Cubicle Cultures
3 Walls, plenty of stories
Journal for the week of 6/12/17
6/12/17
0927 — Late entry but I was in ~0800 today. The real reason is that I forgot to get this going till now. Meetings from 0900 till noon including a monthly Leads meeting. I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into a complaint session. The last one went pretty well and this one probably will too. Had to work yesterday (Sunday, 6/11) for an hour. It would have been 10 minutes but the PM disappeared and we couldn’t send the final email without her approval. Eventually it got sent and all was well. We were all worried about her, it’s not like her at all to simply stop communicating especially during an implementation. When I reached out this morning she mentioned that she had to attend to her kid and I didn’t take it any further. The kid is ok and so is she which is all that matters. Family first.
From the cubicle: I’m having a Ferris Bueller moment. It’s so beautiful outside and I’d like to take advantage of it. How can I expect to be able to handle work on a day like this? This morning I found a ridiculously large bruise on the back of my left leg. No idea how I got there and can’t remember bumping my leg on anything over the weekend. The gig on Saturday went well, far and away my best performance with this band. The one thing that almost ruined it for me was that the band leader wanted to let a couple of his friends play. He asked if they could use my guitar and sing, relegating me to drums which I’m switching to at some point. I am NOT one to let anybody use my equipment but, in the moment, I didn’t want to come across as an asshole. I was pissed because I practiced and expected to do some singing, coincidentally, the guys sang a couple of the tunes I was slated to. When putting together the setlist, a couple of the songs I wanted to sing were omitted which was ok to a point. We had a guy who played and sang fill in for our lead singer who’s still in AZ taking care of her dad’s funeral. The sub was decent and we got through the gig. The band leader thought the gig was crap until he got some compliments from the public and his wife thought we sounded good. I vented to my wife when I got home and she was shocked to hear I let someone use my rig. I’ll not do that again and I’m still pissed about it. Our next gig is on 7/1 so I hope we practice before then and I’ll probably talk to the band leader before it to clear the air. The only time I felt comfortable with this band was during this gig. Practices can be fun but the gigs, for me, haven’t been. Sounds like I need to back out which I probably will at some point but I made a commitment and regretting that at the moment.
1209 — Meetings went well…and wonderfully quick. The Leads meeting is always a good one to attend. Good discussions about what we’re up against like resource needs/planning/utilization. We also discuss what we’re lacking in knowledge like budgeting and communication. We have a meeting with management Wednesday afternoon to discuss the points from our last meeting. All day I’ve not been able to sign into our PROD system. I get an “Application not available” error which I know is bullshit. I called our Service Desk and submitted a ticket. Whoever worked the ticket didn’t do a damn bit of legwork and said that, basically, I was using the wrong ID/Password to sign in. Not the case. As a developer we have access to systems using more than one verification sign on. In this case I was trying to sign into the environment using my mainframe profile and couldn’t get in. The “solution” the person who worked the ticket was that I was supposed to use a different profile. It kills me that no one reached out with any questions about it but they’re probably busy in our Computer Security team and generically closed the ticket without even looking at it. A couple of packages full of programs that we modified last week went live and I can’t completely validate the changes until I have access…so it’ll sit till I do. Oh well.
From the cubicle: Just called to see if I can drop my car off at the shop tonight and the vendor said no problem. The shop is only open 9–5 Monday-Friday. I have a 2003 Corvette with a nasty rumble/bounce in the aft end and hoping it’s just an alignment or tire balance issue. Problem with Corvettes is that they sit so low to the ground, many shops don’t have a lift low enough to get them off the ground.
1458 — Can’t open several applications and I don’t want to restart my box. So…I’ll shut it down at EOD and hope for the best tomorrow. This is frustrating AF because it’s not allowing me to get to my documents on the desktop. FRUSTRATING. AS. FUCK!!!! Been quite a Monday.
From the cubicle: We got notice today from our CIO (awesome guy) that our IT shop got named one of “Computerworld’s 2017 Best Places to Work in IT”. Not a bad accomplishment. It was based on based on a survey of employee satisfaction, company benefits, and career development. The last one I don’t agree with at all but the other two I’m on board with. We have a great bunch of folks here to readily help when needed. Been here 10 years and have had few problems with people…I hope they feel the same about me.
1554 — Bottom has officially dropped out. I don’t want to be here but still have 30–45 minutes left. A bit of a food coma coupled with lack of decent sleep isn’t working in my favor. The same expressions are on the faces of the folks around me.
1626- Out.
6/13/17
0820 — In…late. My car is in the shop and I had to drop my wife at the Metro. Then discovered I forgot my badge and had to stop by the house and get it. On top of being late, I have to leave a bit early for a doc appointment for another acupuncture treatment. Gonna be one of those days. Only 2 required meetings today so I shouldn’t be missing much.
0947 — Meeting over and now I have to create more on-call lists for the team. They all know it’s coming and it’s not going to be pretty. No one likes being on-call and we tend to get called for anything because that people that assign incident tickets don’t fully read the list to see who does what. It’s always been a sore spot with our Service Desk as they’re the 2nd line of defense but I won’t knock them for it. When shit is really hitting the fan they have to take action and they’re great at what they do, just need some improvement in that area.
1321 — Busy morning. On-call lists along with some new group names have been created in a couple of different places (database and ticketing system). I keep hesitating hitting “send” on an email to the team. Re-reading it 1000 times is in order before sending it. NO ONE will be happy about this but they new it was coming. This isn’t one of the more fun aspects of my job but it’s necessary.
From the cubicle: My wife started a text chain with me and our three daughters. She sent a video of a prairie dog in a sweater, sitting on a couch like a person, eating a piece of cheese. Cuteness overload!! I, of course, immediately said I wanted one since Father’s Day is on Sunday. Then…another video was sent showing a prairie dog playing with a housecat and I damn near broke my face smiling. After watching the second video, there was one queued up after it on YouTube on the pros and cons of owning a prairie dog. The pros: cute as hell. The cons: chews up everything in sight. I sent the video to the ladies and my wife responded with, “Yea, not happening”. So I guess I won’t get one this year. I’ve been pining for a ‘snuggle kitty’, basically a cat that likes to be held and welcomes snuggling. Yes…I’m a sissy for cats. I had a cat, Archie, for 15 years that LOVED getting attention and would ride around my shoulders as often as possible. He got me through a lot including a divorce and loneliness. After he passed, my wife let me get a tattoo of him. Obviously I still miss him. Our current cat, Olive D’Cat, is very loving but doesn’t like being picked up. She’s an indoor/outdoor cat and, I’ve mentioned before, brings critters in the house. I really love her and we can’t imagine life without little Olive. HOWEVER…I want a snuggle kitty. Probably won’t get one any time soon but, if I do get one, it’ll be a rescue.
1517 — Time for Fritos®!!! The snack machine has become one of my best friends. A small bag of regular and a small bag of BBQ. Each bag is only 300 calories so I figure it evens out the healthy sandwich I had earlier on the health scale. If only I had a beer right now…
1620 — Out.
6/14/17
0832 — Found out that the place I took my car yesterday says it’ll be a $5000+ fix. The shop told me the entire rear differential needs replacing and it’s not totally reliable and I don’t know if it’ll even make to the dealer I bought it from. One way to find out I guess.
0915 — After talking to the dealer, their garage manager was floored that the vendor would charge $5k. He said he could put an entirely new sport package on my car for the same price. I might even let him do it but I need my damn car. I’m so pissed about it that I got into a nasty fight with my wife this morning over petty shit that’s unrelated and now I feel so bad that my hands are shaking and I feel a bit sick. The stress is ridiculous. I’ll be taking the afternoon off to get my car there, missing 2 meetings that I should attend but shit happens. Management better not give me any shit over this else it’ll become a grievance issue with HR.
From the cubicle: So, I’m hearing that our AVP is on a rampage to make sure everyone’s heads are down and working on whatever. Someone on my team got caught, more than once, surfing the web and was immediately assigned to another team part time. I’m hearing our deputy CIO was doing some MBWA, management by wandering around, and saw it, told the AVP who apparently saw it, and it snowballed from there. After talking with my guy, he said he put his paperwork in to retire and is hoping to do so after 1/1/18. I really can’t lose him but we all need to retire at some point. This one hurts badly. He’s a great guy and is on our tax team, does his job very well, and doesn’t give anyone a hard time. This whole scenario now has people pissed and paranoid including mid-managers. I need off this team badly.
1545 — I decided to come back to the office but not sign in so I can keep up with everything. Turns out, nothing really happened during the time I was gone. A very good thing. My car is in the shop and the guys there are great and will probably save me some serious cash compared to the $5k quote I got last night. My wife is not happy and really doesn’t like the car but won’t make me get rid of it. She says she doesn’t want to take it away from me which I respect. I offered to sell it or trade it for a different car but she backed off of that. The round trip was 2 hours and she wasn’t happy about it, nor was I but when you have mechanics you trust you always go back to them. The shop specifically works on Corvettes so I’m happy it’s there and being taken care of. Not much said on the way home other than her venting what she needed to say. She has a right to be mad, I have a right to own the car I want. Unstoppable force vs immovable object.
From the cubicle: I need to go home, wife just texted me to see if she can come get me. A total shit waste of a day. A beer and cigar are calling out to me saying, “Get home and forget about the bullshit”. This day is going to hurt for a long time. I’m one to carry shit like this for days, sometimes weeks. I’m also one to carry grudges for years hence my tense relationship with my sister. I feel like this is the start of both. Tomorrow will be better, I’ll will it to be…just no more fights with my wife and less bullshit at work. If only my cubicle could talk you’d hear a life story every day. Home away from home but, for some reason, I feel more comfortable here. Time to bring in a cot and dorm fridge.
1722 — Out.
6/15/17
0739 — In.
From the cubicle: My wife dropped me off today. We had quite a healing session last night after the argument from hell. Both of us had shitty days yesterday and went out to eat. Somehow, dinner out is a good remedy for things like this. Hoping to hear about my car today…and dreading the cost for the fix. This damn well be a wheel bearing issue and not the entire rear differential. I’m stressed out enough. DirectTV® let me know that I’ll now be paying for NFL Sunday Ticket™. I got it at no extra charge for the first year of my subscription. Now I’m entering my second year and it’s going to cost me ~$47 a month to watch my beloved Jaguars choke every week. SHIT!! That’ll teach me to read the fine print.
1014 — Waiting for a meeting to start. A colleague let me know she interviewed for a position on the IT side of the house. She’s confident the interview went well and is waiting to hear back. I have so much respect for how diligent she’s been trying to come back to our department. Working with her is a joy.
1118 — Killed about 93 trees printing out new location and ATM paperwork. I don’t like to print anything but it’s become a good practice when dealing with ATM tasks. It’s not always easy writing notes on an e-document and having a hard copy and pen works well. The changes for new locations happen frequently, some at the last minute including programmatic changes.
1355 — Bouncing info from one set of papers against two other sets of data for new and upcoming locations. I asked the PM if I could get started and she said to hold off. I really don’t want to but, for once, I will. The PM is getting married next week and is under a ton of pressure to have much of her work done and caught up. This is one case I can’t help with else I’d offer. PMs are a very different type of person and I would not want to be one. HOWEVER…they’re job is mostly creating scheduled and checking off things as they’re completed. Can’t be too hard but WTF do I know?
1610 — Day came to a complete halt about an hour ago. I have about 15 more minutes before I can leave, seems like an eternity.
1625 — Out.
6/16/17
0819 — In. Late due to having coffee on the deck with my wife, great conversation, and forgetting that we had to go because I needed the car today. No regrets.
0905 — I’m trying to convince one of my guys to not retire next year. He’s been here for about 10,000 years and is to valuable to leave. Yes, I’m biased because he’s such a good worker and he’s the lead on our year-round tax project. I highly doubt that we’ll have anyone in place that knows it as well as he does. Our current contractor is great but needs help, he’ll also be gone at some point as we need to take this on completely in house. An email to management will be going out today or tomorrow to get him/them a good backup trained.
From the cubicle: Got the call on my car. The dealer said it was the right-rear wheel bearing and ~$550 to fix. This. Made. My. Day. I also asked him to drop the rear differential and take a look, drain it, and add fluid. He said it would cost another $60 and I said hell yeah. I’ll pick it up tomorrow morning sometime. Damn I love that car! I’ll be reaching out to the original shop I took it to and ask why they wanted to charge me $5k and hope they don’t lie to me. This also pleased my wife and I had to needle her a bit about her being inconvenienced (actually she was pretty pissed) with a 2 hour round trip that saved us ~$4500.
1012 — After talking with one of our SMEs, she may have someone interested in taking on the tax project. Problem is…that person will want to work remotely (out of their home most likely) and the company won’t allow it anymore. We have several people that do work from home scattered across the country but there needs to be extreme circumstances for them to do that. The other issue is that, for IT folks, the company really wants to put more people in the FL offices and I’m doubting if the SME’s friend will be willing to move there. It’s always something. Great talent exists and could have an immediate impact but companies seem to frown on teleworking and end up losing the potential employees. Another big issue is that we can’t find or even keep local talent in FL. The kids out of college down there just want to get the hell out of there when they graduate. I can’t blame them at all. Better money awaits in different parts of the country. Were it up to me, I’d have folks work 3 days from home and have them come to the office 1–2 times a week. Totally understand if they work in another state that they can’t come in but, if they’re consistently productive I don’t see the issue. Even the damn government allows teleworking.
From the cubicle: One of my guys offered to take me to lunch…hell yeah! We went to this great sandwich shop about 2 miles away. Steak and cheese sub with fries and a drink…$8.79. Can’t be beat! I thought he was going to tell me he was leaving or air out some complaints but he just wanted to say thanks for supporting him. Nice to be appreciated :)
1317 — Escheatment processes are running and they’ve been problematic because of jobs that need to be rerun several times. With that, we can’t seem to track down management to approve code packages. They’re “usually” good with jumping on it but today they’re slacking. We had to contact someone else (not in our management chain) for the approvals. Personally, I don’t give a shit what your title is, when there’s an implementation going on you need to be available for this sort of thing. Not getting back to us is unacceptable. I’ve put in for package approval capabilities over the years and keep getting denied which is bullshit since I lead a team of developers. The excuse I keep getting is because I still code and there needs to be a separation of duties. I really find that to be a cheap way of saying I’m not worthy of something a manager does yet I keep bitching about it because, if it is something a manager does and I want to move up the food chain here, then give me the opportunity. Totally FUBAR.
1444 — I finished a required security training course a few minutes ago. We have several required courses here to make sure we’re in compliance with everything…”everything” being procedures and regulations. This one was telling because it talked about the different levels of confidentiality when it comes to data and usage of the company network. This can range from personal info to payroll info to customer info, etc. Good little course but it also had quite a bit of information that can easily pertain to this journal and I’ll now be a bit more careful on how I share things. I do my best to be specific enough to keep ambiguities at a minimum without revealing what’s considered confidential which would get me immediately fired. I don’t know. I write because it’s a creative relief and I believe in being truthful at all times so, if folks from work read this and think I’m revealing anything I shouldn’t, then I can’t help that. The whole point of this journal is to share my experiences from within my little bit of real estate and it’s not easy when there’s constraints. Fuck constraints.
1517 — Putting things away and cleaning the cube. I’ll sign off here. Out all next week for training.
Thanks for reading all of this! If you enjoyed this piece please click the heart below and comment if you wish. I’d love to hear your experiences no matter what they may be. Also, I have two books available on Amazon that I advocate you to buy, Manku and Manku Too. For more about me and what I do, here’s my website.
