A Day Late

We had an interesting discussion in my Software Design class on Friday. We were discussing the role and necessity of “politics” in the workplace. I have to admit, politics really has a negative connotation for me, and I think it does for most people. Before class I’d have probably defined it something like “attempting to make yourself look better than others, often at their expense.” However, we were discussing it under more positive terms (some might disagree if there is such a thing).

Basically my instructor wanted us to realize that “politics” is essential in everything you do, particularly in business. He said anytime you adapt, or change the way you interact, with one person you’re essentially participating in politics. If you had asked me before class what I thought of “office politics” I probably would have become pretty emphatic in my disgust. However, I’d never thought of it in the terms we were discussing.
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A friend sent this to me in an email. I’m not sure where it originated from but decided to post it, for the benefit of all. Most of these are so true (some painfully). It’ interesting, as I read each of these a particular person or persons from work popped in my head immediately. Most shared more than one category.
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In my blog reading this morning I came across an entry quoting an all time classic movie. Anyone who’s ever worked in a cubicle or ever had thoughts of taking a bat to a piece of office machinery or been forced to sit through company “pep rallies” needs to see this movie. Hell…everyone should see this movie. Anyway, here’s a link to a WAV file for the quote.

There was a career fair on campus last week. There were quite a few employers there but I got the impression that many were there just to make an appearance and not necesarilly recruit. In fact, these days “recruiting” seems to be the wrong term to use. Pan handling seems more appropriate. The scene from the career fair was an enormous crowd of desperate students looking for any job openings. Which reminds me, I had to smile when I noticed virtually no one approached the KMart booth :). Come on…we’re not that desperate (not yet anyway). Anyway, I passed my Resume around a few places and talked with a few companies but nothing looked very promising. As I was leaving I gave the Navy Officer recruiting booth a second glance, but decided I’ll wait till the end of the summer before I consider that.

I was surprised when I got a call the next morning to come in for an interview. It was with a relatively small company, but they’ve been around for a while (yes, I’m being sarcastic). Overall I thought the interview went pretty well. They were recruiting for positions in Boulder, CO, which I wouldn’t mind moving to, but they indicated that the college graduate positions probably wouldn’t open until March (if they have any at all). So I guess I’ll just wait and hope for an invitation to visit Boulder in March.

As I said, I thought the interview went alright. However, it wasn’t what I’d call perfect. I crossed my legs as I was sitting (left leg resting on my right knee) and towards the end of the interview I uncrossed them. I was horrified when I realized I couldn’t feel my right leg, at all (no tingling, NOTHING). Fortunately I regained enough feeling to make it out of the interview, but with an obvious limp. How embarassing is that? Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed (but not my legs, I’ve learned that lesson).

I’ve been monitoring a discussion on the email list for the campus unix users group I belong to about how it’s innapropriate to include html in email messages. I think some people are a little over zealous about the whole issue. Yes, I understand a lot of people use pine and other such mail programs to read their email, and emails sent in html appear awful. Some of those mentioned have threatened that they “will not read any email with html in it and will delete it out right.” Hmm…well, ok, fine with me. In my opinion if anyone is losing by not reading the emails it’s them. I think it’s a little egotistical for them to think it’s the other way around. I guess it’s kind of pointless for me to complain about since I always send my mail in plaintext, but it’s some of the comments of those involved (on both sides) that irritate me. Esspecially when I have 30 new emails from people arguing (some emphatically) about stuff like this.

Lists are full of pointless arguments like these. There’s the people that argue vi over emacs, gnome over kde, and the list goes on and on. These arguments are so juvenile and pointless. Stating you prefer one over the other is fine, but when you take it to the point of insisting that your way is better is just ridiculous. Why some people can’t understand people ARE DIFFERENT and have different likes and dislikes I’ll never understand. Hell, if I had it my way there wouldn’t be AOLin the world, but I recognize that some people like it. I don’t understand it, but I accept it and throw away the 5 CD’s I receive each week, that’s life.

Related with these arguments you find a few people, who it seems, are hell bent on living in the past. They continue to use their preferred program or whatever they’ve used for the past 20 years, becuase it’s simple, it gets the job done and it’s what they’re comfortable with. I think that’s perfectly fine until inhibits progress. For instance, today you can find some of these people programming in languages that no one’s heard of on outdated systems (does the word “legacy” come to mind?). Sure they may work, but chances are functionality is limited and no end user wants to use the interface for them. With the dramatic increase of web and distributed applications, not learning current languages like Java, C++, Perl and others is essentially putting a not too distant expiration date on your marketability.
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I came to work this morning to find the plant I keep next to my monitor wilting. I’m not sure what the cause is. I’ve had it for nearly 5 months now and it’s been doing great. I water it once a week and that seemed to be just fine.

About 2 weeks ago I moved cubicles. I moved from a small one with no source of natural light to a larger one with a window (well…a window well, but it’s better than nothing). I was rather pleased with the transition but I’m beginning to wonder if the plant didn’t/doesn’t share my enthusiasm. It’s a little perplexing, I thought the natural light would have done it some good.

Well…I decided to give it a good dose of water this morning and try and keep it near some bright light for a few days and see if it improves. If not I may have to break down and drive to the store to get some miracle grow or something. If worse comes to worse I might have to return it to my old desk (affectionately known as “solitary”). It’s really a matter of pride, I can’t let this damn thing die! When you work in a basement it’s nice to have a little greenery around. Incidentally I also have a small bonzai tree like plant that seems to be doing just fine on the other side of my monitor. Like I said, perplexing.