138 posts tagged “work”

On Saturday morning (yes, I work 6 days a week now), I got this e-mail (replicated here in full) from the project's director, in response to an e-mail I sent out detailing some issues with our project:

We need to get the issues in Train resolved first. Who is working on these issues from the dev team?

Excuse me?  Who's the director here?  Me or you?  I suppose the question could have been directed at his counterpart on the contractors team, but he sent this fantastic one line note to me an hour later (with a CC back to original director):

I am going out now so please follow-up with [Team Lead A] & [Team Lead B].

Again, I have to ask, who is running this project?  Me?  Because if it is, where's the fucking money?  And why can't I fire the 3/4 of the dev team who consistently fuck up?  The ones who contribute little or nothing to the project?  The ones who actually cause more issues than they resolve?  The ones who wrapped perfectly good checked exceptions inside of useless unchecked exception because it was "easier" (for you non-programmers, it's like wrapping a hammer in a feather pillow - completely ruins the tool for what it's supposed to be used for)?  Why can't I impose process?  Why can't I demand the "A game" from the other teams?

Why am I the one getting yelled at for being unprofessional? 

Why am I the one being criticized for not taking ownership?

More rope?

Anyone who's been reading this for the last couple of months knows that I work with, and let's be polite, Gumbies.  Here are my coworkers in action:

Yesterday, I went to lunch with some of my fellow team members.  I got to talking with one of the few competent devs on this project, a lovely young lady, and Spurs fan (she's young, she'll learn eventually).  One of the Gumbies is her team lead.  We got to chatting about the deployment date for our application.  Our current deploy date is the 19th.  I don't have high hopes of it.  But I am doing my best to meet the date, because that's what I do.  It's OK to doubt the date.  If you're an adult, you are probably capable of being trained.  And we've all been trained on this project to doubt the date using simple repetition techniques.  But we're also responsible for being ready for the date, just in case. 

Not so for Gumby Team Lead.  She told her team members that the 19th probably wasn't going to be the date.  Oh, sure, officially, it is, but it probably won't be, she said.  She took pains to stress that.  So now, her team doesn't think they have to meet the deadline.  This dev I went to lunch with was confident that the 19th wasn't the date.  It's not surprising, really, since Gumby's team has the largest number of chronic deadline flaunters on the project.  Most of her devs couldn't meet a deadline if you threatened them with a chainsaw.  And now we know why: deadlines mean nothing to them, because their Gumby Team Lead has made it clear that there are absolutely no consequences for missing a deadline, whether it's a daily schedule or a project timeline.   The 19th?  Don't worry about it, it doesn't really matter.

We need to send her for brain surgery.  And I really want to be the anesthetician. 

Friday was another banner day for me.  I got yelled at again.  This time for having the gall to say the production environment was ready.  Well, it is.  I really can't help it if the data in the DB is wrong, or the ESB service hasn't been properly maintained.  The connections work.  Thus, the environment is ready.  The code and the data, maybe not so much, but that's not what I'm supposed to be concerning myself about.

My favorite part was where I was accused of not taking ownership.  That I had been, up to the end of March, but since then, not so much.  Let's see.  What happened that the end of March that might have made me think that getting the production environment working wasn't worth the effort?  Oh, yeah, right, being told that we weren't going to production in April.  Guess what?  The environment hasn't changed at all.  Everything that worked in March works now.  Once again, it's not my environment that's failing, it's the code and the data, and I'm not going to be held responsible for that.  Period.

Vito and I were laughing so hard yesterday, I started having a coughing fit. 

Why?

More rope.

See, the development team "leadership" decided that Vito and I, who used to be called build managers, would now be more like build lackeys.  They had a meeting on Monday, with no build managers present, where they decided to not have a build schedule.  They'd just ask for builds whenever, and, well, Vito and I would simply have to do them.  After my less than useful meeting last Friday, and Vito's experiences with attempting to enforce any kind of process, we decided, what the hell, let's just do it and see how long it takes to seriously screw something up.

You know how in those pirate movies there's always that one scene where the captain is fighting the wheel in a storm?  And then something happens and he lets go of the wheel?  And the wheel just starts spinning out of control and the ship sinks?  Well, we're not sunk yet, but that wheel could power lower Manhattan for a month.

We did 10 builds and/or deployments between 11 AM and 7 PM.  Every build got worse, because no one knew what was supposed to be fixed by what time.  We had complaints from the developers because every time we do a build, they have to update their copy of the code from our code management tool.  Each update can take up to 20 minutes, depending on how busy the server is.  Considering the build load, I expect it was pretty busy.  Updates block all other activities.  So that's, let's see, 20 minutes times 10 . . . heck let's just call it three hours per developer of lost productivity.  Yesterday.  Not over a whole week.  In one day.

More rope.

And the builds?  Are they even being tested?  How can they be?  A deployment takes time.  The servers have to come back on line.  In one instance, Vito finished the automated test scripts and was asked, before he was able to send out the results, to do another build.  There's no way that was actually tested to confirm the supposed fixes were working.

More rope.

Almost every build we did had to be done twice because some developer had some extra code to check in.  Why?  How can we blame them now?  There's no schedule for them to even try to adhere to, even if, for the most part, they didn't adhere to it when we had one.

More.

Rope.

We got a suggestion from one of the team leads to put up a sign with the build schedule, because all the e-mails we were sending out were confusing (we announce the build, the deployment and the test resutls - that's at least 30 messages every person on the development team got from us in 8 hours).  First of all, what schedule?  Second of all, half the devs are on the other side of the building, and won't see the sign.  Our counter proposal was for me to hold the sign above my head and walk around like one of those girls at a boxing match announcing the round number.  I even offered to wear a bikini.  The other counter proposal was to have one of those scrolling LED signs to announce the build schedule like a stock ticker.  I'm actually working on that now, to put it on our build SharePoint site.  It's required me to get Visual Studio and learn how to make Web Parts.  It's a waste of time, because no one is ever going to bother looking at it.  But, let's remember, I'm a build lackey now: they ask, I do, that's my role.

More.

The crowning achievement in the world of absurdity was this: Vito, very slowly, very carefully, very clearly, explained that each build was getting worse because there was no coordination, and no one could tell when anything was going to happen, or what fixes were supposed to go in which build.  Case in point, one of the introduced failures was because of some updates that went in without the knowledge of any of the team leads because the team leads spent all day asking for builds, rather than LEADING their TEAMS.  The team lead's response?  "Why is it like this?"  My jaw very nearly dropped right off my face.  Vito just explained it to you.  Do you want pictures?  A pop-up book? 101 Ways to Fuck a Project in the Ass?  Perhaps a copy of Listening Skills for Fucking Retards?

Rope.

Vito and I were literally falling out of our chairs laughing about this. 

The best part?  I worked 15 hours yesterday.  Fat load of OT.  And we accomplished exactly nothing.  And today looks like it's going to be another side-splitter.

So, I just need to survive here until the end of July.  I made myself a reminder.

I guess that's really what they want from me at work.  Not an employee.   A nanny.  Who never gets upset with the children, no matter how many times she tells them not to wipe their nose on the sofa.  Do we make the devs manage their own code merges?  No.  Let the build team do it.  Do we make the testing leads learn how to use the tools the company paid so much for?  No.  Let the build team hand them their updates on a silver platter.  Do we trust the team leads to come to some sort of consensus about when they'd like the next build?  No.  Let the build team just do whatever is asked of them, even if it makes no sense, or isn't possible, or simply wastes time.

Must be nice being able to rely on the build team to do everything, and take the blame for everything, and ignore them when they make suggestions to improve the process. 

And if one of them happens to lose their temper, well, let's not wonder why, or even try to fix the underlying situation.  Let's just scold him for being unprofessional.

Yes, that was me today.  I'm not a very good nanny, apparently.  Curse my desire to hold people to a higher standard.

I've blogged around here a couple of times about the awards I've been getting lately both on the project and within the wider company setting.  Well, I've decided that, apart from the monetary gain, the awards are pretty worthless.  Why?  I've found out who else has gotten the same awards.  And, for the most part, it's developers that couldn't code their way out of a paper sack, and "leaders" who think getting everyone to jump off a building is setting a good example.  One of the Tiger Awards was given to a developer on the project whose list of achievements were mostly accomplished by getting someone else to think for him.  That someone else often being me.  And my Leadership Awards?  Another developer on this same project has one, and I know for a fact that his idea of leadership is to cause problems which he then fixes by getting someone else to do the work for him.  Seriously, if you're going to give out these awards to, basically, dead weight, don't bother giving them to me.

Inanimate carbon rod indeed.

Yes, it's been a long while since I've blogged, I know.  

Some minor things have been happening.  First among them is that Ladybug took ill and had to spend the entirety of last week on unpaid leave of absence.  That put a lot of work on my shoulders, let me tell you.  It mostly meant a lot less free time for me to do much of anything of a personal nature, and this blog absolutely falls under the auspices of "personal."

The kids have been waking up a lot at night lately.  Maybe it's the change in season, with the evenings getting longer, that is causing this restiveness.  Maybe it's the generalized illness circulating around the house (I was sick as well).  Growing pains perhaps.  They share a room now, so there's bound to be an adjustment period there as well.

Work has tailed off a bit.  I managed to submit a timesheet with no overtime at all, and last weekend, for the first time in a long time, I got no calls and no work requests.  I was sick, so in the end, it's a good thing no one called, but the general downturn in OT has meant that I've been studiously avoiding being on the computer if at all possible, devoting more time to the kids and family.  Lately, once I get home, the computer is just something providing ambient light near the kitchen.

But there is, by far, a larger item that it has taken me a while to come to grips with.

On the day after my last blog entry, I got a phone call from someone I hadn't heard from directly in some time.  An ex-coworker of mine, Erik, from back when I taught Java with GE.  This would have been 2001-2002.  So, 6 years or so, since I got more than an e-mail forwarded from him detailing some humorous vignette or call to action to save some legislation or kill it.  

We were a pretty close knit bunch.  Five instructors: myself, Danny, Dave, Crystal, and Blood Dragon.  Also, kat>>/dev/null, for a while, though she broke our hearts by moving to San Francisco.  Diane was our receptionist, Cindy was our marketdroid.  There were even some contract instructors that we worked with a lot, Erik being one of them.  We had a lot of fun, and spent a good deal of time outside of work together as well.  Since that time, I haven't worked with a closer-knit bunch of people, and, obviously, I still consider them all to be very good friends.  We're all still in touch, one way or another.

Well, Erik called to tell me that Dave had been killed in a motorcycle accident that morning.

I was heartbroken.  Dave was such a fantastic person, personable, a loving husband, a devoted son, and so funny I almost had to cancel class one day because of something he said over lunch that I just couldn't get out of my head.  He also managed to seriously annoy Crystal on a regular basis, but, well, that was pretty endearing to me as well.  I went to his wedding reception and saw him graciously accept six (that's one more than five but not quite seven) crock pots.  He later regifted one to me on the occasion of my wedding to Ladybug.  I had a good chuckle about that as well.  We use it to make chili.

Dave and I were the last employees in Phoenix when they closed the center.

I saw him a couple months after that at a lunch with the Old Gang.  He, Danny and Crystal had all moved to Sierra Vista.  He and Danny were working together at the army base, and tried to convince BloodDragon and I to join them.  Crystal also talked up the benefits of life in Sierra Vista, thus earning the trio the nickname of SV Rotary Club.  I really couldn't leave Phoenix, I like it here too much.  All my family is here.  They had carved out a very nice life in Sierra Vista, though.  I can't say I wasn't a little envious that they had managed to keep working together.  That was really the last contact I had with him.  I visited Crystal once, and she has been to Phoenix a couple of times, but I never managed to arrange getting the Old Gang together again.  News of Crystal's impending nuptials this summer might have been the impetus we'd need.

But Erik's call put a stop to all of that.  

I've been struggling with how I feel.  Oh, there's sadness and regret there.  Also happiness that I was, ever so briefly, walking in his circle.  Honestly, though, this is the first time that someone in my age group that I care about has died.  Sure, back in high school, a couple of popular kids were killed when they, in an alcohol induced stupor, drove their birthday present Mustang into a telephone pole.  As a teenage outsider, I didn't have much sympathy.  In fact, I had no sympathy.  Worse than that, I considered that if I had been standing in front of the telephone pole and was now just as dead, all the outpouring of grief would still be for the idiot underage drinkers with their silver spoon.  But I digress (and was 17).  All of my grandparents are dead, so it's not like I've never been to a funeral or anything.  And people I've cared deeply about have died, and I've reacted as most people do.  But this was mortality looking me smack in the face and saying, "Someday, I'm coming for you, buddy."  Old people die.  Young people die.  Everyone dies.  I know this, at a logically clinical level.  This was more like the personification of Death riding up on his skeletal steed, flaming sword in the scabbard, ethereal scythe in hand, and pointing at my face, the ultimate promise made.

It's not fear, exactly.  I don't fear death.  Most people who've driven with me for any length of time come to that conclusion.  It's just not something that I've really thought about.  And now I'm thinking about it.  But I'm not sure, yet, what I am thinking.

Anyway, now you know what would keep me off the blogosphere for over two weeks.  I don't plan on letting that happen again for a while.

Hey everyone, I know the posts have been few and far between around here lately.  What it comes down to is me working 6 days a week now, and that's only because I came to an understanding with the project.  Most of the rest of the team is working 7 days a week.  It's a nightmare, and, generally, I don't have the 20 minutes or so I need every day to come up with a post any more.

Hopefully, I will be able to come to grips with the project when we finally reach our (delayed twice already) release date.  I don't have high hopes.

Expect intermittent posts to continue.

Over the weekend, Ladybug and I stole a Sunday afternoon together.  Sister-in-law is in town, so she took the kids, and we went to a movie and dinner.  Saw The Bank Job which was actually a pretty darn good crime thriller, though I was beginning to despair of ever seeing Jason Statham kick anyone.  He does.  At the end.  But it's not a kicking people film.  So don't go expecting that.  Do go expecting to see rather a lot of tits and ass.  And, of course, loads of plot twists and some guy who looks superficially like John Lennon.  He plays John Lennon.  It's not high cinema, to be sure, but it's a departure work for Statham, and that makes it worth seeing.  If you like Statham.  Which I do.

After that, dinner, and talking without being interrupted every two minutes.  I think we had forgotten what that's like, because we both kept stopping mid-sentence, almost like we need interruptions now to line up our next thoughts.  The both of us are in mid-freak-out about the new baby, and the way things are going around the house (Ladybug was home late for the first part of the week, I was home late on Friday - suffice it to say, the house went to hell).  I think we need a vacation from the children.  Or a vacation with the children, but also with a nanny for the children.  We've both gotten very short with them.  I really hate that I am getting short with them, and that it's because of the state of affairs at work.  I need to find a way to refocus once I leave work.  Of course, it would help if I ever actually left work.  I'm basically on call all the time now.  Which makes things hard. 

Very hard. 

So, there it is, I've circled back to where I started.  Work is taking up too much of my life these days, and there is no clear end in sight.  We'll see when the next post happens.

Just a little under 8 hours.  And since the client lead is out today as well, I see no reason why I can't leave at my usual time.

Didn't get any packing done last night.

I'm short a day on my time card, since I'm not working tomorrow, but I still somehow managed to rack up 25 hours of overtime.  I guess it'll help pay for San Diego, my new computer, the year off Ladybug is taking . . .

I want my time back, though.