Posted: Wed 26 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
I’m off for a meeting tonight in London – the same private website I’ve been working on (and occasionally ranting about) over the last month or so.
It’s all ended up being consistently last-minute, with no real organisation, and a whole bunch of clowns who say they can do their stuff, but so far that conceit has been repeatedly disproved. Which, as regular readers may have noticed, drives me utterly crackers. I know it shouldn’t, that I should be used to it by now, but well, I’m not.
You see, I come from this background where if I can do something, then yes, I’ll shout it from the rooftops. I’m not overly good at being modest – but when it comes to this stuff, I’m bloody good at what I do. And if I don’t know how to do something, then I either a) find out, or b) say “No, I don’t know what you mean by that”. Which seems – to me – to be a pretty sensible way of dealing with life in general.
So when other people tell me “Yes, we know what we’re doing, we’ve done it before”, I tend to believe them. And then I get pissed off when it turns out that actually, they’ve no fucking idea what they’re talking about. Particularly when, by doing things wrong, they then fuck up the stuff that I’ve written already.
Yet somehow it’s me that’s in the wrong. I don’t know if it’s because I just get on and do stuff without fucking it up, or just that these people expect me to talk as much bollocks and bullshit as they do, but if I get pissed off at their incompetence, it’s my fault. I haven’t figured the logic of that one just yet. Maybe I’ll let you all know when/if I do suss it out.
And in the meantime, what’s the best option? Do I just assume that when people say they can write websites, or do certain types of code, or – well – anything, really, that they’re actually lying, and thus utter cunts? Do I save myself the time and stress, by just assuming that everyone else is incompetent? No, probably not – because then I’m just stereotyping, and last time I did that I got accused of being patronising, because I simply assumed that the person I was talking to actually didn’t know what the shit they were talking about.
It’s a no-win situation.
Maybe I should just not let myself get stressed by fuckwits and bullshitters. Yeah, like that‘s gonna happen…
Posted: Wed 26 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Getting Organised, Work-related |
File under “Has to be seen to be believed” :
You are Arsehole Boss. On a whim, you have decided to move your company from its current offices to ones in London, for no real reason except that you no longer want to be in the current location. You have signed the contract for a year’s lease of the new office. You still have a year of lease on the current office, but hey, that doesn’t matter, because you’re moving to London. You’ve spent the money on the current lease already – it doesn’t have to show up in this year’s accounts, so who cares?
Three days before everyone in the office moves to London, and all their equipment etc., you suddenly think to do a headcount, and figure out how many people are going to be in that London office.
The London office has room for 12 people – maybe 15 at a push. Your current plans involve a company that has 30-35 people within the next three months. You think “Oh shit”
All of a sudden the office that was going to be abandoned and left empty has a use again. And some of the people who you’ve been giving job offers to, with the explicit location of “London” are going to be messed about, pissed off, or plain change their minds when you get round to telling them.
Laugh? I almost shat myself. You just couldn’t make this crap up – and if you wrote it as a comedy, everyone would say that the characters and situations were unbelievable.
Posted: Mon 24 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Work-related |
Do you ever have a day where you finally realise that actually it is everyone else that’s at fault?
I’m very loath to make sweeping judgement calls like that usually, but today’s been one of the very few days where it actually ends up coming through as the only sane answer.
On the one hand I’m working with a private client, and their designers who swore they knew what they were up to, and really good web programmers – yet have come up with a design for a home page that is, um, entirely an image map. Oh, and they don’t know “how include files work”, and can’t understand how I’m using them in the site architecture. (for the non-geeky I should point out that we’re talking really simple concepts here, such as the site navigation being put in an “include” file, which means you just have one file with the navigation in, and include it from every page you write. Even the syntax is simple – “include(‘navigation.php’)” Rocket science it ain’t)
On the other hand I’m still working in a company that thinks that upping sticks and moving the office to London, when most of the people who work for the company are based in this area, primarily because it’s a whim of Arsehole Boss and the new(ish) Chairman, can in no way be seen as forming the basis for constructive dismisal tribunals. Oh, and that they can just sack people, rather than going through the – contracted – disciplinary procedure of two official verbal warnings, two written warnings, and then you can be sacked. Apparently, this doesn’t apply to them, and they can do what they want.
I’m currently considering a campaign of shit-flinging, which would include reporting them to
- the board
- the venture capital people
- Inland Revenue
- Customs and Excise
- and maybe the Anti-Terrorist hotline, if I feel really vindictive
- And anyone else relevant I can think of
So yes, today is one of the days where I end up figuring that maybe I’m the only semi-sane one around here. And let’s face it, I can’t be entirely sane, because of the sheer amount of shit I’ve been putting up with…
Addendum : I should point out that this post is not making out I’m perfect, because I’m not, and certain other errors fuckups have since come to light that’re entirely my fault. However, I can fix them in ten seconds (and have done) while everyone else is still pissing and moaning and being utter fuckin’ numpties. So I still rest my case , although with the proviso that I know I’m not perfect either. So there.
Posted: Thu 20 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky |
Great, another reason to not use PowerPoint.
Thanks, Microsoft…
Posted: Thu 20 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts |
So Thames Water are in line for a huge fine because of their utterly deficient customer service?
How much do we want to bet that they’ll weasel out of it one way or another?
Posted: Thu 20 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts |
I’ve been asked to point out by Herself’s Sister that, despite what I wrote on Tuesday about GameTart.com, they’re actually still a useless bunch of fuckers when it comes to customer service.
She’s tried on multiple occasions (and we’re talking “in the tens” rather than “one or two”) to get hold of them and sort problems out, and so far has never yet been successful.
So while they may check out their own references on Google, they’re still a bag of shit when it comes to the important stuff.
Posted: Wed 19 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts |
(via Slashdot)
There’s an interesting interview here on Business Week with the man who’s now in charge of Mattel’s toy car section. That’s Matchbox, HotWheels, and Tyco – hardly small names.
What makes it interesting is that he’s talking about how technology can go into modern toys, but at the same time that it’s better to leave some things up to children’s imaginations, rather than getting tech to do everything for them. I think it’s a valid point, and makes for an interesting read.