2005-06-07

You know what? Maybe I don't.

I received orders that I was to rewrite a certain module yet again, from the ground up, for the third or fourth time, because an executive at our major client blinked. Once again, the specs were not thought through and were very vague, were rather arbitrary with respect to how the system is actually used, and so on. The order came by way of a phone call from my boss. I had a couple other things to do first, so I did those while waiting for our department meeting where I could address my concerns.

At the meeting, when the topic came up, I believe I said something to the tune of, "We need to sit down and talk the requirements through, because I don't want to spend all day rewriting this code yet again just to throw it away tomorrow." The first words out of my boss's mouth? "Well, if you don't want to work here..."

Eventually we were able to talk things through enough that I was able to write the module the way it was wanted (today) with more clear directives, but his initial response stuck with me. And I thought to myself, "You know what? Maybe I don't want to work here." Honestly, having my job threatened when I protest about wasting time and energy is really low, and it's not the first time I've been threatened with such for not just shutting up and doing as I'm told. And that's only one aspect of the complete lack of respect I'm faced with.

So now I'm looking again. I'm tired of putting up with this. The reasons I've stayed so long have become less and less important and less certain. I'm sure once I leave, they will finally make whatever big deal they've been hoping for and I'll miss out, but honestly I've been doubting what my cut of that would be if I stayed anyway.

I will miss the perks. I pay less for health insurance for my whole family than many people I know. I can wear what I want and even come in and leave when I want within reason, I can work from home when necessary, and the kitchen is stocked with free goodies. The 401(k) program is pretty cool as well, considering the employer matches 1:1 on up to 5%.

But I'm not happy. I can only deal with so much, and this job passed it a long time ago. It's way past time to move on.

No comments: