Out of the frying pan...
Well, it’s been a busy couple weeks since I’ve been here in Maryland. We’ve finally gotten everything unpacked and in place (either n a closet or in a storage unit…haha), and things are going quite well otherwise.
As you all know, or rather, as those of you that actually read this blog of mine know, I got a job about 2 weeks ago at a store here in town. Well, I am proud to say that I no longer have that job. There are several reasons that I am no longer working there, but rest assured, it was my decision, not the people that I was working for.
I want to give you an idea of just how backwards that place was (I will refer to the place of business in vague terms so that I will face no repercussions). On my first day of work, there was a meeting…no big deal. We sat there for an hour learning how to install Exchange on a server. Interesting, I guess, because I have never done it. After that, I got hooked up with “Mr. Munster” who proceeded to walk me through the diagnosis portion of fixing computers.
“When the computer comes in, you will spend roughly 2-3 hours doing diagnosis on the various bits and pieces that are inside a computer (we’ll get to those later). No matter what the computer was brought in here for, you must do the diagnosis.” As it turns out, the diagnosis of the computer consists of scanning the hard drive for virus, spy ware, defrag and scandisk, testing the memory and power supply and just about everything else you could think of. He spent probably a grand total of 2 hours explaining this process to me as though I had no clue what even a computer was made of. Fine, I can handle that.
Once he was done with that, he decided that I probably wasn’t ready to work on an actual computer, so he had me organize these cables. We’re talking about 4 bookcases worth of boxes filled to overflowing with different types of cables. Fine, I can handle that. I mean, I’ve only built every computer that I’ve ever owned. I’ve only worked at a computer repair place for 3 years and worked as a system admin for almost 3 more…but, if you don’t think I can fix a computer, that’s fine.
I ended the day quite dirty and frustrated. I remember crashing on the bed shortly after walking through the door not sure if I could go back the next day. Well, I worked up the strength (oh, you stand the whole time, so that’s 8 hours of standing…sore feet, legs and back) and made it to day #2.
I wish I could say that day #2 was better than the first. It wasn’t. If it were possible, I would say it was worse than the first day. All I remember is going home at the end of the day wondering what it was that I was doing. It was insane. Day #3, I ended up going to a business to do diagnostics on 12 computers. I couldn’t actually fix anything; I just had to do diagnostics to see where problem areas were.
I guess that was one of my main problems with the place: I wasn’t actually there to really fix anything – I was there to diagnose things. That’s all fine and good if you were to get paid for that, but, as luck would have it, I wasn’t getting paid for it at all. That’s right ladies and gentlemen…I didn’t get paid for a single second of diagnosis. Sure, I would get paid for however long I worked on a given computer, assuming it was actually a billable hour, but if I was unable to bill the customer for that hour of work, I didn’t see a single penny. Does that make sense? Not to me. As it was, I would get paid a certain amount (just for arguments sake, let’s say I got paid $15 per billable hour (I didn’t get that much, I promise)). So, I would have to spend 2-3 hours diagnosing potential problems on the computer, and would then have to fix the computer for whatever it actually came in there for. As it was, I would spend roughly 5-6 hours on a given machine, but would only get paid for 2 - 2.5 hours worth of actual work. As you can tell, assuming you’re good at basic math, I was not getting paid anywhere near as well as the owner had wanted me to believe.
The other thing that frustrated me: I ended up going on a networking job on last Thursday in another city. We were at the jobsite at 8 and got back to the shop around 4. At 4:30, I was asked if I would be able to work until 7 that evening (knowing full well that I probably wouldn’t get paid for those 2 extra hours). I said I would if I could go get lunch (we had worked on the networking job through lunch). I get back from eating lunch at 5, and I work till 7. During that time, the owner came up to me and asked how I liked that networking job and if I had done any networking before. I turned and looked at my tool pouch that was sitting on my workbench and said, “I’ve been networking for almost 10 years now.” I know full well that my work history includes my networking experience which would only lead me to believe that he hadn’t actually read it and was only looking for a warm body.
Anyway, the thing that finally set me off was something that happened yesterday evening. I had been working on 5 laptops all at the same time, all with completely different problems. I was keeping my tech notes up (oh yeah, you had to write down everything that you did at every single step of the way, and if you forgot one simple thing, SOMEONE would come down on you…I say SOMEONE because there were 5 people (in a shop that had 10 people working there) that were only there to look over your shoulder to make sure that you were following the diagnosis portion to a “T”). I was fixing machines. I was diagnosing problems that even Bill Gates didn’t know about. Then, out of nowhere, I get yelled at for doing something that the customer wanted. Not just that, but it was something that the customer brought the computer in for. That was the last straw. I couldn’t take it any more. Lucky for me, it was 4:45 (I had opted not to work late that day…haha). I left work at 5 after gathering up my tools, came home and, after a frustrating few minutes trying to explain how upset I was, I wrote a very scathing 1 page letter stating that I was quitting effective immediately and explaining why.
I woke up this morning (having not sent it the night before) and, while working out in the gym with groovy, I cut the letter down to 3 sentences. The gist was: I’m quitting now. I’ll bring back the shirts. Mail me my check.
So, I’m looking for a REAL job now. I’ve got an interview lined up for next Wednesday (not this one as I had thought) and hopefully another one for this week sometime. Keep your fingers crossed!
As you all know, or rather, as those of you that actually read this blog of mine know, I got a job about 2 weeks ago at a store here in town. Well, I am proud to say that I no longer have that job. There are several reasons that I am no longer working there, but rest assured, it was my decision, not the people that I was working for.
I want to give you an idea of just how backwards that place was (I will refer to the place of business in vague terms so that I will face no repercussions). On my first day of work, there was a meeting…no big deal. We sat there for an hour learning how to install Exchange on a server. Interesting, I guess, because I have never done it. After that, I got hooked up with “Mr. Munster” who proceeded to walk me through the diagnosis portion of fixing computers.
“When the computer comes in, you will spend roughly 2-3 hours doing diagnosis on the various bits and pieces that are inside a computer (we’ll get to those later). No matter what the computer was brought in here for, you must do the diagnosis.” As it turns out, the diagnosis of the computer consists of scanning the hard drive for virus, spy ware, defrag and scandisk, testing the memory and power supply and just about everything else you could think of. He spent probably a grand total of 2 hours explaining this process to me as though I had no clue what even a computer was made of. Fine, I can handle that.
Once he was done with that, he decided that I probably wasn’t ready to work on an actual computer, so he had me organize these cables. We’re talking about 4 bookcases worth of boxes filled to overflowing with different types of cables. Fine, I can handle that. I mean, I’ve only built every computer that I’ve ever owned. I’ve only worked at a computer repair place for 3 years and worked as a system admin for almost 3 more…but, if you don’t think I can fix a computer, that’s fine.
I ended the day quite dirty and frustrated. I remember crashing on the bed shortly after walking through the door not sure if I could go back the next day. Well, I worked up the strength (oh, you stand the whole time, so that’s 8 hours of standing…sore feet, legs and back) and made it to day #2.
I wish I could say that day #2 was better than the first. It wasn’t. If it were possible, I would say it was worse than the first day. All I remember is going home at the end of the day wondering what it was that I was doing. It was insane. Day #3, I ended up going to a business to do diagnostics on 12 computers. I couldn’t actually fix anything; I just had to do diagnostics to see where problem areas were.
I guess that was one of my main problems with the place: I wasn’t actually there to really fix anything – I was there to diagnose things. That’s all fine and good if you were to get paid for that, but, as luck would have it, I wasn’t getting paid for it at all. That’s right ladies and gentlemen…I didn’t get paid for a single second of diagnosis. Sure, I would get paid for however long I worked on a given computer, assuming it was actually a billable hour, but if I was unable to bill the customer for that hour of work, I didn’t see a single penny. Does that make sense? Not to me. As it was, I would get paid a certain amount (just for arguments sake, let’s say I got paid $15 per billable hour (I didn’t get that much, I promise)). So, I would have to spend 2-3 hours diagnosing potential problems on the computer, and would then have to fix the computer for whatever it actually came in there for. As it was, I would spend roughly 5-6 hours on a given machine, but would only get paid for 2 - 2.5 hours worth of actual work. As you can tell, assuming you’re good at basic math, I was not getting paid anywhere near as well as the owner had wanted me to believe.
The other thing that frustrated me: I ended up going on a networking job on last Thursday in another city. We were at the jobsite at 8 and got back to the shop around 4. At 4:30, I was asked if I would be able to work until 7 that evening (knowing full well that I probably wouldn’t get paid for those 2 extra hours). I said I would if I could go get lunch (we had worked on the networking job through lunch). I get back from eating lunch at 5, and I work till 7. During that time, the owner came up to me and asked how I liked that networking job and if I had done any networking before. I turned and looked at my tool pouch that was sitting on my workbench and said, “I’ve been networking for almost 10 years now.” I know full well that my work history includes my networking experience which would only lead me to believe that he hadn’t actually read it and was only looking for a warm body.
Anyway, the thing that finally set me off was something that happened yesterday evening. I had been working on 5 laptops all at the same time, all with completely different problems. I was keeping my tech notes up (oh yeah, you had to write down everything that you did at every single step of the way, and if you forgot one simple thing, SOMEONE would come down on you…I say SOMEONE because there were 5 people (in a shop that had 10 people working there) that were only there to look over your shoulder to make sure that you were following the diagnosis portion to a “T”). I was fixing machines. I was diagnosing problems that even Bill Gates didn’t know about. Then, out of nowhere, I get yelled at for doing something that the customer wanted. Not just that, but it was something that the customer brought the computer in for. That was the last straw. I couldn’t take it any more. Lucky for me, it was 4:45 (I had opted not to work late that day…haha). I left work at 5 after gathering up my tools, came home and, after a frustrating few minutes trying to explain how upset I was, I wrote a very scathing 1 page letter stating that I was quitting effective immediately and explaining why.
I woke up this morning (having not sent it the night before) and, while working out in the gym with groovy, I cut the letter down to 3 sentences. The gist was: I’m quitting now. I’ll bring back the shirts. Mail me my check.
So, I’m looking for a REAL job now. I’ve got an interview lined up for next Wednesday (not this one as I had thought) and hopefully another one for this week sometime. Keep your fingers crossed!
posted by LaTech at 2:27 PM
4 Comments:
... and into the Fryer huh?
Man it's not the same here without you, I've got a ton of stuff going on and I barely have time to breathe. Overall I'd say that things are going well and they're at least headed in the right direction. I wish you the best of luck finding a job, especailly one that can make use of your talents and broaden your horizons. Those are the toughest to find, and they may not pay the best, but you really feel good about what you do. I can honestly say that there's not a day that I don't show up to work and learn something new. I wish you the best and keep in touch...
webmaster :^)
bro I understand what u are going through...take for instance CRI that I use to work for when I first started..u had to diag. everything even the kybd and mouse if brought in /shrug. anyways we didn't get paid for diag. only bill. hours, so with that said it would take 2-4 hrs of diag. just to fix some kind of problem that could take 20sec from the symptoms. I got tired of that told my boss to let me do it my way. after he told me to get out and my check would be in the mail I get a call that next day telling me to come into work. so I go in do my thing the way I want it and poof went through 18 comps. all fixed and at $75 a pop I made the store more money in that one day then they could in a week sometimes with only 3 techs..so I understand what u went through there..I guess my balls are way bigger than yours when I stood up to my boss. /shrug jk bro....oh well hope everything goes better fer ya tell groovy hey fer me and what not...laters bro
all the love from my farts.
thats the fine part about starting over!! Okay, no so fun. I've had my share of crap jobs, and my share of being unemployed.. and its not fun. I'd rather work in a place I know if screwing me over while looking for another job, then sit at home spending 8hrs aday on job search sites. Well at least your moved in. Best of luck with the job search. Remember, in most cases, anyjob is better then no job.
btw I owe you dinner!
-brandon
Hey Man. I'm dropping this note here cause we only see each other offline anymore *sniff sniff*. My domain expired and i dont feel like renewing it under that name so im looking for another domain atm. Just in case you where worried that you couldnt get to my extremely busy forums.
-Sir
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