More about work…

I’m not going to carp about work and if you notice at all, since April when I started the gig I haven’t really talked all that much about work. Part of that is my own attitude about putting things in perspective and the other part is simply from having more experience making life a lot more easier this go round than it was originally.

While there are bumps along the road, I’ve managed to keep my head down for the most part and just get through the days.

I don’t interact with a lot of people by choice really. There are meetings I could attend but the topics of those meetings don’t really pertain to the project I’m working on so it doesn’t make sense to even really keep them on in the background. The person who is our sector lead is really terrific but I don’t bother her really. I don’t even interact much with my friend who originally hooked me up with the gig over two years ago now even though we’re on the same brand. There just isn’t any overlap on projects.

So aside from the people in the immediate circle on the project, the people I interact the most with are the people over in England who I send the work to. On the client side I only interact as necessary to fix a problem, ask a question or badger someone to look at something. 

As for the group head… I don’t interact with her at all anymore.

We had the monthly group meeting yesterday and a topic about something came up where something I worked on was used as an example. It wasn’t something I set up… it was something that was set up by the person I replaced but I saw my name on it and I can’t say I was all too happy about that. There were a number of reasons, the first being I was directed to do something SPECIFICALLY BY THE CLIENT and that’s what was followed and second because in the four months since I came back I haven’t interacted with the group head at all and being called out or used as a bad example for something that really wasn’t the case at all pissed me off.

I sent off a quick chat in the middle of the meeting to the group head telling her I HAD BEEN TOLD TO SET THINGS UP BY THE CLIENT THAT WAY and she should discuss it with the client the next time she spoke with her.

The other thing is that the problem in question? Well, I know they had something like 600 plus jobs done in the year so far and more than a third were missing billing info (this is supposed to be a number but I’ve been directed to put the name of the project in this field). Well, the thing is… I have maybe ten projects max I’ve set up and out of that ten maybe 30 that have been completed so… that would mean around 200 other projects have been set up incorrectly that I had nothing to do with but I’m the one being used as an example?

My response? Get my name out of your fucking mouth!

I know, harsh. I’m a dick that way. I didn’t say that of course but I was thinking that. Again, no interaction and then the other thing is simple really. You see… when this project came up? Well, in my first go round they were going to keep me around for it and then the budget didn’t materialize but when the budget did materialize and they started it up? They didn’t call me back, no they went out and hired someone else.

And, this goes back to the last time I was there where I did kill myself only to be told by the same person in my review (the group head) that I wasn’t a ‘project manager’ even though on the client side the person who was head of the division had called out the project as an example for how these projects should go because of how smoothly, timely and how little client resources were needed to get the thing done (yeah, that was because someone killed themselves… you’re welcome).

Now, it was only when the guy they hired fucked up so badly and totally that they called me back four months into something that was already on a tight deadline.

Look, if I didn’t have to work… if I was flush and didn’t need a paycheck, I wouldn’t work. It’s really as simple as that. I love my time and freedom. Thing is I’m NOT flush so I need to be sure I have work. This gig is on a clock and ends at New Year’s meaning I enter 2026 unemployed.

The other day, I went to the company site and looked at the careers section. I had stopped doing that but I did see two jobs I could apply for and then I thought about it and realized, why bother? The group head isn’t going to hire me full time anyway so just run the clock down and put everything behind me. No job is forever, the only difference here is I actually know the day this one ends.