First off: I considered making this thread under the "blog" heading but I decided I'd prefer it OTO. This is the only thread I plan on replying and posting in for the time being, and it is "mine". If you have some stupid crappy comment about Zeus knows what, or some other offtopic lunacy take it elsewhere. This is not, and will not be the place for it.
Secondly: Nothing at work prevents me from posting. I chose to stop. This is my attempt at making this forum interesting again. I'm going to try to make threads that actually have a point and purpose to them, because that is what once made this forum a great place to be.
What this thread is: This is where I will be posting the on-going and somewhat funny tales that I experience working at a new place with some odd people. Please post similiar stories here if you can do so in a somewhat intelligent manner. This is not a thread for stupid crap like "omg so today my coworkrr sended me this so funy youtube video and we all laft, here it is guyz!", take that crap to the random thread and fornicate yourself with some splintery balsa wood on your way there. Since this thread is OTO if you don't like the content don't even bother hitting the reply button, just go somewhere else.
And now on to the actual content....
I need to start out by once again publicly thanking Fly, specifically for getting me this job and for all intents and purposes turning around the crappiest year this decade (2007) into so far what has been an extremely rewarding and fun new year (2008). I am fortunate enough to now work with Zac (albiet in different states) and have found him to be one of the most useful, creative, and intelligent co-workers that I've ever had, and I have to chalk up at least some of my success at this job to him and his being an available resource for me when I get stuck.
Thanks buddy.
Now to introduce the players in these stories...
Ernie - 40-something, overweight, balding, no self-esteem, terrible with money, and divorced (no kids). Ernie has a good heart but I'm disappointed to say that he suffers from a horrible case of just being a pussy. He slumps his shoulders when he walks and generally acts like the world's doormat. People commonly walk all over him, and I'd feel bad for him if he didn't bring it upon himself. Much to the surprise of everyone he was promoted to "Windows Server Admin" late last year, and is always ready to tell anyone who will listen what his job title is. He likes to talk, a lot. He rambles on for days at a time about things he commonly has absolutely no understanding of. I find myself trying to politely cut him off and occasionally saying "Get to the point, Ernie." He's a horrible speller and couldn't draft a professional-sounding email to save his life. A few weeks ago he asked me to spell "status" for him, and then had me create a sentence using it so he could send it off to his boss. Somewhere along the line he picked up the misguided conception that "admin" translates to "KNYTE's boss", which it does not. He's now in a separate department and for all intents and purposes only one promotion above me, and not my superior, and he's 12+ year's older than I am. He makes stupid mistakes, takes long lunches, and has gotten complacent 6 months into his new position. If administration was what I wanted to go into, I'd know exactly who to gun for.
Ben - 50-something, tall, skiny (gangly?), divorced (one kid, a 23 year old girl who is hot actually), inwardly angry, short-tempered. Ben used to work in asphalt. I know this because he reminds me at least weekly. I do not know why he reminds me of such a thing, but he does. He used to make parking lots for office buildings, and has the aged skin and poor sense of what one should, and should not say at work to show for it. Ben doesn't handle stress well, and is terrified of change. He's been doing things the same way around here for years and will fight tooth and nail to preserve those methods. If presented with a new, better, and faster process he immediately tries to try to find fault in it. He will spend more time in a day trying to find something wrong with something new than actually doing something productive. I am not exaggerating that statement in the least bit. Ben has this bizarre office interaction/problem resolution policy that involves starting arguments on the floor for all to see and hear. I made the mistake of allowing him to pull me into one once and told him never do it again, ever. Ben is old, almost 50 from what I understand, and ironically I could actually see myself becoming him if I continued to make career mistakes and hadn't changed my attitude towards work. Ben and I are both Network Analysts, peers if you will, but due to the fact that Ben has been here 5 years he also has generated this idea that he is my boss, which he is not. For the purpose of maintaining the peace I appear to humor his constant pseudo-orders and insistence that things be done his (old) way, but in reality I continue to go about my business with whatever new tools are at my disposal. Honestly I really am concerned that one day he's going to find out that I do things differently and lose his freaking mind.
Lonny – 40-something, whiny, divorced (no kids), sometimes condescending, panicky. Lonny is "the boss”. I use quotes because he isn't officially a manager, yet. He's on probation as a manager while the bigwigs try him out or find someone better. Lonny regularly says things like “when they make me manager” before going on a tirade about he's going to change things. What I've been unable to determine is why he isn't trying to change things RIGHT NOW while on probation to prove that he's capable of doing so. Lonny worked for “the phone company” for longer than I've been alive, climbing up phone poles and such, I guess. He's nice enough, but has a mean and condescending streak that will appear out of nowhere almost instantly. Lonny will occasionally respond to perfectly reasonable questions with a smart-ass and sometimes venomous response for no discernible reason. The first few times this happened I chalked it up to a bad day or something, but since have realized that it really is just how he is. Lonny also whines, a lot. He whines about problems with the budget, he whines about problems with other managers, he whines about problems with the phones and computers, he whines about lunch not being long enough to play a “real” game of World Of Warcraft. I'm not joking about that, at all. Lonny and I had a few misunderstandings initially because he's very short in what he asks for. He says “Go do this”, but expects you to do that and 5 other things that he thought of after the conversation was over. I've overcome this barrier by routinely asking more questions than I should have to so I stay ahead of him. Lonny likes me because I keep my mouth shut, I'm nice to people on the floor, and I get things done.
Me – The new and improved KNYTE, now with pull-string polite phrases like “Sure thing, boss”, “Anything I can do to help?”, and “Good morning!”. Over the last year I came to the conclusion that no matter how good I am at my job I will never make it in the corporate world with just merit on my side. I now know that I have to “play the game”. I have to shake hands, kiss babies, clean up messes, be polite, and make friends with as many people as I can. When I first started doing this whole routine I would go home each night feeling sick to my stomach. It was not me, I was being fake, and I hated it. But after 3 months I'm quite terrified and disgusted to say that I'm actually starting to like being nice to people *shudder. I call total strangers on the phone and act like we've been friends for years, I pretend to care about sports, TV, and even NASCAR on occasion. I stop people in the hall that I barely know and ask how their day is going. Again, the worst and most terrifying part of it all, is that I actually sort of like it. The absolutely bizarre part for me is seeing how much of a difference it makes. People smile at me and do things for me quickly, co-workers talk about me warmly to each other, bosses who I have never personally met know my name and hear of my good deeds from the people underneath them. If I had known years ago that the difference would be so stark in contrast I would have probably made the change sooner. I hear from a good friend that people are pleased with my performance and consider me someone to be depended upon and trusted. In some of the cases the things I hear portray me as being the only person in IT in this office who (his words) “knows what he's doing”. I guess change is a good thing.
Zac - You know him as Fly, I don't need to introduce that fgt any further.
Secondly: Nothing at work prevents me from posting. I chose to stop. This is my attempt at making this forum interesting again. I'm going to try to make threads that actually have a point and purpose to them, because that is what once made this forum a great place to be.
What this thread is: This is where I will be posting the on-going and somewhat funny tales that I experience working at a new place with some odd people. Please post similiar stories here if you can do so in a somewhat intelligent manner. This is not a thread for stupid crap like "omg so today my coworkrr sended me this so funy youtube video and we all laft, here it is guyz!", take that crap to the random thread and fornicate yourself with some splintery balsa wood on your way there. Since this thread is OTO if you don't like the content don't even bother hitting the reply button, just go somewhere else.
And now on to the actual content....
I need to start out by once again publicly thanking Fly, specifically for getting me this job and for all intents and purposes turning around the crappiest year this decade (2007) into so far what has been an extremely rewarding and fun new year (2008). I am fortunate enough to now work with Zac (albiet in different states) and have found him to be one of the most useful, creative, and intelligent co-workers that I've ever had, and I have to chalk up at least some of my success at this job to him and his being an available resource for me when I get stuck.
Thanks buddy.
Now to introduce the players in these stories...
Ernie - 40-something, overweight, balding, no self-esteem, terrible with money, and divorced (no kids). Ernie has a good heart but I'm disappointed to say that he suffers from a horrible case of just being a pussy. He slumps his shoulders when he walks and generally acts like the world's doormat. People commonly walk all over him, and I'd feel bad for him if he didn't bring it upon himself. Much to the surprise of everyone he was promoted to "Windows Server Admin" late last year, and is always ready to tell anyone who will listen what his job title is. He likes to talk, a lot. He rambles on for days at a time about things he commonly has absolutely no understanding of. I find myself trying to politely cut him off and occasionally saying "Get to the point, Ernie." He's a horrible speller and couldn't draft a professional-sounding email to save his life. A few weeks ago he asked me to spell "status" for him, and then had me create a sentence using it so he could send it off to his boss. Somewhere along the line he picked up the misguided conception that "admin" translates to "KNYTE's boss", which it does not. He's now in a separate department and for all intents and purposes only one promotion above me, and not my superior, and he's 12+ year's older than I am. He makes stupid mistakes, takes long lunches, and has gotten complacent 6 months into his new position. If administration was what I wanted to go into, I'd know exactly who to gun for.
Ben - 50-something, tall, skiny (gangly?), divorced (one kid, a 23 year old girl who is hot actually), inwardly angry, short-tempered. Ben used to work in asphalt. I know this because he reminds me at least weekly. I do not know why he reminds me of such a thing, but he does. He used to make parking lots for office buildings, and has the aged skin and poor sense of what one should, and should not say at work to show for it. Ben doesn't handle stress well, and is terrified of change. He's been doing things the same way around here for years and will fight tooth and nail to preserve those methods. If presented with a new, better, and faster process he immediately tries to try to find fault in it. He will spend more time in a day trying to find something wrong with something new than actually doing something productive. I am not exaggerating that statement in the least bit. Ben has this bizarre office interaction/problem resolution policy that involves starting arguments on the floor for all to see and hear. I made the mistake of allowing him to pull me into one once and told him never do it again, ever. Ben is old, almost 50 from what I understand, and ironically I could actually see myself becoming him if I continued to make career mistakes and hadn't changed my attitude towards work. Ben and I are both Network Analysts, peers if you will, but due to the fact that Ben has been here 5 years he also has generated this idea that he is my boss, which he is not. For the purpose of maintaining the peace I appear to humor his constant pseudo-orders and insistence that things be done his (old) way, but in reality I continue to go about my business with whatever new tools are at my disposal. Honestly I really am concerned that one day he's going to find out that I do things differently and lose his freaking mind.
Lonny – 40-something, whiny, divorced (no kids), sometimes condescending, panicky. Lonny is "the boss”. I use quotes because he isn't officially a manager, yet. He's on probation as a manager while the bigwigs try him out or find someone better. Lonny regularly says things like “when they make me manager” before going on a tirade about he's going to change things. What I've been unable to determine is why he isn't trying to change things RIGHT NOW while on probation to prove that he's capable of doing so. Lonny worked for “the phone company” for longer than I've been alive, climbing up phone poles and such, I guess. He's nice enough, but has a mean and condescending streak that will appear out of nowhere almost instantly. Lonny will occasionally respond to perfectly reasonable questions with a smart-ass and sometimes venomous response for no discernible reason. The first few times this happened I chalked it up to a bad day or something, but since have realized that it really is just how he is. Lonny also whines, a lot. He whines about problems with the budget, he whines about problems with other managers, he whines about problems with the phones and computers, he whines about lunch not being long enough to play a “real” game of World Of Warcraft. I'm not joking about that, at all. Lonny and I had a few misunderstandings initially because he's very short in what he asks for. He says “Go do this”, but expects you to do that and 5 other things that he thought of after the conversation was over. I've overcome this barrier by routinely asking more questions than I should have to so I stay ahead of him. Lonny likes me because I keep my mouth shut, I'm nice to people on the floor, and I get things done.
Me – The new and improved KNYTE, now with pull-string polite phrases like “Sure thing, boss”, “Anything I can do to help?”, and “Good morning!”. Over the last year I came to the conclusion that no matter how good I am at my job I will never make it in the corporate world with just merit on my side. I now know that I have to “play the game”. I have to shake hands, kiss babies, clean up messes, be polite, and make friends with as many people as I can. When I first started doing this whole routine I would go home each night feeling sick to my stomach. It was not me, I was being fake, and I hated it. But after 3 months I'm quite terrified and disgusted to say that I'm actually starting to like being nice to people *shudder. I call total strangers on the phone and act like we've been friends for years, I pretend to care about sports, TV, and even NASCAR on occasion. I stop people in the hall that I barely know and ask how their day is going. Again, the worst and most terrifying part of it all, is that I actually sort of like it. The absolutely bizarre part for me is seeing how much of a difference it makes. People smile at me and do things for me quickly, co-workers talk about me warmly to each other, bosses who I have never personally met know my name and hear of my good deeds from the people underneath them. If I had known years ago that the difference would be so stark in contrast I would have probably made the change sooner. I hear from a good friend that people are pleased with my performance and consider me someone to be depended upon and trusted. In some of the cases the things I hear portray me as being the only person in IT in this office who (his words) “knows what he's doing”. I guess change is a good thing.
Zac - You know him as Fly, I don't need to introduce that fgt any further.
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