Recently in work Category

Someone actually said to me today, "Rob, I would like you to introduce your fist to my face."^{[ * ]}

Being the cautious type, I was hesitant to make the introductions, but the fellow was really quite persistent. So great was his persistence in fact, that I almost gave in.

"Believe me ____ [name redacted]," I said to him, "my fist is also quite eager to make your face's acquaintance. However, I really don't think it would be appropriate to put them together at the moment. Maybe some other time?" He agreed, though rather reluctantly.

So in the end no introductions were made, though I would be less than truthful if I said that no pang of regret was felt for having passed on the opportunity.

^{[ * ]}Okay, so he didn't use those exact words, but that is the gist of what he was saying.

Well I'm finally moving out of tech support and into development. In a couple weeks I'll be starting a new job doing porting of Java apps between mobile devices. Should be much more fun than answering the phones, and it's a whole lot more money. W00t.

Well this is my first full day out here in Santa Clara. We arrived at San Jose International Airport about 9:30 PM PST, picked up our luggage and rental car, found our way to the hotel, and then went to Denny's for a late night meal.

Had some great sushi and tempura for lunch today, along with a dish called mushroom bowl, which is a mushroom covered with seaweed and some sort of creamy garlic sauce. The tofu nuggets were great too, especially when dipped in honey seasame sauce.

Not sure what we're doing tonight; might head up to San Fransisco. One day Tony and I need to drive around and be geeky, taking pictures of the HQ's of all these big tech companies, like Sun, ATI, FileMaker of course, Apple, etc.

Well today is payday, which is normally a joyous occaision. Actually, that's not true. Payday is the day that we get bent over our desks and anally raped (figuratively, of course). But I digress.

I forgot to put in for vacation time for July 5th (our day off since July 4th was a Sunday). You see, my employer doesn't give me holiday pay, so I have to use vacation time if I want to get money for those holidays that I don't work.

As an aside, when I was in college, I worked part time for a grocery store as a bag boy, and I got paid for holidays. If I worked on that holiday, I'd usually make time and a half for the hours I worked that day. If I didn't work on that day, I'd get 4 hours of pay at the holiday time + 1/2 rate. Allow me to reiterate; this was a part time job. At a grocery store. I am now working full time for a technology company. I've been here for a year and a half. Supposedly I am a valued employee. Make of that what you will.

Luckily rent won't be due until after the next pay check, so I'm not as fucked economically as I could be.

Granted, it's my fault for forgetting to put in for my vacation pay. But most companies have the decency to give holiday pay to supposedly valued employees who've worked there for a year and a half, so it's not necessary to use vacation time when one was off on a holiday.

The fact that I feel the need to pop a Xanax as soon as my phone rings is probably a sign that I don't belong in this job anymore. As if I ever belonged here in the first place. Anyone who wants to run away everytime they get a call should not be doing phone support.

Since I'm not really a valued member of this team anyway, it's probably for the best that I leave as soon as I can. I'm only of value to them as a warm body to answer phones, nothing more. The sooner I can leave here, the better.

I'm hoping that my time away from the office while I'm in California next week will help. But ultimately I need to find my way out of here, and into a job where I'll get to use my skills instead of being a zombie robot who answers the phone all day.