Current location:	Tucson, AZ; unfortunately
Current mood:	weird
Current music:	Zero 7 - Today (Featuring Jose Gonzales)

Cruel Intentions.
Because of my schedule, I had missed the last 4 episodes of Lost. Yesterday I caught up, and tonight the season finale was quite good. However, I have completely abandoned any hope of J.J. Abrams original statement that all the science is entirely plausible. Nope, that was a lie Mr. Abrams.

I ate two dinners and desert tonight. I've gained 10 pounds in the past 6 weeks. When I went to the doctor last week I weighed 208. Like every doctor, mine has one of those sliding weight balances to determine your weight. The first time that weight had to rest in the 200 pounds notch to balance out, I made a face at the scale. But for the most part I'm much more healthy. If only there was something I could do about work...


In the absence of my boss Ken (*sniffle*), we kind of answer to his boss Chris. It is an odd situation, because whoever replaces Ken will be equal to Chris instead of beneath him. Currently the structure is something like this...

Chris
↑
no one
↑
me

Well today, about 11:00 am, Chris called me into his office. After making me wait for 26 minutes, he comes in and tells me what I'm doing sitting in his office. I am to gather metrics, numbers, calculate costs and determine statistics for what my group does. I am also to work out how many employees we have in each department, at each of our 15 (god, I hope there are only 15) locations in order to illustrate who many people the 10 of us support (over 1900). The reason for this is that Chris will be giving these numbers to Siemens AG, for them to make a bid at replacing our current Help Desk employees. In other words, Chris is asking me to provide him with information on how we do our job, and how to potentially get me and my friends replaced.

Now, the intention of this bid is to bring to light how under paid the people in my group are in comparison to a real Help Desk. I was told that this information will be taken to the corporate VPs to illustrate how much a proper company would cost to do the same work as a bunch of students. I hope that's the way it turns out, but honestly this whole thing feels weird to me. Oh, I did I mention I have to have the report to Chris by noon tomorrow... exactly 24 hours from when he told me about it.

Also, Chris brought in a new employee two weeks ago. He is under contract, and is supposed to be under Jesse and myself in the "new" corporate structure. However, in the two weeks he has been here, the new guy has worked in a different department than Jesse and me. The new guy has under gone none of the standard training. The new guy has been given a company laptop, and his own phone. The only thing he has done in the past two weeks, is take company paid training courses online, during work hours. And so far, he has reported only to Chris. Some of us have come to the conclusion that Chris brought in the new guy in order to replace Ken.



This is a chart of the planned reorganization. I took a screen shot of a Visio drawing they made. As you can see I've already had to make updates on image, and the "plan" isn't even a month old. Phil was "let go", and Rodney quietly replaced Alphonso without anyone other than Chris and Alphonso knowing. (Ken didn't even know, and he was their boss!!) The new guy is supposed to be the "Open (C)" in the bottom left corner, but has spent all his time on the other side of the chart, not doing any work. I have applied for three of the five positions open on this chart. One position is obviously beneath me, and I wouldn't be considered for the very top position. The open "IT Admin Support I" position would be a lateral move, but more pay and benefits. I applied (and interviewed last week) for that job, but I don't want it. I want one of the two above that, either the new position or Ken's. Unfortunately many of the people who will be making these decisions, don't like me.

*le sigh*
And when I signed into work to get a pic of the Re-org chart.... I see an email from Chris in my inbox. He is complaining that Paul didn't answer the on call phone tonight. You see, the 10 of us rotate a 24x7 on-call phone (which some of you have been witness to). Actually, not 10 of us rotate, only 6 of us are doing it currently. This is Paul's week, but he is still in school (as you can see in the above chart). If for any reason, we don't answer the on-call phone, it rolls over to Ken, and then to Chris. But with Ken having left the company, it no goes straight to Chris. Paul was in class, and Chris is pissed. Already 11 emails have been sent about the one call Chris had to take. They even tried Paul's personal phone. This is getting ridiculous.

Oh yeah! And they have going through the 40+ resumes and finished all the interviews for the first open position (which I interviewed for last week). They told us at that time, the decision would be announced on May 30th (tomorrow), and that whoever got it would begin the new position on Monday, June 2nd. Today we were told it would be another two weeks before they announce their decision. This place is shady.... I don't blame Ken for wanting out.

Alright, I'm done complaining for tonight.

Ken left yesterday. His wife and son flew to Rhode Island on Wednesday, while he drove a moving truck, pulling a car, with two caged cats, across country, by himself. Wherever you are, good luck! There isn't enough music on my iPod to get me through that trip. At least he made it out of Arizona. When you read this Ken, we miss you and want you to come back. We are sending Chappy to get you, prepare the emus.

I'm going to bed, good night everyone.