Pretty Stupid Machine
Here's how my day at work went today;
9:00 - Just arrived and I read an email from a fellow project / configuration manager whom I will call Luigi that I need to remember to print out the notes that were forwarded to us by people in Italy. The notes are for a teleconference that is held every week or two. This is the telecon where they all speak in Italian for up to an hour then I get a short two minute recap in English. I hate this telecon and I have negative thoughts about those participants that said they shouldn't have to speak English for a fellow employee even though it's company policy to do so in a mixed meeting such as this. The notes for the meeting are completely in Italian. It should be noted that I speak no Italian.
9:01 - I reply to his email with the following; "Why should I print out notes that I can't even read?"
9:02 - He emails me a resonce; "We can translate the bits that are important for you."
9:05 - After much soul searching I finally write the following; "You should have hired an Italian Configuration Manager for this job, and not me."
I want to state here, clearly and honestly, that I like this guy Luigi that I'm writing these emails back and forth to, I think he is an excellent peer, and I know he is in the middle of a lot of issues and is trying to keep things as smooth as possible. Luigi and I report to Mario. Mario is also a great guy, we're all config dudes in the configuration group. Well, I'm an Electrical Engineer in the wrong job but you get the idea, we're in this group, and we do configuration management stuff. Paperwork babysitting basically. I am not happy in this job and would like to leave, and there are days where I miss being unemployed and scrambling for work. Right.
9:30 - I'm now in a meeting with Mario and Luigi, this is a standing meeting every two weeks that happens in reference to items that come out of the Speak Italian Telecon. We're waiting on another person to come in, I'll call her Princess Toadstool. She's from Albania and she's very hard to deal with and no one likes working with her. I mean no one. She's also very pretty and very loud and very crazy and very mean spirited if she doesn't get her way. We babysit paperwork, wtf Princess, shut up and sit down and chill out. Only she won't do that.
Anyway, this 9:30 meeting, Mario and Luigi ask me why I wrote that they should have hired someone else. I wasn't entirely ready to answer that but I said I was frustrated with the communications with Italy, the problems that the language barrier seemed to cause, and all of the cultural issues. They didn't seem to grasp this entirely, and I was told that they could translate but English works well. I said I wasn't sure if it was always so great to have to use English with people back in Italy, and they said I was doing fine and from the communications they had seen moving back and forth, I was doing okay. Fine, whatever.
9:35 - Princess Toadstool arrives. We conduct the meeting with only a few negative, blaming comments from Toadstool like "I thought we already discussed this, why are we talking about this?" or "I can't believe after all of the discussion that we have to talk about this again" aimed at basically anyone in the room that spoke besides her. Pretty standard. Then she drops this one;
"David, I think your English... when you write emails, I can't understand what you're saying at least half the time. You need to have Mario or Luigi here screen your emails if you are going to contact these people in Italy that we have asked you to contact, because you are hard to understand."
A number of items went through my head at this point. 1. I don't like Princess Toadstool. 2. What in the fuck? Princess Toadstool is from Albania and needs to fuck off back there, all the while remembering that I'm a native English speaker, and to chill the fuck out. 3. So now I need two Italian dudes to check my English to make sure it's useful in Italy? What a neat fucking deal this is. 4. The should have hired an Italian Configuration Manager for my job.
I don't see this lasting a lot longer. I got pulled into my bosses office later in the day and asked how things were going. I wonder how that happened. I told him I was not happy with the odd role I was put into, that I didn't like the lack of clarity on my job or how things here are very poorly documented. I didn't know what else to say at the time. I don't know where this is going to go exactly, I wouldn't be surprised if I leave the company by the end of the month...
My game plan is to try and ride this thing out until I can get a different job lined up but if things keep going the way they're going, I don't know if that's a good idea. I go home angry, I feel depressed and annoyed at most everything I encounter. Last week, after a meeting with Princess Toadstool, Luigi, and another guy I was so full of angst that I ended up drinking two beers and a vodka on the rocks with my burger for lunch. I have never, ever, ever done that before. But I was so upset and jittery that it seemed like it was either booze to try and 'take the edge off' or else quit.
I wish I had better things to write, dear reader, but I don't. If you have any ideas... I'm close to saying fuck all to engineering as a career and just do *something* that won't make me crazy. Until then, your notes and ideas are welcome and appreciated.
9:00 - Just arrived and I read an email from a fellow project / configuration manager whom I will call Luigi that I need to remember to print out the notes that were forwarded to us by people in Italy. The notes are for a teleconference that is held every week or two. This is the telecon where they all speak in Italian for up to an hour then I get a short two minute recap in English. I hate this telecon and I have negative thoughts about those participants that said they shouldn't have to speak English for a fellow employee even though it's company policy to do so in a mixed meeting such as this. The notes for the meeting are completely in Italian. It should be noted that I speak no Italian.
9:01 - I reply to his email with the following; "Why should I print out notes that I can't even read?"
9:02 - He emails me a resonce; "We can translate the bits that are important for you."
9:05 - After much soul searching I finally write the following; "You should have hired an Italian Configuration Manager for this job, and not me."
I want to state here, clearly and honestly, that I like this guy Luigi that I'm writing these emails back and forth to, I think he is an excellent peer, and I know he is in the middle of a lot of issues and is trying to keep things as smooth as possible. Luigi and I report to Mario. Mario is also a great guy, we're all config dudes in the configuration group. Well, I'm an Electrical Engineer in the wrong job but you get the idea, we're in this group, and we do configuration management stuff. Paperwork babysitting basically. I am not happy in this job and would like to leave, and there are days where I miss being unemployed and scrambling for work. Right.
9:30 - I'm now in a meeting with Mario and Luigi, this is a standing meeting every two weeks that happens in reference to items that come out of the Speak Italian Telecon. We're waiting on another person to come in, I'll call her Princess Toadstool. She's from Albania and she's very hard to deal with and no one likes working with her. I mean no one. She's also very pretty and very loud and very crazy and very mean spirited if she doesn't get her way. We babysit paperwork, wtf Princess, shut up and sit down and chill out. Only she won't do that.
Anyway, this 9:30 meeting, Mario and Luigi ask me why I wrote that they should have hired someone else. I wasn't entirely ready to answer that but I said I was frustrated with the communications with Italy, the problems that the language barrier seemed to cause, and all of the cultural issues. They didn't seem to grasp this entirely, and I was told that they could translate but English works well. I said I wasn't sure if it was always so great to have to use English with people back in Italy, and they said I was doing fine and from the communications they had seen moving back and forth, I was doing okay. Fine, whatever.
9:35 - Princess Toadstool arrives. We conduct the meeting with only a few negative, blaming comments from Toadstool like "I thought we already discussed this, why are we talking about this?" or "I can't believe after all of the discussion that we have to talk about this again" aimed at basically anyone in the room that spoke besides her. Pretty standard. Then she drops this one;
"David, I think your English... when you write emails, I can't understand what you're saying at least half the time. You need to have Mario or Luigi here screen your emails if you are going to contact these people in Italy that we have asked you to contact, because you are hard to understand."
A number of items went through my head at this point. 1. I don't like Princess Toadstool. 2. What in the fuck? Princess Toadstool is from Albania and needs to fuck off back there, all the while remembering that I'm a native English speaker, and to chill the fuck out. 3. So now I need two Italian dudes to check my English to make sure it's useful in Italy? What a neat fucking deal this is. 4. The should have hired an Italian Configuration Manager for my job.
I don't see this lasting a lot longer. I got pulled into my bosses office later in the day and asked how things were going. I wonder how that happened. I told him I was not happy with the odd role I was put into, that I didn't like the lack of clarity on my job or how things here are very poorly documented. I didn't know what else to say at the time. I don't know where this is going to go exactly, I wouldn't be surprised if I leave the company by the end of the month...
My game plan is to try and ride this thing out until I can get a different job lined up but if things keep going the way they're going, I don't know if that's a good idea. I go home angry, I feel depressed and annoyed at most everything I encounter. Last week, after a meeting with Princess Toadstool, Luigi, and another guy I was so full of angst that I ended up drinking two beers and a vodka on the rocks with my burger for lunch. I have never, ever, ever done that before. But I was so upset and jittery that it seemed like it was either booze to try and 'take the edge off' or else quit.
I wish I had better things to write, dear reader, but I don't. If you have any ideas... I'm close to saying fuck all to engineering as a career and just do *something* that won't make me crazy. Until then, your notes and ideas are welcome and appreciated.