Animosity

I am still shackled at work, no blogging except I can read blogs. I have to accept that I will not have access to blogging, except I can read them, from here on out. Mrs Big Dubya suggested I write my blogs in word and then paste them into the post later. That would be fine if I wasn't so busy at work. So I am not blogging too often these days, which is a shame because I have tons to blog about. I think this is like shopping, when I don't have any money I find all sorts of things I want to buy and when I have money, nothing is interesting. Now that I can't blog at work there are lots of really interesting things to blog about.
Work, itself, is ridiculously stupid. Today in a status meeting I actually had to say (very firmly) 'You need to retract that statement, it is offensive.'
I don't think I should ever have to say that in a work environment. Moreover, I had to say it to the project manager. This pisses me off in general because he likes to have a 2 hour status meeting everyday. This guy also thinks we need to be spending 30 hours a week in front of the client. He also thinks we need to spend 10 hours a week writing functional specifications for custom work we have to create so that the system we are implementing does what the client needs. He also feels we should be spending a couple hours a week chasing after the absolutely stupid stuff he comes up with in these stupid status meetings. So let's do a little math:
Client time: 30 hours
Status meetings: 8 Hours
Functional specs: 10 hours
Follow up for status meetings: 8 hours

I count 56 hours. Now let's add the time I need to to actually do my work:

configure the database: 10 hours
prepare for client meetings: 10 hours (creating decision docs, documenting outcomes, etc...)

I am now counting about 75 hours. I am not working much that but I do manage to log 40 hours by Thursday morning. And I am falling behind in work.
The project manager, who I will refer to PM (although I would like to refer to as Dipshit) had the nerve to say to me: 'You aren't doing anything.'
And then I pulled out my katana and cut off his head.
OK, I made that up.
But I did say 'You need to retract that statement, it is offensive.'

This was after Monday, where my co-worker started my day (after a 4.5 hour drive which started at almost 5 in the morning) by running one of the worst meetings I have ever been in...ever. At the end I actually had to say to the client 'You have young children, right? Great, let's have a do over. Forget this meeting happened, we will do it all over again.' I was embarrassed that I was a part of the meeting. But I can't tell the PM how bad it went because they are already at eachother's neck. I had multiple meetings and then got to listen to the PM tell me that we HAD to have more meetings letting the client know what is happening next. These meetings HAD to be 2 hours long. I had already had these meetings because they needed to happen two weeks ago and PM had not yet scheduled them. I talked with my groups, I set expectations. I have buy in from my teams. I am ready to start with the next round of meetings but now we have to go back and have a longer meeting saying them same thing. Is anyone suprised that when PM offered to lead the meeting I said 'No, please don't.'? The PM is poison. The client is like an orchid, delicate with great potential (although a little funny looking in a pretty way). The PM is like Round Up. No, he is more like Agent Orange. He is one of those people that is toxic. He breeds animosity. We, the consultants, are ready to rise up and revolt. This has easily been one of the most taxing projects in terms of my abilities to keep peace between our group and the client, amongst the client themselves and amongst the consultants. It's a pain in the ass.

So when my friend from the major software company calls to woo me into joining them where I would only travel 3 days out of 10 days and I would not take too much of a pay cut (although all that would have to be worked out) do you know what I do?


I agree to meet her next week.