The IT Contract from Hell • Hacker News Board

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#11

Post by narag » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 5:33 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is? I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything. But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter t…

> What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is?

I don't, but I always use a paper notebook where I keep track of precise start and end times, work done and what bosses ask me to do in each moment. In addition to keep me focused, it's sort of a CYA diary, and a couple of times it has been useful.

On the other hand, there's people like the woman in the story, that shows hostility from the beginning, not because others did something wrong, but preemptively being an ass just to intimidate and keep others under their thumb.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#12

Post by Tichy » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 5:43 PM UTC

At least the payment was not from hell, from the sounds of it.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#13

Post by tdavis » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 6:22 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is? I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything. But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter t…

Sulking for 5 months isn't much of a life. Life is short.

Exactly my thoughts. The author's tolerance for ignorance and blatant hostility is far greater than mine. I would have booked a flight back home as soon as I heard "We don't take the lord's name in vain." Life is too short to deal with such a low caliber of human being on a daily basis, especially for such a long time.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#14

Post by cabalamat » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 7:39 PM UTC

marvin wrote: post #8

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is? I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything. But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter t…

I think it sounded like fun. As long as you know you're not doomed to a lifetime of fail-work, a four-month stay like this could be an adventure. Expanding your horizons, meeting interesting new personalities etc. It seems like the author got what he wanted out of the job - good money. Some of this seems a bit childish, but it's definitely a fun read. It's always awesome when a few guys at a party have stories like t…

> I think it sounded like fun.

That was my reading of it too -- he enjoyed winding up his idiot boss.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#15

Post by sharkfish » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 7:39 PM UTC

How does anyone with dev background bear a job for any length of time where all you are doing is editing HTML and ftp'ing it?

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#16

Post by thomasmallen » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 8:01 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is? I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything. But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter t…

> What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is?

An IT guy who has nothing better to do because they won't let him go online. Somebody who's working in hell and has one place to truly vent. Someone with self-restraint? This guy's unbelievably patient; I might've been out of there in a week. Looks like the catharsis paid off...give him a break.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#17

Post by evilneanderthal » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 8:22 PM UTC

alecco wrote: post #2

2.The ADMINISTRATIVE FASCIST. Usually a retentive drone (or rarely, a harridan ex-secretary) who has been forced into system administration.

as a sysadmin, i can only wish i had the power to kick people out of meetings...

i guess i haven't tried shrieking.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#18

Post by jwilliams » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 8:39 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #3

E-gad. I wouldn't want to work with any of these jerks, including the author. What kind of punk keeps a diary of how bad his contract is? I've never had a bad contract -- and I've been in situations more stressful than this. A good attitude, good people skills (fundies a problem? Yeesh. What a piece of cake), and the ability to say "no" will fix about anything. But I have worked with a lot of folks who were smarter t…

> It was a bad contract, yes. But it takes two parties to continue something that painful.

True - And a skilled contractors need to be able to deal with these situations - it's part and parcel of their job.

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#19

Post by ciscoriordan » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 9:33 PM UTC

sharkfish wrote: post #15

How does anyone with dev background bear a job for any length of time where all you are doing is editing HTML and ftp'ing it?

The money was "that" good

Re: The IT Contract from Hell

#20

Post by antidaily » Tue, Nov 18, 2008, 10:19 PM UTC

The "digital service" comment takes me back to right after college when I took a job full of idiots using odd and just-plain-wrong terminology like that all the time. Made me feel really dumb until I learned they were all full of shit. Ha.