The Crappy Day Thread

[RootDKJ]

Ok, so I've kinda had a crappy day today. I was going to post about it in the "What are you doing right now" thread, but I got to thinking, maybe we need a on-going thread for days like today. Normally I'm not a negative person, and can make the best out of almost every situtation, so please don't read me the wrong way. I'm usually a happy-go-lucky kinda dude....kinda like Vince.

If the thread dies off...I don't care. It just means it was a crappy thread. I'll post up the whole story in a little. I'm re-tuning my K2's right now.

In the meanwhile, if you've had a crappy day today...post it up.

 

[Johnskiismore]

I only got to ski for two hours on my day off

 

[RootDKJ]

Ok, so here's why today was a crappy day.

I work for one of the largest telecommunications company in the US as an engineering manager. Before our layoffs, I was in engineering operations (headend) but now I'm going to only be doing special projects.

I worked my way up from the very bottom of the barrel to this position. Anyway 7 years ago, I moved over from IT to engineering. Along with that, came a company car. Sweet, they only problem was I had to give up (daily) safety meetings because of the post-accident testing policy (you fail the test, you're fired). I can only use the vehicle for business use, and I'm not allowed to have non-employee passengers. Ok, I can live with this, after all I need to grow up sometime right???

4 years ago, I get promoted to Senior Engineer and move from hourly to salaried. With this comes some stock options and personal use of a company vehicle. 4 months after I take this job, the company changes the Vehicle Use Policy, and only Managers and above are now allowed personal use. Crap.

7 months later, I get promoted again to Engineering Manager. Wahoo!!! I upgrade my Chevy Colorado to a Chevy Malibu. The pickup wasn't my thing. I sold my Rav4 and haven't owned a vehicle since then.

Today, it's announced that only Senior Vice Presidents will be allowed personal use of a company vehicle. Now, I'll be the first to admit, that they didn't completely screw me over here. However, what bothers me is how they informed certain people. Some managers and directors, will be allowed to keep a company car, but will no longer be allowed personal use. A sub-set of that group will be allowed to take their cars home, the rest will be assigned a vehicle for use once they report to work. Of my close friends at work, one of them falls into the 2nd category. Also, the company will be branding the vehicles with our logo and 800 number. He's really pissed, because now he is going to have to drop a load of cash to but a car. More on him later. Some of the people who fall into the same category as me, will be allowed use of a "pool" car. My job classification does not allow that, so if I have to travel, I'll have to expense my mileage costs.

Me on the other hand, well I got a pretty decent deal. So did my new boss and my old boss, and another Eng Ops Mgr, I've worked very close with for many years. The company is going to transfer title/tags/registration into my name. They will cover all fees and necessary taxes. All I have to do is get insurance to get license plates, or I could just sell the car. That's a pretty decent offer, and I'd be pretty stupid not to take it. The problem is, this is the only perk us managers received. After OT, our employees make more then us, we have more responsibility and all of the pressure to meet deadlines. Our one and only perk was the vehicle.

Now my freind who got the shaft, I really feel bad for him, because first they told him that they were going to "gift" him his car like me. He signed off on the paperwork and an hour later, the revised the list and changed his classification. Now that's just not right.

Hourly employees will continue to be able to take company vehicles home, but any vehicles that aren't branded, will be. If the vehicle isn't white, it will get re-painted.

So, now that the only perk for moving into management is gone, what's the left to encourage employees to want to move up in the ranks? What happens when my boss decides to leave, why would I want his job, with more BS and headaches and less perks? Yeah right.

Additionally, starting 1/1/09, Managers are no longer entitled to on-call pay. That's a little more than an $8K yearly decrease I'm taking. I've pretty much had it at this point. Why should I continue to work 60+ hours a week? I get involved with all sorts of system outages at all hours of the night because I can't stand to have a system I engineered or built not running right and impacting customers.

So, now I've also never owned a cell phone. I've always just used my work phone, because I've always had an unlimited plan/usage. I've decided that I'm going to go out and get my own cell phone and turn off my Blackberry at 5pm everyday from now on. I'll give my direct reports my new # just in case the shit hits the fan, but I will not give that # to any of my bosses. It's going to suck notifying everyone to use a different # after work hours. I'm also going to start looking for other areas of work because I'm becoming the angry unhappy employee, and that's not who I want to be.

On the bright side, I won't have to worry about the safety meetings anymore. Thanks for listening to my rant everyone.
Dave

 

[Chris I]

Alright well that's pretty long so I assume you lost your job; that's why you are returning the ski's?

Now the opportunities are endless

 

[Glenn]

Root, that's like a Dilbert cartoon....branding the cars and repainting others. Unreal.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

++++++++Vibes+++++++

Your superiors need to take some courses in Management....unhappy employees are not going to be productive..I hope things work out for you..it sucks having to start over at another company with less vacation time..

 

[Marc]

But you have a job. I always tell myself that when I think things are crappy.

 

[severine]

But you have a job. I always tell myself that when I think things are crappy.

While I agree with this (especially in this economy when so many are losing theirs) I can totally understand your anger here. Sucks when the benes get taken away. I hope you can find a resolution to this, whether it's acceptance or moving on elsewhere.

I literally had a crappy day yesterday. Lots of poop in the kids' pants. So much fun cleaning that up now that we've switched to cloth diapers. uke:

 

[RootDKJ]

++++++++Vibes+++++++

Your superiors need to take some courses in Management....unhappy employees are not going to be productive..I hope things work out for you..it sucks having to start over at another company with less vacation time..

They need to take courses on how to treat your employees right. The management courses they took, only taught them how to increase the bottom line.

But you have a job. I always tell myself that when I think things are crappy.

Yes, but between the on-call pay going away and now losing the company vehicle I'm effectively taking a $15K pay hit.

Now that I found an office to use, today I have to go hunt myself down a desk:blink:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

They need to take courses on how to treat your employees right. The management courses they took, only taught them how to increase the bottom line.



Yes, but between the on-call pay going away and now losing the company vehicle I'm effectively taking a $15K pay hit.

Now that I found an office to use, today I have to go hunt myself down a desk:blink:

What's wrong with your old desk?? How long until you have to return the company car?

 

[ctenidae]

My mother went into the hospital yesterday with a possible dissected thoracic aortic aneurysm. I may be driving to North Carolina tomorrow, which means I miss a 3-day skiing weekend. And don't see my wife for 2 weeks. And can't pick up my new car on Monday.

 

[Marc]

Well... at least it isn't a AAA... those are often much worse. If it's any consolation, I don't get a three day weekend....

 

[poconovfr]

Go in business for yourself. Smartest thing I ever did.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Go in business for yourself. Smartest thing I ever did.

What kind of business??? I'm fortunate to be in a small family business with lots of job security..I don't make the big bucks like my friends in the corporate world but there are alot of perks..

 

[severine]

More crap today... 3.5 year old crapped her pants while barricading me out of the bathroom (great, huh? she sat on the toilet lid with her clothes on and crapped her pants) then the little guy decided to poop his pants, too.

Remember this... at least your crappy day isn't literally thus.

 

[poconovfr]

What kind of business??? I'm fortunate to be in a small family business with lots of job security..I don't make the big bucks like my friends in the corporate world but there are alot of perks..

Golf course and sports field areation.:grin:I'm off all winter and most of the summer.

I don't make squat,but the blocks of time off are sweet.


Sorry this was a crappy thread.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

More crap today... 3.5 year old crapped her pants while barricading me out of the bathroom (great, huh? she sat on the toilet lid with her clothes on and crapped her pants) then the little guy decided to poop his pants, too.

Remember this... at least your crappy day isn't literally thus.

Your kids are F%cking crazy,,,lol..

Today after work..instead of skiing, I'm taking my car in to be serviced..pretty crappy but no poop involved..

 

[deadheadskier]

But you have a job. I always tell myself that when I think things are crappy.

yep

I have a company car as well. No one in the company with a car is allowed to use them for personal use. Rumor has it that they'll be eventually fazed out, actually it's already under way as the cars that have died over the past year have not been replaced.

Definitely sucks losing beny's. The way I see it, we were able to sell one on of our cars and have had the luxury of only one payment over the past year while drastically reducing the mileage used on our good car as J has a reasonable commute and I'm no longer putting 35K miles per year on it for work. Going to enjoy the benefit as long as I can. Hopefully the distributor cap or head gasket doesn't blow like I read often happens with Subie's after 100K miles. Mine's at 88K now and I'm sure I'll turn 100 by April/May

 

[RootDKJ]

What's wrong with your old desk?? How long until you have to return the company car?

As it would turn out, we have a moving company available and they will be moving my old desk and assorted office furniture from the current office, to the new one, which is about 6 blocks away.

I have personal use of the company car until Feb 13 at which point it will be titled into my name. Bring on the night skiing!!!

 

[skidbump]

What 25 yrs in telecom taught me.

Doing a good job got me all the work while the sub par employees did barely anything.
Never saying no to a job got me all the work while sub par employees did barely anything.
Learned not to go into management because with OT we would always make more then salaried managers did.
Got laid off in 2006 and will never go back to it unless i need a couple more bucks"My terms and only available to do so from mid April-November".Meaning i would take a job and just quit to fit my schedule.
I learned that we could live on 1/2 of what we were making without any real cutbacks.
I learned that without the stress from my old job life was pretty enjoyable.
I learned i was pretty miserable.
I learned that nobody cares about you except you.