...and other tales from the trenches
A few years ago, just as the economy was recovering from the dot-com crash, I worked for a company as a document production person. In some ways, it was below my ability level, as document production is fairly routine. In others, I was starting from ground zero: it used a software tool with which I’d previously had about four months’ worth of experience, and the job required some advanced knowledge of the tool. It wasn’t in any kind of career path I wanted to follow, it wasn’t at a company that made me think, “Wow, this will look good on my resume and teach me a lot of things.“ It was just a way to get a paycheck.
I loathed this job. Not because of the duties — but because of the boss. This person was not a good boss. They had been promoted to their personal level of discomfort, and left to make their way as best they can (it was the same all the way up the line. You know that anecdote about “turtles all the way down“? Well, this company was “lobotomized ostriches all the way up”.) It wasn’t the worst way to get a paycheck, but there wasn’t much future in it…not only did the company have a reputation for burning out its employees, but if I had gotten promoted, I wouldn’t have been any closer to anything resembling clear information.
I left that job after just over two years (I actually had an interview on my two-year anniversary). I stayed as long as I did not because I wanted a career change, nor because there were no other jobs (at about the one-year mark, things were really picking up. I probably could have found something else fairly easily.) I stayed put because of my co-workers. I’ve had jobs before where I’ve had good co-workers, competent co-workers, co-workers with whom I may grab the occasional bit of lunch. However, I hadn’t ever worked in a place where I liked and really strongly respected just about all of the others in my group. These people were not just competent, they were scathingly competent (and yes, I know that’s a weird word pairing, but work with me here. I’m still on my first coffee of the day.) Everyone in the group was busy — at times ridiculously so — but everyone in the group had time to answer questions. We shared tips and tricks for the software packages we used. What one person in the team knew, the others stood a good chance of learning. It was like working with geeks: as long as the question showed that you put some thought into it, it got answered and answered well. And did I mention “scathingly competent”? Our most productive times were when the boss was working from home, or from another location: when Boss-thing was out on vacation for two weeks, then immediately went to another continent and worked out of an office there for another two weeks, we worked more efficiently than when the boss was present.
We also got on fairly good. I’d go into work dreading the astigmatic-Janus behavior of the Boss-thing; but I’d also be looking forward to finding out how T’s kids’ latest antics, or talking with C about geeky stuff, or sharing jokes with D and V. We griped and grumbled and shared horror stories when we were working together, and passed work back and forth (as the group’s “floater”, I helped anyone that needed helping. I did a lot of copy-paste, manual data checking, minor edits, and spellchecking…but at some point, I worked with everyone in the group.) We’ve been to picnics and gatherings at each others’ places, we’ve been out to dinner as a group, we’ve had several lunches since we started trickling away. Even though one of us has moved to a noncontiguous state, we all still stay in touch. It’s pretty cool. I got my current gig because of knowing these folks, and I may pick up a contract gig through my connection with another. This is the first time in my life that I’ve actually gotten work through networking with former co-workers. I’d also happily work with any of these people again…or all of them. (Just not Boss-thing, please.) While almost all of us can think of a co-worker or five with whom we’d work again, how many times in our careers can we honestly say, “Yeah - I’d love to work with that whole team again, any time”? I learned a lot from these folks, and really enjoyed working with them.
The one thing I miss about not living where I used to live is that it’s that much harder to get together with these folks for lunch. It didn’t happen often (maybe once every two months?), but we did enjoy the chance to catch up…and reminisce about some of the horror stories from Ye Olde Hellhole. We even had plenty that didn’t involve Boss-thing (pseudo-random bit stream? clockblock? multi-warhead? dinning room? bad perm?).
Maybe when I head back there this summer I’ll see if folks are able and amenable to a lunch meeting?
Keywords: | work | Holidailies | friends |
Posted by Laughing Muse • 461 views • Share this link • Newer • Older
Click here to join