Author: Mark Alexander

I had a one-on-one with my supervisor the other day. I approached this with the attitude that I was going to be totally honest with her, and if I got fired afterward (I should be so lucky), so be it.

“So how are things going?”

I got up and closed the conference room door.

“Oh dear.”

“To be honest, I am very unhappy. In fact, I’m looking for another job.”

The look on her face was priceless. She was genuinely thrown off by this revelation.

We proceeded to discuss the sources of my unhappiness—including the frat house atmosphere of the department—and she promised to start making some changes in that regard…at least at first. By the end of the meeting, however, she was backpedaling and trying to tell me that this middle-school maturity I am immersed in on a daily basis is typical for our career. “I’ve worked with lots of techs and it’s the same everywhere.”

Uh, no it’s not.

“Please don’t leave! You’re the only tech I have who people haven’t complained about!”

That told me reams.

I would like to think something positive will come from our little chat, and to her credit she did call out someone yesterday who let an f-bomb fly, but I’m really not expecting much. A lot of what I hate about this place is engrained in the company DNA, and nothing is going to change.

Ironically, the annual employee survey came out the day after our meeting, and I was totally honest there as well. “Have you thought about resigning within the last six months?” Seriously? Unfortunately there was no every single fucking day response available.

Would you recommend ██████ services to friends or family?

Not only no, but hell no.

The remainder of the questions were mostly about my satisfaction with the company—much like the survey you get after eating at Jack-in-the-Box, where 1 is “highly dissatisfied” and 5 is “very satisfied.” I couldn’t answer a single question any higher than “neither satisfied or dissatisfied,” with the majority of them being “dissatisfied” and “very dissatisfied.”

And at this point—even if the survey isn’t “anonymous” as advertised, and it gets tracked back to me, I DON’T CARE.

And not surprisingly, my supervisor hasn’t exchanged a dozen words with me since our meeting…

It’s me, Mark.

I need a new job.

Seriously.

But I guess I that’s not going to happen if I don’t spell out exactly what I want now, will it?

While I had complaints about my last job in Phoenix, the mere fact that I stayed there nearly eight years (and would probably still be there in some form if we hadn’t relocated) says a lot about what works for me. Unforunately, my work situation since we moved to Denver has been—how shall I say this? Unacceptable.

I’m looking for a smallish-firm, maybe 250-500 employees or so. But not so small that I’m the only I.T. guy. I don’t mind being the only desktop guy, but I don’t want to handle servers, connectivity beyond basic troubleshooting, dealing with telecommunications vendors, purchasing, receiving, or anything that is—as my former boss used to call it—”behind the wall.”

My first job in Denver was pretty much like this, but upper management maintained a continual adversarial stance toward I.T. in general, which meant that during the two years I was there we went through three I.T. directors with an average gap of six months between each one, during which time  I was expected to handle everything, and given copious amounts of attitude when I failed to meet their unrealistic expectations.

As I said, while I had complaints about the Phoenix job, the basic mechanics of it were nearly ideal. We were a large firm, but since each desktop guy had their own facility to support with anywhere from 250-400 users, it seemed much smaller. The workload wasn’t horrific, but it was enough to keep boredom at bay and allowed for occasional goof-off down time. The entire I.T. department was very close-knit, and while I rarely socialized with any of my colleagues after hours, I still came to view them as friends and not just co-workers.

And while I didn’t mind driving between facilities to help out my peers in Phoenix, a single location is a must in Denver—simply because of the winter weather.

Pay? $50K a year would be nice. I’m worth more than that and was making more in Phoenix, but I’m trying to be realistic considering the depressing pay scale here. As it stands now, I’m making significantly less than that; pretty much what I was bringing home in 2006. Considering the cost of living in Denver is actually higher than Phoenix, it hasn’t been easy.

I’d also like receive a modicum of respect from whatever company I work for and not be treated like an I.T. Janitor (or required to wear a requisite uniform) as I am at my current place of employment. And while I enjoy a fun work environment as much as anyone, there’s a fine line between fun and frat house.

As far as the industry? I miss Healthcare, but getting back into it isn’t an absolute.

And lastly, I need relatively easy commute via public transit on snow days.

I don’t think I’m asking that much, but if I don’t put it out there it’s gonna be kind of hard for it to come my way.