Category: Work

Working in the "public sector" for the first time in my life has been an eye-opening experience.

Shortly after arriving in Phoenix last July, I had the opportunity to interview with this agency for a desktop support position. They were beginning the process of rolling out Windows 10 to around 1500 users and while I would not be the one doing the actual deployments, I would be doing post-deployment cleanup work. While I didn't yet have any direct Windows 10 experience, it was still one of those interviews where you walk away thinking you've aced it and expected to receive an offer by the time you got home, but nothing ever came of it. "They decided to go with a different candidate, but you were their second choice."

Second choice does not pay the bills.

A couple months later the same recruiter sent me back to interview with the same agency (and same people within the agency) for a Service Desk position, supporting the increase in calls that were anticipated once the Windows 10 project was in full swing. (It still hadn't started.) I felt this interview hadn't gone as well as the previous one, so it was no surprise when the recruiter called a few days later to say they'd chosen someone else. That was fine; I really had no desire to work on a Help Desk anyway—much preferring to be hands-on with my users. That is, after all, how you form bonds with your customers and oftentimes come out of it with lifelong friends.

You can imagine my surprise when I got a call from this same recruiter shortly after the first of the year, asking if I'd like to interview with this agency again, this time for an "Imaging Specialist" position. It was for substantially less money than the other two positions and my initial thought was, "Oh hell no!" but since my unemployment benefits from Colorado were about three weeks away running out completely I said, "Sure. Why not? Maybe the third time's the charm."

As I reported back in January, after one of the most disastrous interviews I've had since being back in Phoenix, they hired me.

And what exactly does an "Imaging Specialist" do? In the simplest terms, they load software images (snapshots of entire systems with everything preconfigured) onto PCs. This is a relatively quick way of loading the OS and various applications onto the computers without actually having to run through the manual install process each time.

This position wasn't for something new they had in the works. It was for the same huge project that the agency initially told me about back in July that still hadn't gotten off the ground. They had originally contracted with an outside firm to supply the hardware and apply the agency's custom software images to the machines. But during the six months that transpired from my initial interview and the time I came on board in February, said company had succeeded in deploying approximately one dozen of the fifteen hundred machines.

Needless to say their contract was terminated, and the entire process was brought in-house.

Unfortunately, the in-house crew that was hastily assembled from former Service Desk staff had only one person on board who had any experience with the Microsoft Deployment Tool. (The application that was used for building and deploying these software images.) Perhaps anticipating the shit storm approaching, he hastily gave my boss approximately eight hours of training before transferring his ass to a different department.

Adding insult to injury, the software images that the initial outside company built for the agency didn't work; forcing them to hire a consultant from Dell to come in and fix things.

Needless to say, it's been an interesting couple months. My boss (who is new to a managerial position on top of all this) has been trying to train our Team Lead the voodoo of MDT so we can use it to reimage the older hardware in our inventory while working with the Dell consultant and the application developers to ensure that those images also work properly on all hardware platforms.

When you add an extra level of bureaucratic bullshit to the mix (the process for tracking equipment at this agency is positively labyrinthine), I can only sit back and laugh at the absurdity of it all sometimes.

As I've written before, this has given me a whole new appreciation for what the Enterprise Desktop Management team at DISH does so flawlessly on a daily basis.

I'm happy to report now however that all the kinks seem to have been worked out. The Dell consultant has gone home and we're ready to actually begin the project I was hired on for; that is, loading the software images on those 1500 machines so the techs can deploy them.

(My boss has also been so impressed with what I've been doing on a day to day basis that he's lobbying his supervisor to hire me full time. I'm fine with this, as I like the people I work with, the commute is a breeze, and it would also come with a substantial increase in pay—close to what I was making before we moved to Denver.)

As I enter my third week of employment, I have to admit that—perhaps surprisingly after all I've written about my last job—that for the first time in years, I actually look forward to going to work. Okay, maybe look forward to is a bit of an exaggeration because I can't say I've ever worked at that kind of job, but let's just say I don't wake up with that abject sense of dread every morning like I did when I was at DISH…and I don't actually mind going to work—even though I'm making less money than I was ten years ago.

Also surprisingly, these past weeks have also given me a whole new sense of appreciation for the Enterprise Desktop Management Team at DISH, a group the PC Techs often butted heads with. I knew they built both the infrastructure and the images themselves that we used to prep the machines for deployment, but I never realized just how much work went into getting everything working properly—and consistently, because I'm now on this organization's version of that team.

While we don't have a fancy name like EDM, we are the folks who build and—unlike at DISH—apply the software images to each piece of equipment that passes through the organization. Everyone in my group is new at image building using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (including our boss), so it's a huge learning experience for everyone involved.

And I have to say the most amazing and refreshing thing about all this is that after spending two years in the feculent vat of toxic hellstew that was the PC Techs Department at DISH, at this job everyone treats each other with respect. Every night as he leaves, the boss thanks each of us for our contributions that day—no matter how much or how little we actually got done. And yeah, there're jokes and off-color remarks tossed around during the day, but the difference from my time at DISH is that here the members of this team are adults. They know limits, know when jokes are appropriate and when they aren't, and act accordingly.

When I first walked in this morning the boss asked if I was a religious person—because apparently he and one of the other techs and been discussing End Times and implanted microchips as Mark of the Beast. I looked at him and said, "Not at all. I'm an Atheist."

He didn't even flinch.

I figured this was as good a time as any, so a couple hours later we were chatting and I said, "Since I came out as an Atheist to you I'd might as well come out the rest of the way."

He shot a quizzical look.

"I play for the other team."

Another puzzled look.

"I'm gay."

Again, not even a flinch—not that I was expecting one. Before he got into I.T., the man (who's a year or so older than I am) was a full-time musician and has traveled extensively. He's also a Phoenix native, so we'd already bonded a bit over memories of the city back when we were teenagers so we had that…

While he's previously hinted that my initial contract could conceivably go much longer (it was originally sold to me as 90-days "with the possibility of extension," but none of the 1300+ PCs that I was hired to image have even yet arrived; never mind that the image itself hasn't got the kinks worked out), this afternoon was the first time he outright asked if I thought this gig was something I'd like to go long term. I said, "Yes—so far."

"So far?"

"Well, I haven't seen anything that made me want to run screaming from the building."

"Good. Because you're an asset we don't want to lose."

It seems the Employment Gods have finally taken pity upon me and I have landed a job.

I'm still in a state of shock—because this sprang from what I consider to have been one of my worst—if not the worst—performances in an interview since moving back to Phoenix.

But I guess I must've said something that appealed to them. Either that or the other candidates were so resoundingly awful I won by default, even after being unable to answer two of the interviewer's technical questions. (Or it might be that I stressed I actually liked the particular tasks this of this job—or the fact I loved producing documentation of processes, something else that will also be called upon.)

It's for less money than I was making ten years ago and about $11K a year less than I was making in Denver, which after taxes amounts to only about $60 more per check than I've been receiving from Colorado Unemployment without taxes being taken out, but considering that my Colorado UI was due to run out in about six weeks, I can live with it. It's supposedly only a 90-day contract, but "can go longer depending on the work load and possibly even permanent if I'm a good fit."

Fingers crossed on that, because two of the best perks about this place is that it's only about a mile from home, and I can wear jeans every damn day.

I don't have a firm start date yet; it's dependent upon how quickly my background check clears.

Hi Universe. It's me, Mark.

I need a 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 before we moved to Denver, 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. Unfortunately, my work situation in Denver was—how shall I say this? Unacceptable. So let's not do anything remotely like that again, m'kay?

I'm looking for a smallish-firm, maybe 250-500 employees or so—or a larger firm where my assigned responsibility would be for about that same number. I like smaller firms, 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 was given copious amounts of attitude when I failed to meet their unrealistic expectations, so I know that's not an environment for me.

As I said, while I had complaints about that last 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 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.

I don't mind driving between multiple facilities to help out my colleagues, but I want a home base; I don't want a "field tech" position.

Pay? $50K a year would be nice. I'm worth more than that, but I'm trying to be realistic considering the current pay scale here.

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 was at DISH. 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 still miss Healthcare, but getting back into it isn't an absolute. I'd also love to be able to build on my Mac experience in an enterprise environment.

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

Failing this, a winning lottery ticket with a $1-5 million payout would be nice. Just sayin'.

…that looking for work is a lot like looking for love. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before your find your prince.

One of the reasons I initially abandoned architecture and went into Technology Support full time was that it afforded a bit of fun and wild west freedom in the corporate world. (Plus I was totally burnt out on architecture.) Though the pay scale didn't always reflect it, we were often regarded by our coworkers as jean-clad gods. But something happened over the last twenty years, and instead of Corporate America being assimilated by the freedom of the personal computer, it was the other way around.

Technology was taken over by the same tired stuffed suits and number crunchers that have always ruled corporations. And even so we still aren't remunerated commensurate with the fact that the entire global economy now rests upon tech workers. But even worse, we are now expected to conform—and this has never been so clear to me as it has been over the last five years.

Of course I got an inkling of what was coming for years prior to that, but I never thought it would spread so virulently.

After the horrible professional experiences I had in Denver, my main goal upon returning to Phoenix was was to get back into healthcare I.T. support. While it wasn't always smooth sailing when I worked at Abrazo, the camaraderie of my team and the good times we shared far outweighed the bad often enough that I stayed eight years, leaving only when Ben and I moved to Denver. Over the past four years, the various times we'd landed in the Emergency Room for one reason or another made me realize just how much I missed the hospital environment. After two years at DISH, supporting a television provider with delusions of grandeur and personalities acting like they were brain surgeons operating on Heads of State—I wanted to get back to doing what I love in an arena that actually benefited people instead of just allowing the CEO to buy another home in Aspen.

Be careful what you ask for. You may get it.

Well, a few weeks ago that healthcare matador appeared, waving his red cape in front of my eyes, and I took off charging. To be clear, this wasn't a direct hire; it was an open-ended contract, "but people generally go perm after about three months." It sounded too good to be true. My interview went well; I came away thinking that I might've found a place I could land for the next several years.

Little did I know the matador was Bugs Bunny, and he had hidden a huge anvil behind that red cape and this poor bull went crashing headlong into it.

It was immediately obvious that I would not be working in the hospitals at all. I was told to report to the  Network Service and Support Center my first day; the same dank, 60s era building where I interviewed. When I first entered the Desktop Support area that morning, my heart sank. No cubes. Just long, open desks built end-to-end with absolutely no privacy whatsoever.

The physical environment was unpleasant, but the technological environment was a disaster. The company had recently formed from a merger of two disparate entities, and the two separate systems did not speak to each other—at least not easily. Adding insult to injury, there was no company-wide IM system in place. One company had used Lync and the other Microsoft Communicator. And even then—unlike DISH (I can't believe I'm saying something positive about that place)—not every employee had access to it. So every single service call involved emails (because no one ever answered their phones), and many fruitless trips to desks because the user had stepped away.

I told the department manager that I'd be more than happy to be based at one of the hospitals. His response, "I already have someone else in mind for that." So I was stuck at the Service Center. Not what I was expecting from the interview.

Not ideal, but still…the commute was a breeze and the money was good. The biggest problem were the half hour lunches. (This is something that's pretty standard in healthcare, and not an issue if you're at a hospital with its own onsite cafeteria, but this place lacked that amenity.) And even though there were a plethora of places to eat just on the other side of the freeway, there was still no way you could go, eat, and get back in half an hour. "Oh, we usually go get our food, come back, clock out and eat at our desks."

Uh, no. I'm not eating at my desk! So—since I didn't have to physically clock in and out being a contractor—for the last week my lunches have been averaging 45 minutes and I either ignored the 30 minute rule or stayed late to make up the difference. No one's said a word—probably because they're all guilty of cheating the system.

Then, a few days ago—as if to add insult to injury—they took our chairs away. Those desks were sitting at were only to be used as charging stations for our laptops. We were now field techs and expected to be mobile and on our feet for the duration of the day.

Excuse me?

Where do we catch up on those emails, close tickets, and perform the myriad other tasks that my particular profession entails? Apparently standing up somewhere out on the floor.

And then I saw this hanging over the boss man's desk:

I was so aghast I had to take this photo. Yes, it's real. And it explains so much.

How this has allowed to remain is anyone's guess. Obviously H.R. doesn't make it into the inner sanctum very often.

Anyhow, the desk/chair thing slid by until this morning, when the boss man realized that we had moved our chairs back into position and steam started coming out his ears. "We'll have a meeting after lunch to discuss how I expect you to work your tickets."

By this time, I was at my wit's end. Every day had been a struggle to do tasks that have been second nature to me for the last two decades, simply because the systems didn't talk to each other and no one had answers for anything.

Almost nothing had been documented; and the few things I did find documented were so hopelessly out of date as to be useless.

Yeah, I did make a few people happy by solving their problems, but it was only because I said fuck it, and did what I knew would the resolve the issue. "Oh! You need local admin rights on this machine to fix this. Let me take care of that."

Over the course of the last two weeks, because of the stress, I'd returned to my DISH habit of waking up between 3:45 and 4:15 every morning and being completely unable to fall back asleep.

Adding to this mix today, it was announced that all the technicians were to start wearing ties. Yes, we who crawl under your desks and pull cable and deal with your dirt on a daily basis are expected to dress as if we're going to a job interview. And oh yeah, no cargo pants.

Seriously? Cargo pants have been acceptable "business casual" attire for PC techs everywhere I've worked for the last twenty years, with DISH even going so far as to supply them for us. (Branded, of course.)

So after the boss man had his little meltdown over the chairs being moved back and he'd stormed out, I walked over to my immediate supervisor and said, "I don't think I am a good match for this environment." She apologized profusely and told me she understood completely. "Do you need to call your agency?" I told her I did.

So I walked outside and first called Ben, because I wasn't going to do anything without first consulting him.

Then I called the agency. It didn't come as a complete surprise because I'd emailed my recruiter yesterday basically saying the same thing about this place not being a good fit. "That's the beauty of contracting," I said. "You know if it's a good fit or not without a huge commitment."

I went back inside, retrieved my backpack and went to lunch.

When I returned from lunch, the boss man took me aside and told me he understood why I was leaving, but tried to backpedal and tell me that he had made it clear in our interview that this was a field service position.

Uh, no. No you didn't. If I'd known that I'd be expected to be mobile 8 hours a day I would never have agreed to come on board.

"I need guys who can hit the ground running after a week of hands-on training and go."

IN THIS ENVIRONMENT? ONE WEEK OF TRAINING WITH NO DOCUMENTATION?

He then signed my time card, and after retrieving my badge, escorted me out of the building—confirming everything I'd suspected about this place.

What have I learned from this? Well, for starters I am reminded that if someone is willing to pay substantially more than the going rate for my job description, there's a reason, and usually because the place is fucked and can't keep people. Secondly, I have a slew of new questions I'll be asking in all future interviews: hours, length of lunch breaks, acceptable attire, and just how messed up is your infrastructure, anyway?

Another agency is scheduling an interview for me next week at a non-healthcare company.

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!)

OH MY GOD. I know it's been only one day, but the place I'm going to be working at for the next month or so is about as far removed from my previous work environment as possible. I'd forgotten what it was like to work in an I.T. Department that isn't dripping with drama and dysfunction; a department filled with people who are genuinely friendly and actually seem to like being there and enjoy what they're doing.

And really, who can blame them? A relaxed dress code (I can wear jeans every day), an onsite cafeteria, more than adequate restroom facilities, and completely covered employee parking (something that if you don't live in Arizona you can't fully appreciate).

The folks I work with are helpful and encouraging; such a change from the majority of coworkers at my last place of employment. I didn't hear a single disparaging or inappropriate comment from anyone in the department and so to my former boss I say, See bitch? It's not like your feculent vat of toxic hellstew everywhere."

I was initially concerned about the commute. It's  about seven miles further each way than the one I had in Denver, but it turns out that even with it being a greater distance, it takes the same amount of time thanks to the valley's properly sized transportation infrastructure.

My only regret is that this is slated to be only a short-term gig. But then, so was my last job in Phoenix that ended up turning permanent and lasting nearly 8 years.

We shall see. In the meantime, I'm just going to relish actually looking forward to going to work again.

Yesterday was my last day at DISH. My eighteen months there was—without question—the absolute worst experience of my entire career. Maintaining my professionalism in the face of such unrelenting unprofessionalism exhibited by the immediate management and most of the members of my department was a huge drain, both physically and emotionally, and something I hope to never go through again.

That being said, I did gain some additional Windows 7 proficiency that I didn't have before coming on board, I received formal OS X training, and I made two new friends (forged through fire as it were), the only positive things to come out of the whole experience.

My exit interview was enlightening, only because it confirmed that our H.R. representative already knew about what had been going on down there.

I didn't use the phrase "Feculent Vat of Toxic Hellstew" to describe it, but I so wanted to.

Her eye rolls and other non-verbal reactions to my answers to her questions told me all I needed to know and I finally said, "I'm not telling you anything you haven't already heard, am I?"

She replied, "No, but I need multiple data points before any action can be taken. And I wish you had come to me earlier instead of letting it come down to this."

Like anything would have changed had I done that—and I told her as much. As long as my manager has the protection of our department's VP, nothing is going to happen.

If nothing else, it felt good to get it all off my chest.

Now I can begin to detox, and by this time next week—as I came to realize when we were on vacation in Atlanta a couple months ago—it will return to being nothing more than the distant, tiny, petty little box of toxic hellstew that it truly is; not the center of the universe as it would like to intimidate its employees into believing.

I put in my notice at work yesterday. Even before my boss had come in, I had this IM conversation with her boss:

While I wasn't the one to let it slip, this woman has known for weeks that I was leaving and on what day—as confirmed by "I had been waiting," so don't be acting all surprised, honey.

When my boss came in about fifteen minutes later, she was rejoicing that starting next Monday she was going to be out on vacation for two weeks.  One of my coworkers (who I had informed of my departure after sending my resignation email a few moments earlier) piped up and said, "Well that's two of you gone."

"Who's out next week?"

"Mark."

"I don't remember seeing that. Is it on the calendar?"

"No," my coworker continued. "He's out for good. Monday is his last day."

At that point I chimed in and said, "You haven't read your email yet."

She looked at me and the looks that crossed her face were priceless. First shock, then anger, and then it was as if a curtain dropped. "Really? I'm happy for you…and a little jealous."

Believe me, she won't be so happy after my exit interview with HR.

I can't describe how happy and relieved I am that this horrible experience is finally coming to an end. Working for ██████ has been the absolute worst experience of my professional life, bar none. (You know you've lost the respect of your employees when the threat of termination is perceived as a reward, not a deterrent.) I kept hoping that things would improve—hence the reason I haven't quit sooner—but they never did. It was only after Ben and I spent a week in Atlanta and I had a chance to detox (it literally felt like that) I came to see that despite its belief to the contrary, ██████ is not the center of the known universe. And my department especially is nothing more than a 30' x 30' square box of fecund hellstew; hence the brutal—and I must say, liberating—honesty with my manager's boss.

The main reason I didn't put in the customary two-week notice? Again and again I've seen the way this company treats its employees and I didn't want to risk being immediately escorted from the building after putting in my notice (it's happened). One week's wages I could—though not ideally—live without, if necessary. Two weeks was an unacceptable loss. While the escorting didn't happen, I know I'm going to be screwed over somehow before this process is complete. In fact, I'll be surprised if I'm not.

…when you realize you've wasted an entire year of your life dragging yourself into a place you loathe simply because you hate interviewing.

Yes, I'm wide awake at 3:30 am. Again.

If you're tired of hearing me bitch about work, you should probably move on.

Usually my Sunday evening blues don't hit until…well, Sunday evening. But they came early today.

On Friday, we were informed by La Chupacabra (the name a colleague and I have adopted for our manager) during our weekly meeting beatdown that starting immediately there would be changes in the way we do our jobs and that she would be micromanaging more, not less. And if we didn't like it—to use her favorite phrase, "SORRYFOYA!"

Apparently she got her ass handed to her on a platter by her boss's boss, and of course, shit flows downhill.

Until now, she had taken a very active role in the day-to-day functioning of the department. While all of us coded a portion of the incoming service tickets (because for some reason the Help Desk is incapable of doing it correctly), she handled the majority of them because they needed to be done just so or a rift would open in the space-time continuum. (Actually, it's so blame can be properly directed if something isn't done correctly, because at ██████ blame is the name of the game. During her coding, she's also worked several tickets that in her estimation were simply easier to do herself rather than assign out.

All that is changing.

No longer will she be coding tickets. That's a job that will now fall on each and every one of us. Further, she can no longer work any tickets. And finally, we're no longer able to choose which tickets we take on because she will be assigning each and every one of them. I see a huge disconnect there, but that's standard operating procedure at ██████.

It takes work to get voted the worst company in America to work for, after all.

If that weren't enough, our roles are changing. Until now, each of us had specialized in certain areas. Now we're all expected to be able to do everything. I see the logic in this, but it's nevertheless going to be a huge adjustment.

"AND WHY HAVEN'T YOU GOTTEN YOUR MAC CERTS?!"

I can adapt. I can change, but this, along with the other changes that have been put in place since the opening of our in-house blatant rip off of Apple's Genius Bar, are pushing all of us to the brink of quitting. And the more I think about it, the more I think this is upper management's ultimate goal.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was fighting a near-migraine. I went out and grabbed some food, hoping that (and a dose of ibuprofen) would help. It didn't; it only got worse. So I emailed my manager and went home.

She doesn't normally seem to read email (I called out sick once and she didn't even notice I was gone until late that day), so I was rather surprised when my colleague texted me and said she had openly mocked the email in front of the entire team. So professional, that one…

That is just another example of why—unlike all the other places I've worked—my department has a horrible—and well deserved reputation within the company. The frat-house mentality (that I've mentioned previously) I work in has not gone unnoticed, and my only question at this point is why its been allowed to continue.

When I brought this up in a one-on-one with my manager, her response was, "All PC Techs are like this."

Well, no they aren't, honey—and if you think they are, you need to get out into the world more.

One of my colleagues has told me I should consider putting in a transfer to another department, but what good would that do? The body rots from the head down, and after the recent purge of approximately 50 employees from the entire I.T. Division and their frog-march out of the building (WHY was I so unlucky not to be among them?!), shows me that ██████ management doesn't really give a shit about any of the people who work there.

I—like I'm sure many of my readers—have had some pretty shitty jobs and have worked for some awful companies, but during the 35 years I've been working  I've only walked out of three of them, the most recent being my last one. That is the reason I can't do it now—as deserving of it as it is and as much as I dream of it every. single. day. (If I'd only known what lay ahead I would never have left my previous company because that was a slice of heaven compared to my current place.) So I have to do the responsible, adult thing and make sure I have another job lined up before leaving.

(Or I could test the recent edict that going out the wrong door will result in my immediate termination.)

But not to come off as a completely Negative Nelly in all this, I've also had the pleasure of working for a some truly outstanding companies; places that were very difficult to leave even when circumstances demanded that I move on. Two of those were small architectural offices, and one was the healthcare company I worked for in Phoenix. In each of these cases, it was only my relocation to a new city that forced us to part ways.

In all those cases, I had a trial-by-fire before finding myself in their employ. I'm hoping that is the case here, and that the "third time's a charm" adage holds as true for Denver as it seems to have for every other time I've found myself in a new locale.

I'm registered on all the job boards, and I do get occasional calls from recruiters, but so far the jobs are either too much of a commute (sorry, I'm not driving to/from Boulder every day) or not enough money. (I recently laughed at a recruiter who was offering a position doing what I'm doing now that required a degree and multiple certifications that was paying $9 an hour. Yes, NINE DOLLARS an hour. Are these people on crack?)

I'm sure something good is going to come along…it's just a matter of surviving in the increasingly toxic environment at ██████ until it does.

…upon arriving at work. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

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.

Finally, something good has come from working at  ██████. And ironically, it may provide me just the ticket I need to get out of that hellhole.

Last week I—and four of my coworkers—spent three intensive days in offsite, company-paid Mac OS X training. Exactly why this was provided is not exactly clear to me since only directors and above have Macs which limits their penetration into the company, but I believe it has to do with the fact that we currently had only three Apple-certified techs on staff and if they're all out for whatever reason and someone with a with an "O" in their title has Mac problems, the whining can be deafening. Or maybe it's simply because the company finally upgraded to Mavericks (just in time for Yosemite!) and they figured we all needed a rounded education.

In any case, it was an enlightening three days. I can't honestly say I learned a lot of things I didn't already know, but what I did learn was very worthwhile, and if nothing else, further confirmed my love for the Apple ecosystem.

██████ is also paying for the first attempt at passing the certification test. I'm a little nervous about testing because—as I've written about before—I do horribly at these technical tests, but luckily we still have Ben's old MacBook and I was able to wipe and and recreate the training environment on it without problems (actually part of the training itself).

Fortunately I can retake the test as many times as necessary to pass—at $250 a pop, but still it would be nice if I could pass it the first time on their dime.

Ben and I are both on vacation next week. Sadly, for a multitude of reasons we aren't heading east to visit Erik again as originally planned, but counting the three days of training, the time away from ██████ comes to a total of 12 glorious days; almost half a month—and even without a road trip, it will not be wasted.

I intend to double-down on getting this training material committed to memory so I can feel comfortable going into the test. When I pass and get that certification, it will definitely look good on my resume, even if I don't end up working for a company that uses Macs.

In addition to me studying, we're also planning on spending a day at Rocky Mountain National Park and another day at the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit. There will also be a few movies thrown in, and just a general exhalation from not having to be at the frat house.

…how being forced to attend a mandatory company outing—and having to pay for the privilege ourselves—can be considered "getting the day off."

Hey, we're not known as "America's second worst company to work for" for no reason!

…that I've reached the age where I no longer suffer fools gladly, because while I appreciate the clarity age has given me, the downside is that most days I feel like I'm working in a goddamned frat house.

…back in the mid 90s when I got into this PC Support thing full time, I often fantasized that as personal computers became more and more entrenched in the business world, the technicians who supported and maintained those systems would come to be viewed as the Emergency Room doctors of the 21st century and afforded the same level of respect—not to mention remuneration—worthy of that skill set.

Ha!

Fourteen years into the new millennium, it's obvious that we aren't viewed as professionals doing the cybernetic equivalent of saving lives, but rather as janitors cleaning up everyone else's messes—and in the case of my current place of employment, being required to wear uniforms as if to drive that point home.

But does being viewed as modern day toilet-bowl cleaners explain why the other members of my team—composed of men in their 30s and 40s who have incredible expertise—together seem to have the collective emotional maturity of a twelve year old?

I'd seen glimpses of this during the time I was contracting, but since I was sequestered away in another work area during that period I was only really exposed to juvenile email strings that would belch forth on occasion. Easily ignored, and almost all of the personal interaction I'd had with these guys was respectful and professional.

Then I got hired and moved into the main work area.

This, dear readers, is why I will not ever be going permanent with this company…

The day after I snapped this photo, a second webcam was installed in the tech work room (because apparently there was an area they couldn't monitor).

You don't trust me?

I don't trust you.

It's no wonder this company has such a horrible reputation.