded me making the suggestion, but a few days later when I asked her if she'd considered taking the time off she simply remarked "yes". I knew then that she'd never take time off because she was too much the control freak.
The last straw for me was when she embarrassed me in front of others by not telling me about some unwritten rules that I should have been told about before going into a meeting. What's worse, it happened twice in the same day! I finally complained to upper management (the white woman had been complaining for months, so now she had a compatriot) and they took things under advisement. We'll see what happens. I think that the client and other contracted employees are noticing, so I think our account here (and my job) are in jeopardy.

Clark

Jobs, they are a changin'

I like stability. The odd part about my life is that I'm in a job environment where stability is hard to come by. I guess that's part of being a Grizzwold. As a result, your old pal Clark is moving jobs. His current contract with the government runs out in about 6 weeks, that in and of itself should be a good reason to want to find new work, but there were other mitigating circumstances (politics, poor communication, boredom). We all know it's hard to pay the mortgage when you don't get paid. However, there was a glimmer of hope over time that the contract would be extended in the longer term or perhaps your old pal Clark would get picked up by another contractor at the facility. No such luck. So, I took things into my own hands and found more work. Still with the government, but with another contracting firm. Hopefully this will last a bit longer. I will miss my relatively short commute (25 minutes one way) as I'm probably going to be going about 90 minutes one way. Once I get the hang of it, it will probably get a tad shorter. I'm hoping that I won't be on that contract too long (gas prices being what they are).