Chris Hansen’s blog

My company is staffed by idiots. That probably includes me now, by association.

As some of you know, I have had no client work since I started at this organisation. I’ve earned zilch for them. I get paid nonetheless, but they are eager to get me out into paid work. And, frankly, I want to do something useful as sitting in the office trying to look busy is really wearing.

I have been associated with a new project at a large investment bank for a while now. It’s getting closer and closer, and the client and I have met and clicked. I was working on the estimate this morning, in fact. I have not yet been assigned to the project, but I think it’s close.

Last week someone associated with another project emailed me and asked whether I was available starting in September. I said that, no, by September I would most probably be at this investment bank. I thought no more about it.

Yesterday I got an email from someone associated with the other project that seemed to imply that I was working on it. However, it came out of the blue and rather than follow it up I ignored it as I had other things to do. I have discovered that this was a mistake.

This morning, as I was working at home on this estimate, I fired up my computer and found several emails assuming that I would be going on a client presentation today in the West of England. My phone had a message on it that I should get standard class tickets. I have been having difficulty with Lotus Notes, and obviously these emails had been trapped in the server while I was in the office yesterday and only emerged this morning when I connected from home.

I called the gentleman and told him that I wouldn’t be coming along and that I was involved with work on another project. He said that he’d cope and that everything was OK.

So during the day I’ve been working on the slides for the investment bank presentation, and got them off to our people working there now. My work phone rings. It’s the manager of our division. He was somewhat irate, and said that I’d put the company in an awkward position, as my CV had already gone out to the prospective client (insurance) and they were expecting to meet me. I was flabbergasted.

I explained to the manager that I had not gotten the emails until this morning, that I had not gotten any telephone contact from the other project at all (although it had been promised in the emails I didn’t get), that I was fully involved in the investment banking project and it looked very promising in terms of actually coming through, I’d met the client and the client had liked me, the work was much more in tune with my experience and skill set, and that everyone in management in my company was a dork.

Well, I didn’t express that last sentiment, but I sure thought it.

I’ve tipped off the guy in charge while my manager is on holiday that this has happened, and now I’m venting on livejournal.

When I signed on with this company, I was under the impression that it was a first-class, even world-class company, with competent management, a blue-chip client list, and lots of talent to go round. What I found was a company that is run like Metronet (the people who went bankrupt because they couldn’t satisfactorily perform maintenance work on the Underground), with managers who never talk to one another, with an IT infrastructure that creaks and groans and is in any case run from India, with an emphasis on utilisation of personnel but with a business plan that is so piss-poor that they can’t place high-earning consultants anywhere. I could go on and on.

I had another nibble from a recruiter today; I’m hoping that something will finally happen. If not, my chum Steve may come through with enough work to enable me to quit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 03:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.