How is your career going?

[TheMix]

If I'm offered this job, it will begin the process of moving my family to Vermont. Better schools for the kids, no one in the area seems to be flying flags I'd associate with hate groups, and short access to a national park. We've already put an offer out on a property and had it accepted. It would just be a matter of building a house there while I lived in an apartment. The wife can't move without space set up for her kennel.

If not too personal, whereabouts (roughly)? I grew up in Essex Center and spent a number of years in Essex Junction and Burlington.

We should be around the middle of southern Vermont, about 30 minutes west of Brattleboro. My wife is absolutely in love with the area.

Nice. One of my remaining college friends lives in Chester. Very nice area.

[Paingod]

Very nice area.

I haven't had a chance to see it myself, but her description was glowing. From the clean and cultured look of Brattleboro to the quaint drive to the property we're buying to the short skip over to a ski resort and easy access to endless miles of trails. My biggest concern, as a tech-heavy citizen, was a stable internet connection and we're going to have to go back to the stone ages with DSL. Thankfully, a different ISP in the area has already done preliminary work running fiber right down the street we're moving to ... so... maybe in a few months or a year, I'll be back in civilized connectivity.

Now I just need to pass my interview in 4 hours.

[TheMix]

You'll need to research it, but I'm pretty sure my friend has DSL. And I've never heard him complain. Plus, he does a LOT of online gaming.

[Paingod]

You'll need to research it, but I'm pretty sure my friend has DSL. And I've never heard him complain. Plus, he does a LOT of online gaming.

I think the quality of DSL depends largely on how close you are to one of their substation/repeaters. I've read that the further the signal travels, the slower your internet gets. The plus side is that you're not sharing bandwidth with the neighborhood like you do with Cable.

The interview felt like it went well. 37 minutes, questions from all of the leadership members present, with answers that they all seemed to like. If I've passed, my next interview will be with the General Manager I'd report to and the subordinate I'd manage.

My concerns for the job focus mostly on the place being in the stone ages. It's retail, and by the sounds of it they have a patchwork network - the hub is the POS system, which they call "quirky" and I got questions about handling trouble calls with customers there in front of me - so kicking the retail scanners back into action is clearly common. The finance department is run on QuickBooks - but isn't tied into the POS system; they extract data via reports and import it after massaging it. The marketing department is run on Access - again, not tied into the POS, and again using reports that are massaged and imported. All of the departments sound like they play tug-of-war for the IT person's time (me, if I they offer it), but not for cool projects. I've played this game before, two employers ago. Instead of investing in systems that communicate by design, they utilize manpower to manipulate data between systems in bulk. It's tedious and poses no challenge after the first process, and ends up being done frequently with no good option to automate it. That would be my job, in addition to all the other functions in IT from firewalls to desktops. The subordinate only does Database work.

So I'm looking at a potential job offer to go back in time and do something I never wanted to do again.

At the same time, it's a potential job offer that puts me and my family in the state and location we want to move to.

It's Schrodinger's Job Offer. I want them to offer me the job so I can get my family where I we want to be. I don't want them to offer me the job because it's two steps backwards and I'd get bored so fast my head would spin. I keep flipping that coin mentally and can't figure out which is better.

[Zaxxon]

On the bright side, that implies that neither outcome is particularly bad, either.

As for internet access, I think you'd be far enough north to get into the Starlink beta if the area broadband options aren't up to snuff.

[LordMortis]

I'm not a fan of DSL unless its an option and you don't have others. It tends to be more expensive than it's worth and plays tech games to get you high speeds, as it really is running over a single twisted pair over an analog circuit (ironic for a Digital Subscriber Line). The longer the cable the more degradation of the signal and why can generally be no more than 1500 yards from a station and you really don't want to be that far away.

I say all this knowing how complete crap my cable provider is and their 100 Mb/s is probably worse on nearly every day than DSL would be if it's even available to me (and I think it is though I am under the impression the UVerse is undergoing changes)

[dbt1949]

I can't get the highest tier of speed because I live too far away.

[Paingod]

On the bright side, that implies that neither outcome is particularly bad, either.

I'm up for Round 3 next Tuesday. I asked the HR Manager the top question that came to mind and it threw up a potential HUGE red flag.

The subordinate I'd manage is a unionized employee, meaning they have strict guidelines on what they will or won't do. The retail location is open approximately 80+ hours a week. I asked how they manage after-hours issues and she got a little iffy, talking about how they had been staggering hours between the subordinate and the IT Manager so someone was around most of the time to handle emergencies. The problem in my mind is that the subordinate is a database admin.

I highly doubt a unionized DB Admin is working weekends and evenings or taking calls for remote troubleshooting. I also doubt the DB Admin is technically proficient enough to do much more than basic troubleshooting even when they are there. I've known a few people who specialize in database work and they seem quite happy to let all other IT knowledge melt away. I don't know anything about the guy yet, but it's been my experience.

That may mean that I would be expected to be on duty 80 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to support the business. They have no 3rd party MSP for backup support for vacations or time off. It made red flags pop up all over my brain. I don't want to say "I'm too old for this shit" but I am. I don't mind being the go-to for off-the-wall emergency issues that frontline techs can't handle as long as I also have a fallback of convenience in a MSP that covers for me when I don't answer. I do mind being asked to half-ass my personal life because the business doesn't want to pay to cover my time away from work correctly.

I don't want to get too worked up over it yet - I still have to meet the person I'd be working directly under (a General Manager) and the person who'd be working under me - so it's all speculation. It's just not a good feeling.

[malchior]

I highly doubt a unionized DB Admin is working weekends and evenings or taking calls for remote troubleshooting. I also doubt the DB Admin is technically proficient enough to do much more than basic troubleshooting even when they are there. I've known a few people who specialize in database work and they seem quite happy to let all other IT knowledge melt away. I don't know anything about the guy yet, but it's been my experience.

It's very possible that there simply are more rules than an exempt, non-union employee. I am doing an IT Strategy review for a company with unionized, hourly IT tier 1 support staff. They have a 70 hour coverage period with 4 head count and an on-call rotation. In a long-past life, I also had union employees when I was management at a public college. What happens generally is that overtime is more than time and a half or has some sort of shift differential built in. The main dynamic often is cost control and there will often be limits to the amount of 'forced' overtime they can work.

That may mean that I would be expected to be on duty 80 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to support the business. They have no 3rd party MSP for backup support for vacations or time off. It made red flags pop up all over my brain. I don't want to say "I'm too old for this shit" but I am. I don't mind being the go-to for off-the-wall emergency issues that frontline techs can't handle as long as I also have a fallback of convenience in a MSP that covers for me when I don't answer. I do mind being asked to half-ass my personal life because the business doesn't want to pay to cover my time away from work correctly

This would be the main concern by a mile for me. I read an earlier post and you mentioned QuickBooks and *Access*. This is an operation stuck in the late 90s. My questions would heavily be tied to expectations, stability, and the such since they live in the IT stone age.

[Jeff V]

So I had an interview today with an affable recruiter who was both my age, and able to discern I was his age, and was not put off by it. His client is a company where he had placed their CIO, so it doesn't seem like a case where one recruiter is flinging poo at the wall with a bunch of other recruiters. We talked for more than an hour, so I think I'll be one of the people he's going to submit for comparison.

Pros

• The job would pay 20% more than I was making at my last job.

• The team I would manage is small, 1/4 of what I had before.

• Appears to be a single facility (manufacturing plant), so a fraction of the 30 facilities I was responsible for before.

Cons

• Job is more hands-on where as over the last 8 years I've been increasingly hands-off. I can see this being an issue if another candidate is making the leap from more of a tech monkey role.

• Some of the technologies I haven't got hands dirty with in about 15 years.

• Location, location, location. Tis not desirable (for those who know the area, south of McKinley Park, likely a 90 minute commute if the traffic is shitty).

[stimpy]

• Location, location, location. Tis not desirable (for those who know the area, south of McKinley Park, likely a 90 minute commute if the traffic is shitty).

Upside is Ricobenes for lunch everyday!!!!

[Paingod]

This would be the main concern by a mile for me. I read an earlier post and you mentioned QuickBooks and *Access*. This is an operation stuck in the late 90s. My questions would heavily be tied to expectations, stability, and the such since they live in the IT stone age.

I agree. As it stands, the undecided coin toss has shifted to a very slight leaning against the job - unless the salary makes it worth it. It doesn't stop being in the right area for where we want to move to just because it runs antique systems. If they make life comfortable outside the office, I can put up with a lot.

[Jeff V]

Upside is Ricobenes for lunch everyday!!!!

Been there, done that when I worked for the Tribune and they had a place downtown. I used to play softball at McKinley Park and we'd often go to Bishop's Chili afterward. I don't see any familiar names when I Google the map of the area now, but it doesn't seem like a total wasteland.

[Jeff V]

Been notified already my resume and interview notes have been passed on to the hiring manager.

[Paingod]

Today I'm scheduled to finish my interview with the company in Vermont. I think they like me as a candidate; they've had easy opportunities to stop the process but keep it going. My first interview was a short one over the phone with the HR Manager. Then I met with the management team. Then I met with the GM (who would manage me) and the DB Admin (who I'd manage) - but with about 15 minutes to go, power went out in my neighborhood and I couldn't rejoin the meeting through Zoom on my phone. Instead of them saying "We're all set, thanks" the GM wanted to conclude and give me time to ask my questions, so we're doing a shorter phone call today.

The closer I get to this opportunity, the more it ties my stomach in knots.

The company is clearly using antiquated tech - everyone keeps asking me how well I work with old systems and quirky software. They repeatedly allude to my job being "Excel Heavy" - meaning I'd be pulling a lot of data out of the POS system and reformatting it for people to use elsewhere. They have no backup plan for vacations for me or the DB Admin except that we're supposed to cover for each other; no MSP that knows the business. They want to get a new point of sale system running, but cost is prohibitive. They tried to expand not too long ago and that second location had to be shuttered - maybe by COVID, maybe by poor sales. I don't know yet but intend to ask. I can sleep walk through the job they're asking me to do. I've been doing it for 15 years. I wanted more challenge than this out of my next employer. I feel incredibly stagnant and don't want "Great With Antiques" to be my resume headline.

BUT ... This place lands me right where my wife wants to be in the state, and I'm happy with moving so the kids get into better schools. We already have a parcel of land under contract in the area.

It also means I'd be basically moving to Vermont without my family and commuting "home" every weekend until a basic, livable structure was built on our property - we're thinking of starting with a garage with an overhead apartment so we can live there while the house is built - and then offer up the apartment to our kids to use so they get a taste of freedom before going to college. It could be 6 to 8 months before that happened. My weeks would be spent in solitude with 4-hour trips to get to see my family for 48 hours before going back.

It gets more complicated, harder to decide, and more stressful ... and I don't even have a job offer. If they do make an offer and it's just absurd, they're out the window and the problem is solved. If they make a good offer, I get to agonize over it. I really can't recall another time in my life when I've wanted something so much but also not wanted it at the same time.

[Jeff V]

Been notified already my resume and interview notes have been passed on to the hiring manager.

And the job got filled internally. I thought this could be the one considering how crappy the location is and how my luck tends to pan out. Fate must have something shittier in store for me.

[Paingod]

I thought this could be the one considering how crappy the location is and how my luck tends to pan out. Fate must have something shittier in store for me.

We are in 2021, the year of personal suck. It still feels better than 2020, the year of global suck.

[Isgrimnur]

Last year was a solution of suck. This year has developed into a suspension of suck with individual particulates of suck precipitating out.

[Kraken]

I have a billing dilemma.

I said that I was editing the Salute to Nurses for the Boston Globe. In fact, I'm a subcontractor for the company (call them S&S) that the Globe hires to produce that supplement. S&S is an independent company much like Blue Hills Editorial Services, except there are two of them and they've been doing it a lot longer than I have.

I charge S&S a flat rate. The first year that I did this, I low-balled my price because I was new. The second year, I politely demanded a raise and they even more politely gave me more than I asked for. In this third year, we all suspected that the scope of the job might balloon because last year was unusual for the nursing profession. I offered to do the first 500 submissions for the same base rate as last year, and if it went over that I'd bill them my base rate of $60/hr. They agreed to that.

Then 880 letters came in.

I started the hourly clock when I hit 500 letters, as agreed-upon, and have racked up 23 hours since then. I'll hit 30 hours by the time I finish, so that's $1,800 over my base rate of $3,800. That's a lot of overtime. What they don't know is that they were already overpaying me. Their base rate covers 63 hours of my time, and I just hit that on entry 750. In other words, to make my nut I really only need to start charging them overtime from #750 forward, so I'll only rack up around 10 hours of actual overtime. That would be a $600 surcharge instead of $1,800.

My conscience says that I should be fair with another small business and only charge them for the hours I really worked, not the padded version that they agreed to. I want to keep this gig in future years and possibly get other assignments from them as well, and they were more than fair with me last year.

OTOH, I worked weekends to deliver a product that's way over spec, they like my work, they agreed to my terms, and (I think) they can afford the overrun. If I hold them to contract, my hourly rate rises from $60 to $75, which isn't outrageous.

So: Grab while the grabbing's good, or cut them a break to nurture the relationship? I have no idea what the Globe pays them to do this package, btw, so IDK to what extent they can afford it.

[Skinypupy]

In my experience, every time I do what's right for the client, the relationship grows and it ultimately turns out better for everyone involved. Every time I switch that paradigm and do what's right for me over the client, things end up going south...one way or another.

Operating by the general principle that taking care of the client's needs is first and foremost(as long as they're not unreasonable) has never steered me wrong. Sure, I may have left some $$ on the table at a few points, but building the relationship has almost always led to repeat business that far outweighed what I may have earned in extra commissions from a single project.

That said, I've also never owned my own business and I'm in a different industry, so there may be a different lens to apply there.

[dfs]

Yeah. You've got room to make both sides happy here. I would put the ball in their court and say "Here's what I'm supposed to charge you. Gee That's ridiculous! I can't believe it took that long. I like working with you. I like the gig. What do you think is a fair rate that we both can live with?" If they come back somewhere in the middle then everybody is happy and you look like a great guy. If they pay you the going rate then you come out ahead. If they low-ball you....well, that's information and you have to decide to negotiate, take the low offer or try to back up and stick with the original terms.

They like what you do or they wouldn't keep bringing you back. They are in the same industry in the same town, so they know what things cost. You don't break up a good thing over $900.

[malchior]

In my experience, every time I do what's right for the client, the relationship grows and it ultimately turns out better for everyone involved. Every time I switch that paradigm and do what's right for me over the client, things end up going south...one way or another.

Operating by the general principle that taking care of the client's needs is first and foremost(as long as they're not unreasonable) has never steered me wrong. Sure, I may have left some $$ on the table at a few points, but building the relationship has almost always led to repeat business that far outweighed what I may have earned in extra commissions from a single project.

I'm doing this right now for a new client. We spec'ed a job outside of our consultancy's core competency but within one of mine that is frankly a little rusty. I kept the project hours under control but we low balled the price so we'll end up delivering the report at about 50% our usual rate. I hope to spin that into a full-rate retainer contract maybe with 120 hours to start at the end that gives them access to our firm's full 'suite' of experts. So we'll lose a little up front to win some work in the long-term and hopefully get our foot in the door.

[Jeff V]

Get your price while you can. You never know when there's going to be a management change and suddenly you're replaced by a school kid who works for Xbox credits.

[Kraken]

Yeah. You've got room to make both sides happy here. I would put the ball in their court and say "Here's what I'm supposed to charge you. Gee That's ridiculous! I can't believe it took that long. I like working with you. I like the gig. What do you think is a fair rate that we both can live with?"

I will most likely split the baby in half, and charge them about half of the "overtime" amount that they signed off on. I do want to avoid sticker shock, but I also want to be rewarded for the weekends that I crunched through. They only have my word for the number of hours I've worked, so I can explain it however I jolly well please. "By our agreement, you owe me X, but I'm going to cut that to X/2 because reasons." I don't want to let them know that I can actually work 50% faster than my estimate said I could -- I told them that I average 8 records per hour, when I actually did closer to 12/hr.

[Jeff V]

So yesterday a friend asks if I'm still looking, then tells me he has a friend who might have something. Talked to the guy yesterday, he wanted to think about it and will get back to me today.

It would not be an IT job. The title is Operations Manager, LinkedIn said the company size is 4-10 employees, but he said they have 70 crews in the field. The job it seems would be scheduling crews and maintaining contact with customers to ensure their needs are met. While I've dealt with construction managers and workers in the past, it's generally been focused on IT stuff like cabling and fire suppression. This company installs windows and patio doors, and it seems the guy was hoping for a little more construction industry experience. For the described job responsibilities, there didn't seem to be anything that was obviously alien to me, I've done that sort of thing before, just in a different field.

We did not talk salary, or whether working from the office is mandatory. From what I can tell from Google Street, it's not much of an office. Commute is about 35 minutes, not horrible all things considering, but if the salary falls in the expected "not much" category with few benefits, working from home would make it more possible.

[Paingod]

I got the job offer for the place with mad antiquated systems and unionized staff with non-unionized management. I'd be in management. They offered me the cap of what I asked for in the salary range, which makes me a little concerned that I undersold myself - but it's still a 18% pay increase over what I'm making now, which is "okay" for my geographical area and job duties. So that's good - I hope.

I've given myself 2.5 weeks - until April 26th - to get into a whole new state with a whole new job. Apartments, rentals, long-term hotels, whatever I need to do I guess to get it rolling. They're okay with me coming home every weekend to be with my family, so that's good, I guess.

A couple things make me quirk an eyebrow, though.

There's no fixed schedule for management. The GM expects managers to "use their best judgment" in setting their hours each week. This reads to my cynical side as "we're gonna try and milk every hour we can out of you and shoot for the moon" - but I'm a jaded, cynical bastard now after seeing how so many businesses operate. The other 2% of me hopes this means that if I need time, I can take time, and make it up - and they're not just going to hint and nudge that they want me working 50-60 hours per week.

They do expect managers, IT included, to "volunteer" to work late one night per week. The GM does Sundays from noon to 8:30. The intent is to always have a manager in the store. I've never had this arrangement and it's weird to me. Not terrifying, but certainly odd. I'd rather be home with my kids and wife after 4:00pm and not getting called over to argue the price of something with an old lady waving around an expired coupon. She did mention that most managers see these evenings as time to get real work done as they're constantly interrupted during normal hours. It'd also afford me a chance to get to know "the store" during slower times.

I'd be on-call 24x7x52. I've been on-call for 15 years as a solo act, so it's no shock. They do have an MSP, but I feel like they don't really want to have to use them. Pennies in the bucket. My only misgiving in this is the volume of after-hours calls I might get. I just don't know. They do most of their support remotely.

They did offer that the previous IT Manager is available for questions and possibly even contract work on weekends as needed while I get up to speed (he has a regular day job). I have tracked down his LinkedIn profile and I know he's active - after I looked at his page, he looked at mine. I'm pondering the "ethics" or "manners" in reaching out to a prior employee to ask about a job and what they felt - like call volumes or other issues.

[Isgrimnur]

Nights are for upgrades and outages.

[gilraen]

I'm pondering the "ethics" or "manners" in reaching out to a prior employee to ask about a job and what they felt - like call volumes or other issues.

If the previous manager said that he's okay with his replacement calling him with questions, then it's okay to call him. I wouldn't overthink it.

But then again, we still call our former IT guy who hasn't been with the company since last September - because we got acquired by a company that had/has no clue, so our local IT guys all left for greener pastures, and the parent company never bothered hiring anyone in their place. Now every time a server goes down, I'm the one that ends up driving to the office (because I live the closest) and trying to figure out what buttons to push until something comes back up...or doesn't. And I'm not IT

[Paingod]

Nights are for upgrades and outages.

Not necessarily in that order.

I'm pondering the "ethics" or "manners" in reaching out to a prior employee to ask about a job and what they felt - like call volumes or other issues.

If the previous manager said that he's okay with his replacement calling him with questions, then it's okay to call him. I wouldn't overthink it.

I don't want to come across as a snoop or worry-wart. I'd just like an honest non-management answer to how often he got called and how many hours he generally had to put in to keep up. Those aren't questions related to fixing a system or where he put the doodad to fix the whatsit.

[coopasonic]

But then again, we still call our former IT guy who hasn't been with the company since last September - because we got acquired by a company that had/has no clue, so our local IT guys all left for greener pastures, and the parent company never bothered hiring anyone in their place. Now every time a server goes down, I'm the one that ends up driving to the office (because I live the closest) and trying to figure out what buttons to push until something comes back up...or doesn't. And I'm not IT

Welcome to Shadow IT! Also that setup is ridiculous.

[Ænima]

Nights are for upgrades and outages.

Not necessarily in that order.

I'm pondering the "ethics" or "manners" in reaching out to a prior employee to ask about a job and what they felt - like call volumes or other issues.

If the previous manager said that he's okay with his replacement calling him with questions, then it's okay to call him. I wouldn't overthink it.

I don't want to come across as a snoop or worry-wart. I'd just like an honest non-management answer to how often he got called and how many hours he generally had to put in to keep up. Those aren't questions related to fixing a system or where he put the doodad to fix the whatsit.

I don’t understand why we empower companies like this. We don’t bat an eye at them checking our references, but we’re concerned about how we may appear if we check theirs. It’s due diligence, use all the tools at your disposal!

[Zarathud]

Call. What are they going to do, rescind the job offer?

[Z-Corn]

Yep, y'all aren't married yet. You are allowed to talk to the exes.

[Kraken]

Today I invoiced NVIDIA for 77% more than the face value of their PO. My cover email to Accounts Payable explains why, and I CC'd the project manager, asking her to advocate for me if necessary ("hope we can do this again next year!"). Without getting into the weeds, it covers my actual hours worked at a little over my benchmark rate of $60/hr. We'll see what happens.

I also edited the last of 868 recommendation letters for the Salute to Nurses today and told the contractor (my boss) that I'm only going to bill them for actual hours worked, which is a four-figure discount over our pricing agreement. I offered to give them a few more hours to reorganize the file if they want to keep their tab open. I used last year's file as this year's template and only realized when I was halfway through that Mass General basically bought everybody else last year. There are half a dozen companies comprising over 100 nurses that should now go under "Mass General Brigham", an entity that didn't even exist last year. It's going to take at least 10 hours more to do it right, and since I'd have to incorporate changes that they've made since I delivered my text, the logistics would be messy. There are still 2 weeks until the text has to be nailed down. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, the client that I put on hold (MIT Technology Review) through March has already sent me a new assignment. I was looking forward to some downtime, but it seems I'm going to be working more than I want to for another week or two. With the NVIDIA invoice, my April accounts receivable are already in five figures. But now that spring's here and I'm only a few weeks away from COVID immunity, I want to go back to working part time. I've got other shit to do that I care about more.

[Paingod]

Everything about my new job has been finalized, except telling my current job that I'm leaving.

Pros:

• Working for a locally respected business that survived COVID with some belt-tightening.
• 18% pay raise over my current salary.
• Moving to Vermont, which my wife LOVES for the mountains.
• Kids will get into better schools. From 35 students in the graduating class to around 210 student; more programs, more funding.
• We're under contract to buy 10 acres about 30 minutes' drive from my new job. By the end of May, we'll own it outright.
• I used to think we lived in the boonies with few neighbors. Our new home makes that place look crowded.
• The apartment I've rented to work while we build the first structure to move everyone to is awesome.
• Work wants me to be remote sometimes, and are completely okay with me going home on the weekends.

Cons:

• 4 hour drive to return home and visit my family. I'll be doing this every Friday and returning every Sunday.
• While the apartment is awesome, I plan to live like a monk. I don't need all kinds of furniture to deal with buying and then selling in a year.
• My new job has prioritized IT dead last, it seems. I saw my desk over the weekend, and my predecessor used a 14" LCD from around 1997.
• One of the reasons they hired me was for my experience in getting anti-progress people to move into new systems.
• The marketing department prides itself on being rogues, using Macs, in a Windows environment. "They're better for graphics" as an argument died about 15 years ago when the gaps closed between the two.
• The landlord of my apartment is a very happy, very outgoing woman who loves to talk. I'm an introvert.

[Aliasbuck]

Cons:

• 4 hour drive to return home and visit my family. I'll be doing this every Friday and returning every Sunday.
• While the apartment is awesome, I plan to live like a monk. I don't need all kinds of furniture to deal with buying and then selling in a year.
• My new job has prioritized IT dead last, it seems. I saw my desk over the weekend, and my predecessor used a 14" LCD from around 1997.
• One of the reasons they hired me was for my experience in getting anti-progress people to move into new systems.
• The marketing department prides itself on being rogues, using Macs, in a Windows environment. "They're better for graphics" as an argument died about 15 years ago when the gaps closed between the two.
• The landlord of my apartment is a very happy, very outgoing woman who loves to talk. I'm an introvert.

Congrats. Have to earn that Paingod name - you do have a reputation to keep up

[Isgrimnur]

CEO announced a new merger. This will be my third one that I’m lead programmer on.

[hitbyambulance]

the second-to-last company i worked for was just bought out by Microsquash

[Paingod]

It is hi-larious how people suddenly find a dozen emergency issues they need fixed when you give your notice, but until you did that they ignored you when you asked to help them on those very same things when they had time. I'm at a stage here where the level of service you're going to get from me depends entirely on how well you've worked with me over the years. If you've made my job harder because you couldn't be bothered ... well... ... I have a lot of documentation to get updated before I go.

They're considering using someone we already have on staff to act as a "manager" for the IT vendor I haven't called on more than once or twice in over four years, and leave the bulk of the work up to the IT vendor. They're going from a "instant service" SLA with an in-house IT person to a "somewhere from 4 to 8 hours" SLA with a vendor, and I anticipate it'll cause a lot of heartburn, but they'll stick with it to try and save a buck. If it saves them a buck. The combined cost of splitting someone's hourly wage between job duties (where IT will have to take priority) and a vendor charging $125/hr for service just may very easily exceed the salary of hiring a real replacement.

... but at least they can repurpose my office?

[dbt1949]

So.............it will be nice seeing them suffer.