Oh... my god.

OK, so yesterday I was bouncing emails back and forth with my boss over 
in America. This afternoon there was supposed to be another long boring 
IT meeting over the phone. (But for once there's something actually 
worth discussing.)

And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss... 
no longer works for this company. O_O

"But you have yourself a good weekend, y'all, OK?"

WTF-O-Meter: 7.5

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:4b630567$1@news.povray.org...
> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my
that... my boss...
> no longer works for this company. O_O

I'm jealous... :{

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> WTF-O-Meter: 7.5

  What's the unit of measurement? How do you determine the value?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> WTF-O-Meter: 7.5
> 
>   What's the unit of measurement? How do you determine the value?

2001: Space Oddessy (the film) is 10.0. That's my standard unit of 
calibration.

(By that rating, Dune [the film] is about 9.8 or so.)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss... 
> no longer works for this company. O_O

I'm not sure why that would be a WTF.  I guess the first half-dozen times 
you get fired or quit or whatever, it's a bit distressing.

 > 2001: Space Oddessy (the film) is 10.0.

I could get down with that.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Oh... my god.
> 
> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss... 
> no longer works for this company. O_O

According to the guy in charge of the UK site, "that's just the way 
Americans do business. The employment laws are quite different over there."

Oh, and apparently one of our sales staff has also been fired for 
failing to produce enough sales.

(Now I could be wrong about this, but I got the impression that in our 
line of work, contracts are won by sales staff trawling up and down the 
country and getting clients familiar with their face and the products we 
offer. So if we keep changing sales staff every five minutes, we're 
basically preventing anybody building up the necessary rapport to get 
clients to sign... But hey, what do I know about marketing?)

Post a reply to this message

>> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss... 
>> no longer works for this company. O_O
> 
> I'm not sure why that would be a WTF.  I guess the first half-dozen 
> times you get fired or quit or whatever, it's a bit distressing.

Let me paint a picture:

When I first joined the company, everybody who worked there had been 
there for at least 5 years, and some of them very much longer.

If somebody decided to leave, it was always a fairly big surprise. You'd 
typically find out they were leaving 6 to 8 months before they actually 
left. It was company tradition that everybody would sign a leaving card. 
If the person was especially popular, there would be a small collection 
which would fund the purchase of some small gift. And the person would 
be presented with their card and their gift at a large gathering of 
everybody in the tea room.

(The same procedure applies to girls leaving on maternity, which has 
also happened once or twice.)

There would likely also be a social gathering one evening at one of the 
local restaurants to say goodbye to the person (although attendance at 
this is far more optional - what with people having kids and other 
social commitments, or just living too far away).

One time we had some guy work for us who had been in some kind of 
traffic accident. It did something to his brain; he apparently had no 
short-term memory. We'd train him to do something, and two days later he 
had no recollection of ever having done this task. In the end we let him 
go again, and it was quite a big shock to the collective social system 
of the workplace to see somebody leave with only a week's notice - even 
though he hadn't been here long yet.

Getting new people was also a rare and unusual event. Typically 
management would know about this at least two months in advance [not 
that they always remembered to warn ME!]

Basically, the workplace was an extremely stable and predictable 
environment.

All this bares no resemblence to how the company seems to operate now. 
After our head sales guy and our site manager both left abruptly (like, 
with 3 days' notice) just before we moved to the new building, things 
have never been stable again since.

The lab was always running flat-out, with barely enough hands to plough 
through all the work on our order books. Now we have entire weeks where 
everybody sits in the lab office playing Flash games with the volume 
turned up.

Under the direction of Fathead, people seemingly came and left on a day 
to day basis. We'd arrive for work on Tuesday morning and some random 
stranger would be standing amoungst us and Fathead would be "oh, yeah, I 
hired this new lab guy". One afternoon we'd have a meeting and it'd be 
like "oh hey, you remember these three people you were talking to this 
morning? Well they don't work here now."

And each time this happened, we'd all just stand there dumbfounded and 
be like "OMG, WTF? What's going on around this place?"

We've now reached the point where the workplace is so unstable that 
everybody almost takes in in their stride. Once upon a time, getting rid 
of the Director of IT would have been a really huge big deal. Now 
everybody just shrugs. The staff seem to change every five minutes 
around here - from the guy who washes the floor right up to the CEO.

(BTW, apparently we're getting a new CEO. A few years back we hired one 
of these guys who makes a career out of going into failing companies, 
turning them around and then moving on to the next one. Well, he was 
only supposed to be temporary. We haven't been turned around. And he's 
leaving. We have no idea who will replace him.)

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http://www.cracked.com/article_16676_6-emails-you-get-when-your-company-about-to-go-under.html


You may also want to read this, for some much needed inspiration:
http://www.cracked.com/article/18362_the-7-ballsiest-ways-anyone-ever-quit-their-job/



-- 
FE

Post a reply to this message

Fredrik Eriksson wrote:

>
http://www.cracked.com/article_16676_6-emails-you-get-when-your-company-about-to-go-under.html


Cool. I feel much better now. :-}

> You may also want to read this, for some much needed inspiration:
>
http://www.cracked.com/article/18362_the-7-ballsiest-ways-anyone-ever-quit-their-job/ 

Meh. Elaborate ways to quit are one thing. If the place is really that 
awful, just walk out and never think about it ever again. What are you 
trying to prove?

Post a reply to this message

Fredrik Eriksson wrote:
>
http://www.cracked.com/article_16676_6-emails-you-get-when-your-company-about-to-go-under.html


Been there done that. The only-one-pen syndrome is actually the best 
premonition.

Walking into the boss's office while he's in the middle of a sentence that 
includes the phrase "show up one day and find the doors chained shut" is 
another.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:57:27 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss...
> no longer works for this company. O_O

Clearly either you weren't the only one having problems with him....or he 
found another job and gave his notice - and they gave him an immediate 
vacation.  (I've seen that happen here in the US - someone in IT gives 
their notice and they have their access revoked immediately and are told 
to take a paid vacation).

Jim

Post a reply to this message

"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b670a5b$1@news.povray.org...
> On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:57:27 +0000, Invisible wrote:
> > And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my
that... my boss...
> > no longer works for this company. O_O
>
> Clearly either you weren't the only one having problems
with him....or he
> found another job and gave his notice - and they gave him
an immediate
> vacation.  (I've seen that happen here in the US - someone
in IT gives
> their notice and they have their access revoked
immediately and are told
> to take a paid vacation).--Jim

I put in a 2 month notice and the next day they handed me
two month's pay and told me to go home... :) I guess they
were worried...

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:16:05 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> I put in a 2 month notice and the next day they handed me two month's
> pay and told me to go home... :) I guess they were worried...

In my experience, it's not that they're worried, it's just policy for IT 
people - and from my own perspective, I actually like the policy, because 
that means when something goes "boom" after you've left, they can't blame 
you for it (well, they can try.....)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

>> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss...
>> no longer works for this company. O_O
> 
> Clearly either you weren't the only one having problems with him....or he 
> found another job and gave his notice - and they gave him an immediate 
> vacation.

Nope. As far as I can tell, they just wanted to save some money.

The guy in question clearly had no idea this was coming from the tone of 
the emails I got from him the day before. Just normal day-to-day stuff. 
And a few hours later *poof*, gone.

As I say, as far as I can tell, nobody was upset with him, they just 
wanted to reduce the payroll bill...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b671df6$1@news.povray.org...
> On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:16:05 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:
>
> > I put in a 2 month notice and the next day they handed
me two month's
> > pay and told me to go home... :) I guess they were
worried...
>
> In my experience, it's not that they're worried, it's just
policy for IT
> people - and from my own perspective, I actually like the
policy, because
> that means when something goes "boom" after you've left,
they can't blame
> you for it (well, they can try.....)--Jim

Guess next time I"ll put in a 6 month notice! :)

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On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:01:04 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

>> In my experience, it's not that they're worried, it's just
> policy for IT
>> people - and from my own perspective, I actually like the
> policy, because
>> that means when something goes "boom" after you've left,
> they can't blame
>> you for it (well, they can try.....)--Jim
> 
> Guess next time I"ll put in a 6 month notice! :)

LOL, longer paid vacation. :-)

First job after college that I had I left with 2 weeks notice - though I 
had the flexibility to offer them as much time as they needed since I was 
the only one doing the job there.  They were fine with the 2 weeks, but I 
never met my replacement.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:21:58 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss...
>>> no longer works for this company. O_O
>> 
>> Clearly either you weren't the only one having problems with him....or
>> he found another job and gave his notice - and they gave him an
>> immediate vacation.
> 
> Nope. As far as I can tell, they just wanted to save some money.
> 
> The guy in question clearly had no idea this was coming from the tone of
> the emails I got from him the day before. Just normal day-to-day stuff.
> And a few hours later *poof*, gone.

That's often the case.  I had a boss who was sacked for incompetence, and 
he didn't find out until after lunch when he was escorted from the 
building.  Had discussions with a vendor (who had flown in) earlier in 
the day, even.

> As I say, as far as I can tell, nobody was upset with him, they just
> wanted to reduce the payroll bill...

There may well have been something going on that just wasn't apparent 
from that far away.  This could be a good thing for you. :-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b675753$1@news.povray.org...
> First job after college that I had I left with 2 weeks
notice - though I
> had the flexibility to offer them as much time as they
needed since I was
> the only one doing the job there.  They were fine with the
2 weeks, but I
> never met my replacement.--Jim

I've never met a replacement at any job I've had. No matter
how long my notice was. Most places I've worked preferred to
take the salary savings for about 6 months after my leaving.
I guess nothing I've done was important enough for me to
pass the torch.. Or maybe they were just worried... :)

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On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:58:56 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> "Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
> news:4b675753$1@news.povray.org...
>> First job after college that I had I left with 2 weeks
> notice - though I
>> had the flexibility to offer them as much time as they
> needed since I was
>> the only one doing the job there.  They were fine with the
> 2 weeks, but I
>> never met my replacement.--Jim
> 
> I've never met a replacement at any job I've had. No matter how long my
> notice was. Most places I've worked preferred to take the salary savings
> for about 6 months after my leaving. I guess nothing I've done was
> important enough for me to pass the torch.. Or maybe they were just
> worried... :)

I've only done that once myself - and it was the company I was at before 
Novell (ie, my last employer); I had been waiting for 6 weeks for a 
background check to be finished (working for a company with export 
controlled software kinda requires it) and had also been scheduled by my 
then-current-employer to visit Microsoft.  I told them to hold off on my 
nonrefundable travel, and my project manager (but not my boss) guessed 
why.  We started putting a transition plan together, but the guy who took 
over for me for the big project I was working on was a member of the 
team, so the handoff was pretty smooth.

But I always have tried to make myself available; I can think of one 
exception, but I was asked to leave that job (and was glad to just get 
the hell out).

Jim

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:4b66d6c3$1@news.povray.org...

> One time we had some guy work for us who had been in some kind of
> traffic accident. It did something to his brain; he apparently had no
> short-term memory. We'd train him to do something, and two days later he
> had no recollection of ever having done this task. In the end we let him
> go again,

"Again"? Did he keep coming back?

</tasteless humour>

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>> As I say, as far as I can tell, nobody was upset with him, they just
>> wanted to reduce the payroll bill...
> 
> There may well have been something going on that just wasn't apparent 
> from that far away.

This is also entirely possible.

> This could be a good thing for you. :-)

Well... my boss is now the Director of Finance. (The Director of IT used 
to report directly to him. Now the whole IT group reports directly to 
him.) He knows nothing about computers. (I've met him in meatspace. 
Trust me, he knows *nothing* about computers!) And he knows even less 
about how to operate a computer system in the minefield of government 
regulations. (But then, the Director of IT didn't really grok that fully 
either - much to my dismay.)

So it's probably going to be quite quiet around here for a while. I 
imagine now all the various IT people will crawl back into their 
seperate little holes and just do their own thing independently - like 
they did before we hired this guy...

Post a reply to this message

"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b67b828$1@news.povray.org...

> But I always have tried to make myself available; I can
think of one
> exception, but I was asked to leave that job (and was glad
to just get
> the hell out).-- Jim

I went back to one job (for free) and identified an error
made by a machine shop who mis-read my blueprints... and the
day after Christmas! I'm a sucker...

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:13:24 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> I went back to one job (for free) and identified an error made by a
> machine shop who mis-read my blueprints... and the day after Christmas!
> I'm a sucker...

But something like that does tend to come through in future references as 
well.  It shows that you have a sense of ownership for things you've 
done, and are willing to share information as needed.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:34:34 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>> As I say, as far as I can tell, nobody was upset with him, they just
>>> wanted to reduce the payroll bill...
>> 
>> There may well have been something going on that just wasn't apparent
>> from that far away.
> 
> This is also entirely possible.

I've seen some strange things happen that have gotten people fired, even 
people who were good at their jobs.  It happens.

>> This could be a good thing for you. :-)
> 
> Well... my boss is now the Director of Finance. (The Director of IT used
> to report directly to him. Now the whole IT group reports directly to
> him.) He knows nothing about computers. (I've met him in meatspace.
> Trust me, he knows *nothing* about computers!) And he knows even less
> about how to operate a computer system in the minefield of government
> regulations. (But then, the Director of IT didn't really grok that fully
> either - much to my dismay.)
> 
> So it's probably going to be quite quiet around here for a while. I
> imagine now all the various IT people will crawl back into their
> seperate little holes and just do their own thing independently - like
> they did before we hired this guy...

Quiet is good - maybe a good time to also arrange to introduce yourself 
to the finance director and outline what it is you've been having 
difficulty with.  Get on his good side early.  Don't bury him under 
technobabble - you understand him as an audience already, so leverage 
that in your conversations with him.

In particular, I'd focus on the regulatory compliance issues - that's 
something finance guys understand very well and could be a common ground 
for conversation between you and him.  I'm thinking about things like the 
system changes that go undocumented because the IT guys in the US don't 
consult you about those changes; your lack of access to some necessary 
systems, things like that.

Take it slowly, but make sure he knows who you are and what your 
responsibilities are with regards to these audits.  This could be a very 
good thing for you.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:

> Quiet is good - maybe a good time to also arrange to introduce yourself 
> to the finance director and outline what it is you've been having 
> difficulty with.  Get on his good side early.  Don't bury him under 
> technobabble - you understand him as an audience already, so leverage 
> that in your conversations with him.
> 
> In particular, I'd focus on the regulatory compliance issues - that's 
> something finance guys understand very well and could be a common ground 
> for conversation between you and him.  I'm thinking about things like the 
> system changes that go undocumented because the IT guys in the US don't 
> consult you about those changes; your lack of access to some necessary 
> systems, things like that.
> 
> Take it slowly, but make sure he knows who you are and what your 
> responsibilities are with regards to these audits.  This could be a very 
> good thing for you.

You give some good advice - but I'm far more focused on getting out of 
this job and into a real one. Once I've left this company, its petty 
politics won't matter any more. (I'll have a whole new set of power 
battles to lose! Yay, me...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:55:30 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> You give some good advice - but I'm far more focused on getting out of
> this job and into a real one. Once I've left this company, its petty
> politics won't matter any more. (I'll have a whole new set of power
> battles to lose! Yay, me...)

It never hurts to do a little but of both - absolutely keep focus on 
getting out, but if you can part on good terms, then the new finance 
director can be a good reference for you down the road - and since his 
area involves government compliance and you have expertise in that area, 
having him as a reference in the future might be useful down the road.

The petty politics won't matter, but the reference could end up being 
worth its weight in gold. :-)

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> The petty politics won't matter, but the reference could end up being
> worth its weight in gold. :-)

How much does a reference weigh...? :)

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:52:59 -0300, Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> The petty politics won't matter, but the reference could end up being
>> worth its weight in gold. :-)
> 
> How much does a reference weigh...? :)

If it gets the job, as much as the salary increase that comes with the 
new job. :-)

Jim

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Invisible wrote:
> Oh... my god.
> 
> OK, so yesterday I was bouncing emails back and forth with my boss over 
> in America. This afternoon there was supposed to be another long boring 
> IT meeting over the phone. (But for once there's something actually 
> worth discussing.)
> 
> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss... 
> no longer works for this company. O_O

...and yesterday, a member of the IT team UNEXPECTEDLY DIED! O_O

First our Cisco specialist moves to a better job. Then our IT Director 
is summarily dismissed. And then SOMEBODY DIED. Who'll be next?!

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Who'll be next?!

  Who do you think?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Who'll be next?!

The drummer.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   The question in today's corporate environment is not
   so much "what color is your parachute?" as it is
   "what color is your nose?"

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> ...and yesterday, a member of the IT team UNEXPECTEDLY DIED! O_O
> 
> First our Cisco specialist moves to a better job. Then our IT Director
> is summarily dismissed. And then SOMEBODY DIED. Who'll be next?!

You, hopefully (to a better job).

-Aero

Post a reply to this message

On 3/4/2010 4:23 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> Oh... my god.
>>
>> OK, so yesterday I was bouncing emails back and forth with my boss
>> over in America. This afternoon there was supposed to be another long
>> boring IT meeting over the phone. (But for once there's something
>> actually worth discussing.)
>>
>> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss...
>> no longer works for this company. O_O
>
> ...and yesterday, a member of the IT team UNEXPECTEDLY DIED! O_O
>
> First our Cisco specialist moves to a better job. Then our IT Director
> is summarily dismissed. And then SOMEBODY DIED. Who'll be next?!


I hope that that 'somebody' was not you

Post a reply to this message

>> ...and yesterday, a member of the IT team UNEXPECTEDLY DIED! O_O
> 
> I hope that that 'somebody' was not you

Me too!

Although I guess it would perhaps explain the fact that in the last few 
days things have been going uncharacteristically well...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

>> First our Cisco specialist moves to a better job. Then our IT Director
>> is summarily dismissed. And then SOMEBODY DIED. Who'll be next?!
> 
> You, hopefully (to a better job).

Nope. I got an email yesterday telling me that *another* member of staff 
has left for a better job.

This is getting silly now...

Post a reply to this message

> Nope. I got an email yesterday telling me that *another* member of staff 
> has left for a better job.
>
> This is getting silly now...

It's more amusing here, one guy I just spoke to said he was deliberately 
trying to make a bad relationship with one of our customers, so that we 
wouldn't get any more projects and he could get moved to a different area... 
o_O  I think he was only half joking.

Post a reply to this message