Futher Meltdown at Work

The morning guy in tech support gave his notice Tuesday. That leaves two plus the boss in what should be a minimum four-person department.

This morning the COO calls a bunch of us together - the 2 IT guys, the two support guys + boss, Two of the SEs, and one of the developers. The developer has been named Director of Professional Services. IT and Support will report to him. SEs will report to Sales. We have no Professional Services staff per se - SEs and Support staff do that work.

Developer is a good person. He is bright, sociable, and I have first-hand knowledge of him working a 20-hour shift to help a customer. However, he is a programmer with zero management experience, and this position promotes him two levels and across to a group with which he has only been peripherally associated.

I wish him well. He may do an excellent job. But IMHO he is a thousand times more needed in his developer position than this new role, and it would have made much more sense to hire an experienced manager from outside the company to do this DPS job.

After the meeting, I had lunch with one of my co-workers who had been at the company since before the last time I worked there. This person is planning an escape. This is a Bad Thing for the company, but a wise choice for someone who has seen five years of work pretty much go down the tubes.

I'm getting my resume updated. This company had melted down on me before, it may very well do it again.

They received $15 Million in funding in September or October, and now there's a hiring freeze. Where did all that money go?

Ten Good Things I've Done

Meme-o-phobe that I am, how can anyone with an ego as big as all outdoors resist scendan's list idea?

In no particular order:

1. Learned how to speak Thai
2. Played Bill Sykes in Oliver! in Bangkok [in English]
3. Built a Dead Elvis costume out of Sears cover-alls, plastic baubles, gold glitter and hot glue sticks
4. Was a professional photographer
5. Edited a weekly newspaper
6. Tested and installed a video server at CNN
7. Served in the Peace Corps
8. Directed 3 plays which drew full houses
9. MC-ed the Seattle International Friendship Festival at age 16
10. Performed in the Seattle all-city high school band

You know, once you get going on this, there's the temptation to never stop. These 10 reminded me of about 50 more. But I'll spare you.