wake up

there's a poison going on at work. thankfully its not in my department but in the unix team. i mentioned one of the unix admins quit because one of the guys is an asshole. well, yesteday another admin resigned because of the same asshole in the department.

i wondered why the bosses were letting this happen but a conversation with one of the guys enlightened me. turns out that there is a group of 4 or 5 unix admins, including the asshole, who have worked at the same banks together for the last 10 years. when one moves, invariably they try and get the other guys in and over the course of a few months that team comes back together. its good if you are in the old boys network, but it ain't so good if you are not. they are too powerful and they have little consideration for anyone else, hence the other guys moving on.

i also learned that one of the guys there is on £850/day. thats silly money and unix admins in investment banks don't get paid that much. really good ones get £500/day. shit hot developers who do C and java can get £600-700/day. unix admins can get paid £850/day if the guy hiring is part of your old boys network and runs the department, as is the case here.

in terms of ethics and politics this is the worst bank i have worked at. i used to know a contractor who was a friend of mine, who worked here for 8 years. he told me he would interview other developers and if they were too good he would reject them because he didn't want any threats to his position that he had built up. thats just cuntish (yes, thats a word). it must be something in the water there that brings out the worst in people.

anyways things with me are same as always. feel tired and fed up. i worked last saturday. am working again this saturday. can't complain, as i am getting paid. the difference between me and them is that i know that the job i do does not justify the money i get paid. i can't pull the wool over my own eyes even if i tried. will milk it for the next few weeks, or maybe months but i will leave one day, and join the real world.

its looking likely i will go to san francisco for a couple of days on my trip. my friend mailed me and said i could stay over at her house, and i do like san francisco. its the nicest city in america.

today i have mostly been listening to the arcade fire - wake up. its epic.