So I might lose my job Monday..

[Norwood]

Not sure why even posting this, maybe its just to vent I suppose. I work as a programmer for a pretty well known company, I dispise the job more than I can describe and I feel like I'm in a prison when I go to work. Either I have nothing to do and I do nothing for 9 hours or I get a project I have no idea how to complete and its like pulling teeth getting someone to help. I dont want to be doing this the rest of my life. I live about 65 miles away from the office and because of that the weather makes it a pain to show for work when its bad. This week I got really sick while I was at work and I left early. I called off the rest of the week and I haven't left the house since cause I still feel like crap.

When I called in Friday the boss wasn't happy and said we'll talk about it later, he was pissed. I have a feeling I might get canned Monday, yet I don't expect to really feel all that bad about it, the only problem being money of course. Again I dont even know why I decided to post this, just wanted to vent.

[Deja Q]

1. Yours is a common complaint.

No real upgrade path; just a shift of common duties. Feels like prison...

Beware it does not turn into a psychosis. Mine is turning into a real self-esteem problem combined with paranoia due to hand-picking certain events while ignoring other ones that grossly contradict my paranoia.

Don't let it take you over.

Having someone in your life helps. Or so I've been told, but find ways to dispel that myth too. Posting your frustrations here is one means to do so. :hug: It's the best of both worlds. Chatting with people who do care but really don't because there is no corporeal attachment.

[Norwood]

9. I imagine it would help to have someone in your life to help

Its been a really crappy last 3 months personally, tack that onto the stress from the travel and my general dislike for the job, blah. If I do get canned maybe it'll give me the opportunity to find something I actually do enjoy.

[Generic Brad]

2. What the hell is wrong with managers?

I hear complaints similar to yours again and again on this board. It seems people in programming and IT get treated the worst. It saddens me to realize that my counterparts out there do not realize the effect they have on other people's lives and do not treat their employees and contractors like human beings.

Obviously a manager needs to protect the interests of their corporate overlords, but it can be done without making employees feel disconnected and treating them like shit. Maybe I have a different view of how to run things because I didn't go to business school.

[graywarrior]

3. Yeah, I noticed a similar pattern of abuse.

Sucks working under conditions like that.

[mainegreen]

4. Everyone loves to overload us programmers with to much work.

And IT jobs pay well, but are generally universally shitty. Only database administrators have it worse. The average DBA lasts less than one year on the job.

[The Straight Story]

5. I do both: coding and DBA

Hey we need this, create the data base tables, stored procedures, views - and reverse engineer this third party one we want to use for data, then write a complete web front end that does 50 different things for 2000 users.

Oh and we will keep changing the requirements on you and then wonder why those changes aren't done on the fly...and um, have it done asap.

yeah - it is freakin nuts. But at least I get to work from home now :)

[Generic Brad]

6. I went down that rabbit hole myself a few years ago

Once I became specialized in some high tech programming I noticed that the attitude senior management had towards me did a 180. Within a year I went from first to worst. It was if my expertise was suddenly resented. My take on it is that senior managers realized they had made themselves vulnerable by giving me too much technical power over them and they absolutely hated having to cede some of their power to me. I saw my head was on the chopping block if I didn't do something fast.

I returned to management. I now have a direct impact on the people who report to me and I take that responsibility very seriously. I do not mess with people's heads or their lives. But I also make damed well sure I develop all my staff so I do not feel like I am held hostage by one particulary talented one.

[The Straight Story]

8. I left management this year

Was getting boring and too many damned meetings and nothing getting done up the chain.

Plus with my wife's illness and wanting to move the change seemed for the best. I told em I would quit if they didn't let me work from home and move to CA. They gave in.

[thefool_wa]

13. Its not just programming

I have identical complaints (minus the missed work and with less of a chance of getting fired Monday - but there is ALWAYS a chance) about my job in a Call Center and I don't even take calls.

I am always either slammed or pulling my hair out, constantly looking over my shoulder wondering when someone is going to take offense at the color of my hair, the way I'm sitting in my chair, or nothing at all really.

Corporate america may not be the kind of slavery this country used to have, but paying one barely enough to get by on, keeping them in constant fear of loosing their job with or without reason, and not offering any kind of opportunity because they KNOW there is nothing better in my area for me (and the vast majority of my co-workers on the support staff) certainly does FEEL like slavery.

I wish we could make it all go away.

[Rosemary2205]

15. You CAN make it go away

it's called unions. Not you personally, but the white collars in general complaining about thier quality of life have the refusal to support blue collar unions to thank for their current job problems.

Just MHO of course........

[thefool_wa]

16. I hear ya

But there is a hitch where I work: I am on the support staff. I don't count as labor, don't count as management. I don't know where I fit and there are only a handfull of us in the dept so I don't know if we could organize ourselves.

that and this place has already proven itself capable of firing people who try to organize unions regardless of the laws or the fact that they LOST a lawsuit over harrasing friends of mine about starting one.

I would rather to resort to methods, slightly more rash, but alas then I would not have a job and my kids would go hungry because I cannot replace (nor improve) my pay in the area I live.

Its a twisted hole they've dug - but once I get my book published I can tell them to kiss my m**herf**king ass!

[aePrime]

14. I'm a professional programmer

And I really have no complaints about the company for which I work, or for the managers under which I work. We have a great company and a great team, so it is possible to find a good programming job.

[Redstone]

7. That's what happnes when you work for a large company. Quit, and go off on your own.

You'll be glad you did.

Redstone

[wildhorses]

10. i know the feeling--already the e-mail bull shit has started at my

new job. how can people go to your superiors and accuse you of saying something and you are found guilty on hearsay? no chance to defend yourself...better apologize, suck it up and go on...shit happens

WEll BULLSHIT!! I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF IT I COULD SCREAM

i am not even given my accuser's name:wtf:

she said ...he said:banghead:

thanks for starting this thread and giving me a chance to vent. i feel your pain.


wanna run away together?

[Norwood]

11. Lets do it!

We'll start our own business somewhere :D

[SPKrazy]

12. hey...

i wanna run with wildhorses too

let's get the hell outa here

:shrug:

[wildhorses]

18. ---

:rofl::hi:

[poiuytsister]

17. Please check in tomorrow night and let us know what happened.

Good luck, however you want this to end. Getting unemployment?

[Norwood]

19. Update

Well my boss wasn't in today so I didn't get fired today luckily. It doesn't look like I'm gonna be which is great, but I'm gonna start looking for another job much more aggressively now. I really gotta get the hell outta that place, it blows! :puke:

[poiuytsister]

20. Good luck, you are always more "employable" when you still have

another job.

[undeterred]

21. you saw my post below:

sometimes things fall together

I am a desktop/network support person, which means I have lower paying skills and am less in demand than you are. They cut off my account friday after I left and never gave me a reason. It was a 53 mile drive one way and I worked my ass off for a year at this thankless job. I put my resume back on dice this weekend and got a bunch of calls today.

I don't know where you are in your career or what your skills are and I do know it hurts like hell. But remember, you are in control of your life, and there is somebody else out there who will be happy to have you and lucky that you are available.

I started out worrying that I would be unemployed for weeks or months and now I'm afraid that I'll only get 2 days off between jobs. But things are not as bad out there as they were 5-6 years ago. It looks to me like there is a lot of demand for programmers.

Remember that sometimes just after things fall apart, things fall together. :hug:

And if programming isn't what you are supposed to be doing, you will figure it out in time.