Comrades,
I have had a change of heart. My old, cruel Capitalist ways have gotten me nowhere. I have now seen the glory of the Socialist dream! There is enough of everyone else's for all of us!
Little did I know that years ago when THE WIFE (The Comrade Who Must Be Obeyed) and I came up with Tater Tots for the Masses I was already harboring the Socialist dream deep in my red bosom. I mean, after all, the Tater Tots were for the Masses, not for me. I was distributing technical support drivel and pain like golden drops from the mouth of Lenin himself. (Vlad, not John.)
I accept my new role in life. I plan to redesign the site to take part in the glorious workers revolution.
I have a dream! A dream that one day we may all have equal amounts of Tater Tots!* We shall all live and work as one!
Yours in Glorious Socialism,
Comrade Tots
*Some amounts more equal than others. As has always been the worker's way.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
On Blogging... And Itching
So, let me recap the last bit and why I don't really exist anymore.
I took a job with a giant software company and stopped blogging and writing for the most part. I just didn't have time any longer. I found myself working 12 and 14 hour days just to keep up. Things were busy.
I've left that job, a large part so I could have a life outside of work. I wanted to spend time with my kids without feeling that I would be punished for not producing. It was a LOT of work harder, not smarter.
Think of it like this, I had my boss who reviewed what I did and I was assigned cases daily. Once I got my cases, they were added to my backlog. Also daily we had a "Crit Watch" for cases the customer deemed "Critical". Every day we would get a "Critical" case escalated and those of us in the watch during that time period would do a version of Rock, Paper Scissors to decide who would work it.
None of us had the bandwidth to ever take it.
So, that's fairly stressful, but the kicker was the group of "Technical Account Managers". Their job was to be advocates for the customer. That's a good thing, except, they had the power to hit us up directly and demand we work on their customer's case now. 90% of the guys were good, but the 10% who were unreasonable drove me insane. If we didn't work according to their satisfaction, they would raise the severity, ping my boss etc... So the reality was a user who had a problem in the big picture was cosmetic or an annoyance, would get more attention than a customer with problems making actual calls.
I was pretty depressed.
Some of the guys stood up to them and my boss backed them. It didn't seem to work that way for me. It seemed like when I took a stand I got bit.
I moved to another job with a smaller phone manufacturer. The hours are fewer, the stress is much lower and the work is filtered through my boss, so I don't have 500 bosses all telling me how their customer wants things fixed NOW!
The flip side is, metrics. It's always metrics. How many calls do you take, how long are you on the phone, etc...? I could play the metrics game, but the question is how good is that? I have seen some of the work from folks who play the game (and have been rewarded for it) and it sucks.
It's the age old struggle when you work for someone else.
Now that I have changed, I have an itch again. The writing itch, the drawing itch, the itch that has been gone for so long.
Will I scratch that itch? Will it get infected if I do? Wait, maybe it's not the writing itch, maybe I caught something from the toilet seat?
I took a job with a giant software company and stopped blogging and writing for the most part. I just didn't have time any longer. I found myself working 12 and 14 hour days just to keep up. Things were busy.
I've left that job, a large part so I could have a life outside of work. I wanted to spend time with my kids without feeling that I would be punished for not producing. It was a LOT of work harder, not smarter.
Think of it like this, I had my boss who reviewed what I did and I was assigned cases daily. Once I got my cases, they were added to my backlog. Also daily we had a "Crit Watch" for cases the customer deemed "Critical". Every day we would get a "Critical" case escalated and those of us in the watch during that time period would do a version of Rock, Paper Scissors to decide who would work it.
None of us had the bandwidth to ever take it.
So, that's fairly stressful, but the kicker was the group of "Technical Account Managers". Their job was to be advocates for the customer. That's a good thing, except, they had the power to hit us up directly and demand we work on their customer's case now. 90% of the guys were good, but the 10% who were unreasonable drove me insane. If we didn't work according to their satisfaction, they would raise the severity, ping my boss etc... So the reality was a user who had a problem in the big picture was cosmetic or an annoyance, would get more attention than a customer with problems making actual calls.
I was pretty depressed.
Some of the guys stood up to them and my boss backed them. It didn't seem to work that way for me. It seemed like when I took a stand I got bit.
I moved to another job with a smaller phone manufacturer. The hours are fewer, the stress is much lower and the work is filtered through my boss, so I don't have 500 bosses all telling me how their customer wants things fixed NOW!
The flip side is, metrics. It's always metrics. How many calls do you take, how long are you on the phone, etc...? I could play the metrics game, but the question is how good is that? I have seen some of the work from folks who play the game (and have been rewarded for it) and it sucks.
It's the age old struggle when you work for someone else.
Now that I have changed, I have an itch again. The writing itch, the drawing itch, the itch that has been gone for so long.
Will I scratch that itch? Will it get infected if I do? Wait, maybe it's not the writing itch, maybe I caught something from the toilet seat?
Friday, April 11, 2014
The UN Gets Into IT
So with some time to let the whole ICANN thing stew in my brain a bit, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't like the idea of the UN running the internet.
Yeah, I know. Shocker, right?
Seeing as how my career has been tied to the internet for the last ten years or so I can't imagine why anyone would thing I do approve of this load of crap.
There are some good countries in the UN. Countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Israel, etc... There are also some crap countries. Countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan (pronounced Pock-EE- Stahn), Saudi Arabia, etc...
Why would the US, who is the last hope for freedom int he world give up control of the backbone of society today? Can you imagine when the UN gets involved and starts putting restrictions on what can and can't be said?
"Oh, but Tots," you say, "it's only the naming convention. So they will just be in control of who gets web URLS. It's not like they will be putting firewalls on the web."
Yeah, and I'm saving $2,500 on my insurance this year... NOT
With the new tax accounting system counting my insurance as income, even with four kids and tons of donations I'm lucky to break even.
Put down the Kool Aid and wake up people!
Yeah, I know. Shocker, right?
Seeing as how my career has been tied to the internet for the last ten years or so I can't imagine why anyone would thing I do approve of this load of crap.
There are some good countries in the UN. Countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Israel, etc... There are also some crap countries. Countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan (pronounced Pock-EE- Stahn), Saudi Arabia, etc...
Why would the US, who is the last hope for freedom int he world give up control of the backbone of society today? Can you imagine when the UN gets involved and starts putting restrictions on what can and can't be said?
"Oh, but Tots," you say, "it's only the naming convention. So they will just be in control of who gets web URLS. It's not like they will be putting firewalls on the web."
Yeah, and I'm saving $2,500 on my insurance this year... NOT
With the new tax accounting system counting my insurance as income, even with four kids and tons of donations I'm lucky to break even.
Put down the Kool Aid and wake up people!
Saturday, April 05, 2014
Day By Day Nails It
The third party won't happen in time for 2016. I pray to God we have a chance for 2020.
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