SirFozzie
01-14-2005, 08:39 PM
As some of you know, I work as a contractor for EMC. It pays ok, the hours are a bit goofy (I've worked 2 AM-Noon, 6 AM-4 PM, 7-5, 8-6 and 2 PM-Midnight shifts as regular shifts in the last six months), and I'm good at what I do.
I've been at the company a little bit over a year (through Siemens Small Business Services), and I hope that someday I get called on to go full time here. Especially since as I'm a contractor, I don't get the little amenities that most of y'all are used to, like sick time, or vacation time, or any of that.
Well.. this week was the Perfect Storm of projects. Today alone, I've served as the test engineer for a customer disk replacement project (teaching them to do it alone), worked to get Indian technicians on our network so they can use our phone lines instead of their lines (their phone system is awful, we have to dispatch a lot of cases because they can't dial into our boxes to check because of a bad phone line. I don't mind, even though they are doing what I used to do, because it opened the door to me getting trained on different things and let me move up.)
Which brings me to the asshole.
He showed up on Wedensday, as the representative of higher-higher ups, trying to see what we do in the Support Lab, and tweak it to simultaneously deliver the most complete and yet cheapest support possible. Of course, the two are mutually exclusive, but let management have their fantasies.
His mission, to go through Roughly 1250 cases, determine if the level of support was deficient, just right, or excessive (IE, we babysat the customer through a proceedure that wasn't necessary).
My shift lead/manager apologized to me on Wedensday when he told me I had been assigned to this insanity.. the guy "didn't want to disrupt the lab" so he had asked for one contractor. Dornell (my shift lead) thought it would take about two weeks.. but during my first sit down with this jackass, he let me know what he expected.
His time frame: Have it all tied up in a neat bow to drop on HIS bosses desk monday morning.
So the last three days, I have worked 12-16 hours (someitmes taking an hour or two break to go home and eat) every day. We get through about 700-800 cases (remember, I had several other projects on my desk as I explained above).
He did a share of it, but most of it was on my desk to do, he more supervised (IE, worked the coffee machine and gossiped).
So on one of his frequent breaks, I went to talk to my shift lead (he had asked for a status update on the Drive Replacement project), but I noticed the asshole talking to him.
I was walking away once I noticed Dornell talking to him.. and I actually stopped and turned in disbelief..
Dornell asked him if he wanted someone to assist me on Monday and Tuesday to finish up the project, and the asshole said.. "Nah.. He can finish it up over the weekend. That's what contractors are good for, after all."
I nearly walked back and punched the son of a bitch in the head.
So now, I am looking at approximately a 78 hour week, the last 20+ of it being ASSIGNED to me, not volunteering for it, and the arrogant prick expects ME to do his work for him over the weekend, WITHOUT consulting me on it.
I complained to Dornell, but truthfully, there was nothing he could do about it, he had already pushed it up the line once before and got told just to provide the jackass with what he needed and to stay out of his way.
So at 4:30, the jackass says.. Good luck finishing the project and leaves. I spent a good half hour ranting and raving to Dornell on that one. But truthfully, if I tell the guy to fuck off, I've blown any chance to get the full time job, I AM making points with the guys who DO matter in the office (the jackass is a consultant type), and the check at the end of it all's going to be fucking Huge.
So really, I'm pissed, but there's not really much I can do about it, except have a lot of anger about a guy that apparently thinks because the name on the company that writes my checks is different, I'm pretty much a contract slave.
Anyway, I just got home, and I think I'm going to watch some TV, and chill the fuck out.
I've been at the company a little bit over a year (through Siemens Small Business Services), and I hope that someday I get called on to go full time here. Especially since as I'm a contractor, I don't get the little amenities that most of y'all are used to, like sick time, or vacation time, or any of that.
Well.. this week was the Perfect Storm of projects. Today alone, I've served as the test engineer for a customer disk replacement project (teaching them to do it alone), worked to get Indian technicians on our network so they can use our phone lines instead of their lines (their phone system is awful, we have to dispatch a lot of cases because they can't dial into our boxes to check because of a bad phone line. I don't mind, even though they are doing what I used to do, because it opened the door to me getting trained on different things and let me move up.)
Which brings me to the asshole.
He showed up on Wedensday, as the representative of higher-higher ups, trying to see what we do in the Support Lab, and tweak it to simultaneously deliver the most complete and yet cheapest support possible. Of course, the two are mutually exclusive, but let management have their fantasies.
His mission, to go through Roughly 1250 cases, determine if the level of support was deficient, just right, or excessive (IE, we babysat the customer through a proceedure that wasn't necessary).
My shift lead/manager apologized to me on Wedensday when he told me I had been assigned to this insanity.. the guy "didn't want to disrupt the lab" so he had asked for one contractor. Dornell (my shift lead) thought it would take about two weeks.. but during my first sit down with this jackass, he let me know what he expected.
His time frame: Have it all tied up in a neat bow to drop on HIS bosses desk monday morning.
So the last three days, I have worked 12-16 hours (someitmes taking an hour or two break to go home and eat) every day. We get through about 700-800 cases (remember, I had several other projects on my desk as I explained above).
He did a share of it, but most of it was on my desk to do, he more supervised (IE, worked the coffee machine and gossiped).
So on one of his frequent breaks, I went to talk to my shift lead (he had asked for a status update on the Drive Replacement project), but I noticed the asshole talking to him.
I was walking away once I noticed Dornell talking to him.. and I actually stopped and turned in disbelief..
Dornell asked him if he wanted someone to assist me on Monday and Tuesday to finish up the project, and the asshole said.. "Nah.. He can finish it up over the weekend. That's what contractors are good for, after all."
I nearly walked back and punched the son of a bitch in the head.
So now, I am looking at approximately a 78 hour week, the last 20+ of it being ASSIGNED to me, not volunteering for it, and the arrogant prick expects ME to do his work for him over the weekend, WITHOUT consulting me on it.
I complained to Dornell, but truthfully, there was nothing he could do about it, he had already pushed it up the line once before and got told just to provide the jackass with what he needed and to stay out of his way.
So at 4:30, the jackass says.. Good luck finishing the project and leaves. I spent a good half hour ranting and raving to Dornell on that one. But truthfully, if I tell the guy to fuck off, I've blown any chance to get the full time job, I AM making points with the guys who DO matter in the office (the jackass is a consultant type), and the check at the end of it all's going to be fucking Huge.
So really, I'm pissed, but there's not really much I can do about it, except have a lot of anger about a guy that apparently thinks because the name on the company that writes my checks is different, I'm pretty much a contract slave.
Anyway, I just got home, and I think I'm going to watch some TV, and chill the fuck out.