Today is a "Mark ALL as Read" day in RSS land, because I just can't. I'm done with stupid.
I started a new (contract) job today, and while I know it's probably not fair to make a judgment after only 8 hours, I feel like I've reached the point in my life where I will never be happy in my work life ever again.
You never really know what you're getting into when you take a new job until you actually get into it and overturn that stone to see all the squiggling unpleasantness that had been living underneath hidden from your initial [inter]view.
Don't get me wrong; the people in the department seem nice. They're dealing with a lot of the technical shit that comes from the merger of two separate companies, and my supervisor, while friendly and more than pleasant didn't mince words in describing what they're facing and how a multitude of things are broken and not getting fixed any time soon. I console myself by thinking, "There may be lifelong friendships waiting to happen somewhere out on that floor."
I went into this thinking I was going to be working in a hospital again, so I was not overly concerned when the email arrived Friday telling me to report to the Network Service and Support Center this morning. I started out at Corporate when I worked at Abrazo (albeit at that time Corporate and the I.T. Department were based in one of the hospitals) so this didn't seem out of line. However, it turns out I'm only working there until their ticket count goes down and then I may be one of the traveling technicians who drives to the multitude of clinics around the valley—while the as-yet-to-arrive second tech they hired will probably be assigned to the hospital on this side of town. (A possibility that was never communicated to me during the interview.) None of this is cast in stone however, and frankly I'm hoping that my immediate supervisor (who doesn't even make the decision) was simply talking out her ass.
So when my friends and family have asked how it went today, I tell them it's a job. It's a decent income. It's not DISH. That's really about it.
And oh yeah, only seven more years (more or less) until I can retire. (Unless we happen to win the lottery between now and then. Stranger things have happened!)