The benefits of complaining...

Music: Holy Fuck - Bontempi Latin

Because I'm being viewed as such a whiner here at work, I've become rewarded. I've been constantly complaining about the processes involved in the installation of the updates and Service Packs for the software we distribute. A new version would come out, I'd test it, tell them that it sucks and give them a list of things that were wrong.

If they were lucky, I would tell them how to fix it as well.

But with any bureaucratic process there are hangups. The hangup for this instance is documentation, there is a lot of paper work that goes along with the creation and update of the software. For instance, to produce the update there are meetings to be had, five or six documents to write and have approved. Then you get to write the code, all the while documenting what changed.

Some of the problems I've found have been minor that require a simple one line change in a configuration file somewhere. But, because of the process thats involved in getting the software ready they'd have to redo the entire process just for these changes. They do not want to.

To make matters worse, the people who create the installation break stuff by making changes to the program forget what they changed and then do not know how to get it back to a point where it works. I just want to kill people now. Who does this? Seriously? Why don't they have the same process to follow than everyone else?

Because of all this, I've been rewarded. For the next release I get to manage, document and plan the *ENTIRE* installation process so that it will work (here are the key words) how *I* want it to work. Hell yeah! Thats what I'm talkin about.

**

I was just interrupted for 15 minutes by the project coordinator for the Brunei project that I'm involved with. Have you ever met someone who just talks for the sake of talking? You ask them a question and they continue talking like you never opened your mouth? How continually interrupts their own sentences to talk about something completely separate to what they were mentioning to begin with?

I asked him, what do you want me to do with the paper you handed me?

He looks at me puzzled, well, here is how the training is going to break down and attempts to explain the training sessions which are on the paper.

I look at him and laugh to myself while he continues to talk. I interrupt, what is this? Pointing to an item on the paper.

Well, the guy before you had set this up as a training session.

Whats the point of it? Is it necessary?

He put it there so I'm keeping it there? I don't know what it is but he said it would be useful?

Without showing frustration or annoyance, I ask again, What do you want me to do with this paper? Approve, modify the training days?

Yeah, that sounds good. You can do that as well as doing this...

I begin to tune him out because he begins to ramble on how the training flights will be and condensing training that we do not provide to make it faster with fewer flights.

Some people just don't get it.