Gloriously efficient free market

[Kennah]

So I'm working two jobs now. One a perm gig with the State of Washington and the other an hourly work at home gig. IT nerd.

Been in the state job for almost a month, and my cube was built, PC configured, network login, Email access, all on day one. Phone took about a week, and it was several degrees of separation from our agency, to the agency that manages the phones, to the local telco, I think. All additional access and logins was all done within about 7-10 days. If I find a server I need access to, it's usually just handled there and then. Sometimes I bump into, "Hmmm, Bob handles that." Check with Bob, and he says, "Yeah, I'll send you an Email with that info." And ya know what, Bob sends me the Email with the info.

Some of the mandatory online training was assigned to me and already completed. I guess because of budgets, there are cuts in some of the training, and one that surprised me was sexual harassment. Not currently scheduled. One that I did have to push and poke to find was the "Mandatory Reporting" training for which I registered. That was the one that I really wanted to be in person, not online, because I am oh so totally clueless about the scope and breadth and depth of the Mandatory Reporting laws in Washington. I mean I went reading through the sections of RCW on the subject, and the Admin policy, but I'd really like to hear something from a human on the subject.

Had a couple of presentations, one ad hoc and one prepared, about our software application and how it fits in with and supports what the agency does. In the lunchroom today, searching for a spoon to use on my soup led to a conservation with a very nice, knowledgeable person about the department. She happened to work in a group I really didn't know a lot about, and she gave me a concise overview of what they did compared to what the field offices do. I was even able to come up with a couple of intelligent questions that occurred to me because of things she related. She also gave me a spoon.

My boss has been deciding where best to use me, but she's been sending me to do goodwill outreach with one of our clients, another division within the agency, and that manager and I really have clicked. It's a little daunting because of feeling, "Geez, there's so much I could do, where do I start?" However, that conversation is proceeding well between me, my boss, and the client in order to prioritize and come up with some truly low hanging fruit. Also been able to identify knowledgeable people and chat up ideas with them. Talked to one guy on the way out the door heading home, and I just wanted to put some ideas in his head to consider. He'd already thought about some of these issues. Not terribly challenging technically, but financially, since we get a lot of our funding from the federal government, there's very real considerations there.

Since I'm the FNG, a lot of people will talk with me and share ideas. Been trying to talk to people one on one or in small groups "among their own" just because you never know where the tribal boundaries are drawn. Definitely finding those boundaries. And anything I learn I run by the boss to see where she is on any particular idea to try and feel out how much she wants to be involved.

My position is a level 3 and there are two level 4 slots opening up, hopefully next week, and my boss has made a point of repeating to me, "You are going to apply for that, right?" Oh yes. Definitely. Assuming I move up, there's still two open slots, and I happen to have two friends working contract, hour to hour, and perhaps out of work soon that I've encourage to apply when things come available.

Because of my age, 44, and the average age of COBOL programmers, about 10-15 years older, 5 years down the road is a little scary and 10 years down the road is very scary and lonely in the office. Something has gotta give because you just ain't gonna convince a 20 something IT grad to go into COBOL. The ship will have to move.

So, in short, after a month, I don't feel like a fish out of water, and after 7 months out of work I'm starting to feel more acclimated to work. It's not feeling like a dream in which I'm going to wake up to see it's all gone.

Now, as for the work at home private sector job. Got a phone call yesterday about having a "heart to heart". Basically, it was, "So why aren't you doing any work?" My answer was, umm, because it's been like almost 2 months and I still don't have access to be able to do anything. I call, I leave messages, and I don't hear back. I send Emails. No answer. This was supposed to be a mostly thinking free job. Y'all assign me tasks, and I'll do them. Couple more pushes and pulls, and a couple more calls to their Helpdesk. That has actually proven to be a well run entity and those folks are very helpful and dutiful. Still can't do any work.

I swear to Cheesus I believe they were getting nervous thinking, "If he's not billing any hours, then the client will think we aren't working." And on the client side, I could easily see them equating progress with billable hours.

The longer I live, the closer I get to Marxism. However, for now, I'm still a Democratic Socialist.

[Morning Dew]

1. Drawing a steady paycheck is a happy thing, isn't it?

Enjoying the work and the co-workers is a nice bonus.


11 1/2 years to retirement - hope my body holds out that long.

[Kennah]

3. Abso-friggin-lutely!

Fat, dumb and happy is I am--at my state job.

My client told my one up boss today, "Don't let Kennah get away. I want him here. Understand?" The reaction told me she is not one with whom one should trifle.

[Kennah]

2. This gets better and better

So I had a call in to the Helpdesk, and I got an Email from my other remote coworker. He said there was a different Helpdesk I needed to contact.

Got hold of them, and their solution is they need to reimage the computer. Sure, go ahead and send me the disk to reimage the computer.

You can't write this stuff and have a book publisher take you seriously.