Tag Archives: Company

The hits keep on hitting (The recap post)

Objects in Mirror (P365-163)I would really like to start this post with something like “The nightmare is over” based on my last post, but I don’t think it would work out that well.  You see, we managed to escape Kuwait!  Yeah, I know, that part sounds great, but the circumstances in which we left make for a much worse story.  Sure there is the usual parts about my passport being stolen and going through all hell to get a new one re-issued.  The problem, of course, is that the process for getting my work visa so that I can continue to do my job there was already started using my old passport.  If I have a new passport number, that process had to start over again.  This meant that it would be that much harder for me to get on base to do my job.  This is just how Kuwait works.  It’s stupid and corrupt and they seriously need an overhaul of their government processes.  (I can say that now that I am safely in the U.S.)

The other problem we experienced was with our team.  Sarah and I were both working on this project, her as a tech writer and me as an engineer.  With all of my issues with getting on Base, Sarah was tasked with driving some of the folks who were in the middle of the visa process and couldn’t drive (yet another f’d up thing).  This meant that most of her day was spent on base working in the data center with a bunch of guys.  Now, we all know how guys usually talk, and for the most part it’s not too bad or usually very tolerable.  Sarah is also pretty thick skinned and can dish it out as much as the next guy.  But there happened to be one individual who took Misogyny to the next level.  Lots of comments about women in the workplace, can’t trust something that bleeds, etc..  This got to be a bit much and it was VERY obvious that Sarah was uncomfortable around him.

We mentioned it to a few folks in an effort to have someone maybe mention to him to stop being a douche.  No one did.  Finally, after some more comments, I urged her to send an e-mail to our boss back in the states and put it in writing.  The response that we got back was about on par, mentioning that an e-mail would go out and they would ask people to behave themselves.

What happened was completely different.

The e-mail went out all right, saying that someone from the company would be coming out to do a sensitivity training and that folks would be coming in on their day off, charging a code to the company, to attend.

The team started freaking out.  They instantly jumped on the defensive.  Some of them remembered that we mentioned the one individual so they knew what was going on and who was involved.  The next morning, what we thought was going to be the typical morning meeting was dead silence and awkwardness.  When the meeting was over, I went upstairs and Sarah went to drive folks in.  Only they had gathered up in a group and were discussing something in private.  When Sarah asked if they were leaving the comment “We need to prove this isn’t a hostile environment” was made and the group, sans the accused, went to a different car and drove off.  This left Sarah to drive in the guy she accused……alone.

Trapped in a car for an hour, he spurted out a half-hearted apology that was more of a “I’m sorry that you got mad” as opposed to the “I’m sorry for what I did” and then tossed it back in her face saying she should have said something to him and that it was her fault.

Upon arriving at the base, feeling sick and stressed, Sarah came back to the apartment and we made the decision to head home.  I was only a few days away from getting my Passport back and she needed hers back from our sponsor.  The next few days were pretty rough.  We had told the bosses what happened and they seemed ok with us heading out.  The team, seeing me as an extension of this “issue” shut me out.  I could hardly talk to any of them and had to funnel everything through our team lead, who actually was the nicest of the bunch and helped us out.  It was very clear that we were being shunned.

Here is where things get (more) wacky.  We spoke to our bosses back in the states.  We knew that contract work can be tough and that the company can only put so many people on any given contract.  They mentioned that there may not be something for us, but there was some things in the hopper that could become available.  Even better, as we got closer to returning, we were told that there was another Data center move down in NC that we would be working on.

Things looked ok, we were leaving the hostile environment, we still had work, and we felt much better.

Then we got home.

Surprise! (P365-125)Turns out the NC move got delayed and we went into a meeting with one of the company bosses.  They were giving us a 30 day employment window but they had no work for us.  While there were two contracts that could be won soon, they didn’t have any guarantee, so our expected termination date was July 12th.  Originally, they explained that they really expected to win these contracts within the next two weeks and that we should “Keep checking our e-mail” to hear word, but that we didn’t need to come into the office and we may want to start looking.

I took it as it was presented and was hopeful for upcoming work.  Then I got home to find that my work e-mail had been disabled.  The next morning, the termination letter was in my g-mail inbox (still reading July 12th).  This sounded a lot less like “Wait and see” and a whole lot like “You need to leave”.

I mentioned to them that it was kind of fishy that we were asked to leave so soon after filing a complaint against someone.  The response was that we were warned that there may not be work, and that we came back voluntarily.  I hardly call escaping such a hostile environment as a volunteer move.

So here we are now.  I am looking for new work, as it seems that even if the company does win something, I doubt my phone will ring.  We managed to stock a lot away in savings so we are fine until something comes along, which hopefully will be soon.

I have had a lot of people tell me that I need to “Lawyer up” and get all I can out of this.  To be honest.  I just want to move on.  We both do.  We are home and safe, no one was hurt (much), and we just want to move on with our lives.  The folks that work in the company aren’t bad people, they are just doing what makes the most business sense.  The folks on the team have to live with the type of people they are.  It’s not worth to effort to cause trouble and burn bridges.

So, anyone know of a place that’s hiring?

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Marlow, Haggard, Sweetwater, and Sarge all return for the sequel to the Battlefield Bad Company line of games. I just finished the single play campaign for BC2, and am in the midst of the multi-player side.  The multi-player will no doubt be occupying many many hours of my gaming time, especially since I have such good friends to play with.  That’s what this game is really all about.  The multi-player aspect of BC2 is designed around you and your friends, not you and 16 of those random people you meet up with in game.  You and your friends start a squad and go to town!  But more on that in a moment.

As I said I finished up with the mingle player “multi-player tutorial” campaign.  Well, that’s what it felt like at least.  With BC1 the game was build with both the single play and the multi-play worked in.  The campaign was rich and well written, with some good funny bits and a solid story.  BC2’s single play is just hollow.  It felt like I was just being walked through and shown all the different things I would be able to use in the multi-player area….”Here is how to drive a tank”….”here is how to use the UAV”…etc.  The writing and dialogue didn’t even pick up to a serious pace until the last chapter.  Also, the collectibles were laughable.  In the first game you were searching for certain guns and gold chests…because they tied into the story.  The second one it’s like “You may run across these blinky chests and a few guns along the way, blow up the chests and take the guns…..if you want”  I was very very very disappointed.  Not even the constant Modern Warfare 2 bashing helped with that.  (Ok, maybe it helped a little.)

Now, to switch gears, the Multi-player is amazing.  Yeah, I said it, Amazing!  I have one word for it….Destructible!!  Everything is!  I love that I can take down an entire building if I don’t like someone on the top of that tower…Boom, no more tower.  Currently I believe I am level 4 (spent most of the time playing single player) and I have found that when you play as a medic, they just hand you points.  You get points for dropping a med kit, reviving players, oh and for that whole killing people thing.  I highly suggest if you are just starting out, run as a medic for the first few levels!

So here I am, torn, because I really feel that, as a multi-player game, this game is outstanding.  But I bought it because I really loved the Single player game from the first one, and that fell short.  Well, honest opinion….buy it.  It’s damn fun to play online.  If you are looking for a game that you and your friends will enjoy for hours on end, this is it.  Sorry if I am not going in depth on any one aspect specifically, but I don’t want to spoil anything of the game, but seriously, you know what you need to about the game, go buy it, run through the single player campaign first so you know what to do in multi-player, and enjoy!