The Buzz Community Group
Really? I hadn't heard a thing about it !
So the contract I was on for almost 5 years is winding down. The client is retiring all their legacy systems which my company supports. I moved to another contract in a different city with lots of hope and excitement.
Now the team I was assigned to is small and has suffered numerous personnel issues. Some personality and some reliability. Lots of turnover. My maager from the former client was also brought in to right the ship and she recruited me to lend stability and technical expertise.
I started on Jan 2nd and almost right after that the edict came down she is the only one that can now attend meetings and interface with the business folks. So any questions or obversations I have on requirements have to filter through her in both directions. Not optimal...
And today it was announced they are moving us off-site to my company's offices. Doh! I found a nice rental house a little over 2 miles from the client, and now my 5 minute commute turns into a 25 - 30 minute commute. Shit.
Frankly my company only cares about one thing: Billing. And now I find myself isolated from the client, both by distance and also communication.
One thing I've always enjoyed is working as part of a team, providing value and insight. Now I just feel like, I'm not sure what... It really sucks, it's taken the wind out of my sails and it's quite demoralizing.
These are very complex applications, the work is very technical and it's not at all easy to do being isolated from the business. I'm not _just_ a coder, darn it! In order to provide the best value I need to see the whole picture. To know the business side of the house and what they are trying to accomplish.
Sheesh, stuffing me in a cubicle with extremely limited exposure except to source code just isn't an optimal solution and I can't begin to explain how frustrated I am.
The only saving grace is I'm probably good for 4 or so years, however I was hoping to leverage this position into a FTE position with the client. Guess that's all shot to hell...
Now the team I was assigned to is small and has suffered numerous personnel issues. Some personality and some reliability. Lots of turnover. My maager from the former client was also brought in to right the ship and she recruited me to lend stability and technical expertise.
I started on Jan 2nd and almost right after that the edict came down she is the only one that can now attend meetings and interface with the business folks. So any questions or obversations I have on requirements have to filter through her in both directions. Not optimal...
And today it was announced they are moving us off-site to my company's offices. Doh! I found a nice rental house a little over 2 miles from the client, and now my 5 minute commute turns into a 25 - 30 minute commute. Shit.
Frankly my company only cares about one thing: Billing. And now I find myself isolated from the client, both by distance and also communication.
One thing I've always enjoyed is working as part of a team, providing value and insight. Now I just feel like, I'm not sure what... It really sucks, it's taken the wind out of my sails and it's quite demoralizing.
These are very complex applications, the work is very technical and it's not at all easy to do being isolated from the business. I'm not _just_ a coder, darn it! In order to provide the best value I need to see the whole picture. To know the business side of the house and what they are trying to accomplish.
Sheesh, stuffing me in a cubicle with extremely limited exposure except to source code just isn't an optimal solution and I can't begin to explain how frustrated I am.
The only saving grace is I'm probably good for 4 or so years, however I was hoping to leverage this position into a FTE position with the client. Guess that's all shot to hell...
how you holdin up JAGS?
The thing that's really scary is the feeling of total powerlessness. Consulting firms and clients know they got us between a rock and a hard place.
They beat us down on wages and expect us to be total professionals and do whatever it takes to get the job done, and when we're not needed, thank you very much and look for another gig and most likely in another city. And if it's with another consulting firm benefits reset to that of a new hire.
Shit, I should have went federal civil service when I was discharging from the Air Force and the offer was on the table. This really sucks and just about anyone in the career field will agree. We are being screwed to the max and there's not a damned thing we can do.
I think I'd be hoppin mad if it were me too
I need to keep things in perspective, but it did feel good to vent. ;-)
So this afternoon we went to our offsite location (my company's office) and it absolutely sucks. Basically they rent an office suite in a corporate office park. They are seating us in a lobby area between a wall and all the managers' office doors/windows. Wide open. No cubicles. Basically a call center setup. A long piece of furniture with a low glass divider down the middle and 4 stations on either side. I have file cabinets about 8 inches behind my chair. It's fucking bullshit.
It's a huge fucking insult to senior professional IT systems analysts/software engineers. Oh, and no casual/dressdown Fridays. The head honco is an ex-IBM manager and he strongly dislikes dressdown. Might give clients the wrong impression. Well, what about having senior IT folks sitting in call center fashion in the middle of your fucking lobby?!?!?!?!?!?
Sheesh. Seriously, I'm this close (fingers about 1/8 inch apart) from putting myself out on the market, and if a good position comes along in the area I'm gone.
Professionalism IS a two-way street.
It's absolutely galling they buy a cheap and cheesy piece of used office furniture for this contract when at the minimum they could have invested in some relatively inexpensive modular cubicle setups.
Seriously, if I was a prospective client and they were presenting an outsourcing arrangement to me and I saw that kind of facility I'd be very worried about employee satisfaction and retention. It reeks of a body-shop with little or no concern for retention/continuity of quality staff.