penultimate week

the department head came over to my desk yesterday and said he was off for the rest of the year and he shook my hand and said that he appreciated the work that i had done. maybe he thought that i was sad to be leaving because he sounded almost apologetic about it, but i said thanks back to him and wished him well. one of the guys said it was quite funny the way i was grinning when he said they had tried to extend my contract but couldn't. he said that i was supposed to look sad that i was leaving, not grinning like a cat that got the cream. :-). oh well.

so whenever the department manager is away, dickhead who sits next to me, takes it upon himself to take over the running of the department and sit there telling me what i should be doing and how i should do it.

today he has been on particularly annoying form and has been condescending and patronising in his usual way. i nearly said something but its not worth it this late in the day when i am a week away from leaving.

anyways, his contract has not been renewed through next year and he really wanted to stay here because its comfortable easy work and he can lord it over people like me. they have said its been extended for a month next year but that looks like all it will be. it means he will have to get a job somewhere new.

maybe thats why he is being such an ass with me, because he is worried about being out there having to deal with people he doesn't know, and they will think he is a prick, like i do. it don't matter for him here because he has been here years, but if you go somewhere new, you have to adapt yourself to the way they do things and you have to deal with all manner of cunts and its a question of just getting down to doing the work and getting through it. he simply doesn't have the capacity to do that because he thinks he is lord and master of everything but actually he doesn't have that many skills. he can unlock accounts and send shitty emails but he knows nothing about messaging, or networks, or databases, or webservers, or virtualisation, or anything else that he could possibly get asked to do in a diverse technical environment. he told me he hadn't done any exams for 7 years and that he thought they didn't prove anything about your ability. thats actually partly true but when you are looking for a job i would rather have have an MCSE and VCP, than not.

and i think he also doesn't like the fact that i went on my course a couple of weeks ago and knocked out my exam yesterday and the fact that i have made it known that i am looking around for a new challenge next year. i think he thinks that i think i am too good for this place and that my ambitions are beyond what i am doing, and he is correct if thats what he thinks.

me and one of the guys here are always talking about the next exam we are planning to take or any interesting products we have seen or read about and i know it really gets on dickheads nerves when we carry on about stuff like that because we never involve him in any of the discussions and also i can see that he has no idea of what we are talking about most of the time.

he likes offering his opinion even when you don't ask, about how to do stuff here, even if its the simplest shit and when we are talking about some technology he has no idea about, he gets annoyed that he can't show off or offer any insight to us about it. its all over his head. i hate it when techies get really geeky and start showing off, but i do it deliberately to dickhead because he is such an ass with me. i have to get my own back on him somehow and make him feel uncomfortable, but i have to be subtle about it. :-)

he couldn't understand it yesterday when i told him i would turn down lots of money if i got offered a boring job. he actively wants a boring job so that he will not be exposed as being limited in his ability. i think if you have passion and an interest in at least seeking out interesting roles and technolgy then actually people will pay you lots of money for the skills you have accumalated. i think lots of people just want to pick up pay cheques. maybe one day i will be like that. i hope i am in a good job doing interesting things when that happens not doing shitty admin tasks like what dickhead does and yet which he thinks is so important and skillful. i have news for you dickhead. in the 4 years you have spent here at the bank, technology has moved in leaps and bounds and you need to show you know more than just how to install windows server on a HP box, if you want to get a job out there.

sorry about the long post, but its been a trying day and i have to vent somewhere. have been biting my lip for a very long time and you just need to let it out otherwise you will burst. can't have that now, can we.

goodbye you asshole. there are probably loads more like you out there but we shall try and avoid them, and if we do come across more like you, we can rest assured that my prophecy does actually ring true.

- everyone gets found out in the end -