Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Ball Busters: An Examination

So what have those sonsabitches been up to lately? Most of you are aware of my rants and I'd like to examine the history of them and why I continue the practice, without saying fuck too often.


I have forgotten many of the reasons those rants are there, but not the feelings I had while writing them, mainly frustration and loathing of the company. How many times can you tell a person to wait? I mean fuck, it gets a little tiring after a while and eventually the brain either stops working at all the wrong moments or it simply implodes, often with a quiet bahhhh.

So anyway, I move positions in the company, being tired of the pressure of sales without much of a product to sell. I get to manage product now; I get to tell the engineers to hurry the fuck up and sort out that power supply or to get off their ass and get testing. I say it nicely, of course, gotta team build, gotta get everyone on board with the vision, etc, et al, and so on. Still, we have a good team all around and I look forward to it.

Further down the road brings problems of advancement. MBA? Well jesus jumping christ $40k for a basic program is not something I can support now or even in a few years. MA? Half that, looking better but still... I guess I'll see to it later, I need to get ramped up in PM first.

But back to the Ball Busters. Is it normal to stiff an employee of a "freebie" trip he's earned as promised by middle management? Is it normal to deny wage increases because we are in a growth phase? I've accepted it all because I see the vision, the big boss is quite convincing and trustworthy, the bank is on board with financing, etc. But still, a guy's got to eat, a guy's got to advance, a guy's got to feel valued, and the constant whining of "next fiscal will be better" is a bit of a drag and a bit of a drain on the patience well.

And now they take my laptop away. What. The. Fuck. Is the phone next? How about my cheap office chair that smells worse than it looks (believe me it ass-ugly). I have to buy my own pens facrissakes because the ones they buy are the cheapest available (and are ass-ugly too). They pay for coffee but it is probably the worst in history, something closer to stale molasses with a bit of water.

Is the brass ring worth it? Is the big pay day actually going to happen? All signs show positive at this point, and having five and half years of sweat equity should mean something. Regardless of all that, it will be fun and I will be learning a helluva lot every day.

But I will still say fuck rather often.

3 comments:

switters said...

We had a really good year last year. In fact, we've had close to 5 really good years. Must be the war.

Anyways, our company went from pre-9/11 red to post 9/11 black fairly steadily. Lot o'cash on hand you could say.

So does the man spread the wealth with beaucoup bonuses and healthy raises all around as a reward for all the selfless, thankless hard work on our part? Does he?

Nope. He spends over 100K on some stupid multi-storage master server we don't even fucking need that some Apple snake oil salesman sold him on just by virtue of the fact that it's Apple.

Jesus ass fucking Christ! How stupid are you, cock ringer? Good thing you married into the business or you'd still be assistant managing a Sports First franchise.

Thanks, deej. I like your games.

rundeep said...

Hi Deej:

Love the rant. I feel for you man. I was you a few years ago. Unfortunately, if your experience is the same as mine the handwriting is on the wall and it says: "Sucker." Unless you have a profit participation or a parachute (and it sounds like you probably have neither) holding on for the purpose of getting a big bonus, raise and perks at the end of next year could well be a losing proposition.

Here's how the management thinking goes: we had a bad year, let's cut expenses (everyone grumbles but understands). We had a worse year, need to cut some more, but now that our expenses are so low the profits are gonna be enormous, just stay with us. Product is going to be hot and we are very price competitive thanks to your laptopless selves. Next year is break-even or even a little good, thanks a lot everyone, here's your one percent raise, the rest is coming, just do a little more for us. Then we have a stellar year, really stellar. And the man says: all our other divisions did badly, so you need to subsidize them. After a few years of that, they closed my shop down because it was not sufficiently profitable. Still making a profit, just not enough.

Sorry to make a bad thing worse. Hope your story ends better. (Though mine ended with me getting a job in the real growth side of the same industry with a much bigger salary and a bonus 7 times larger than what I got from the old company in the "salad days." So you might want to make your story mine, after all.

Dawn Coyote said...

There are some decent options around town for graduate programs, depending on what interests you. I looked into the Executive MBA at SFU a couple of years ago. It’s designed for people who are already in careers, and skips the rudimentary stuff. Expensive, but scheduling is thoughtful, and it seems like you’d get good ROI. Sorry to hear the pastoral retreat is up for sale. Maybe it’s time to let Thor bring home the salmon jerky for a bit while you make a career change?

Your post pretty much described why, despite a real fondness for business, I work in non-profit programs.