Vikki, happy (late) birthday! I just hired my first full time employee last week; had I known you were going to be looking ...

The commute might have been a little awkward though!

Give them another week or two, then hit them up for a raise. If they're Norwegian they'll be too stubborn to admit the error of their ways but hopefully they're not plagued by that heritage. I know you'll do fine but I also know how that can mess with plans.

This is a perfect description of the last twenty some years of my life,, amazing how you descibed it.. But,, alas,, time has changed "again".. In my line of work, it has always been like that, 'change'.. I can do most anything, diversify, go with the flow,, be flexable,, if you do not bend with the tide, you will break,.. the life I have left behind me has been a cruel and cool one... and the life left ahead of me will probly be same... I once had this freedom you've experienced, and most have not,, now, I am bound and gaged by responcabilty.. One day, I will not be able to pay for myself, and I will be grateful for what I have set aside... Vikki,, from adversity, will spring a challenge,, go for it,, take a chance like you have in the past,, You can do most anything at all...,,, Oh, Yeah,, BTW,, What the hell is 'IT'???..

As I also have the diversify and go with the flow mentality, I have spent my entire life learning. One of the subjects I got into (as soon as they were available in homes) was computers. From the humble Atari console to network administrator for a national pizza chain, there have been a lot of interesting twists along the way. And that is IT...information technology. There are hundreds of specialties within IT, just as in medicine, but I am more of a general practitioner with a special knack for troubleshooting and problem solving and tying together things that are only barely related to make them more functional. Those skills transfer anywhere, into any field, and I've learned enough of everything from CMM to CAD to legal to accounting to contact management software along the way to sit down in any seat in any office in any industry to be at least somewhat productive.

I really don't consider this adversity, except for the sudden and unexpected stop in both of our income flow. But I know my reserves will only hold out so long before I have to start selling things, and I don't plan to let that happen again if I can help it.

Brent, we'll figure out how to establish telecommuting and I'll be all over it...gas costs would eat up a bit too much of my budget.

And they are Italian, all related. They won't swallow their pride, they will suffer and find fault. That's what frustrates me. If you are good at IT work, really good, no one ever knows you are working on stuff and nothing breaks. It's only when you screw up that people notice, and then congratulate you when you fix it.

Late to this topic...

Sorry to hear of your temporary misfortune. I'm betting you'll be fine.

...and happy B'day!

Thanks on both counts. I'm taking advantage of the unexpected workdays off to get my windshield replaced, do my homework (finals next week), and get some long-deferred work done around here. It's COLD again, supposed to freeze tonight...have to get all the plants back in.

Sorry to hear about your engine, get that 'bird back on the move!

INCAT ( www.incat.com ) is slowly starting to rule the IT world here in southeastern Michigan. They do allot of call center stuff. They are the ones that are eventually taking over all of Chrysler's IT responsibilities. They actually already handle our CAD (UNIX/NT) support here at my company.

It's not hard to outsource support, but outsourcing the entire domain and all databases and applications and putting it all in the hands of outsiders is...well...strange. Especially for a company that is paranoid about trade secrets.

We use netviewer.com which gives the support person basically free rein of all of our intellectual properties if they so choose.

I gotta chime in...frankly, too many things mentioned in this topic strike too close to home for me.. as some are aware I've taken the solo road myself and things have never been harder than right now... I was just a handy guy with a tool box and a smile and I woke up last week 43 with a wife, 2 kids, a mortgage and a dog. wtf happended?

Vik, you'll be fine.. I don't have any divine words of wisdom to share, no real sugggestions to offer, but mostly just a vote of confidence. As you are aware in IT, knowing the answer to everything is impossible, but knowing how to find the answer is what it takes... and you have demonstrated repeatedly the skills, wit and drive to solve every problem I've seen thrown to you, this will be no different.

happy birthday, your best days are still ahead of you!

JM

Thanks. It's just kind of strange with everything coming together at the end of a project started last May (I was just reporting on status until delivery by the developer last week) and with a bunch of new features readied for rollout, and addition of new staff needing training and support, to find myself caught entirely unawares and out of work was bizarre. I suppose there is never a good time to discard a domain administrator, but it's best to try to do so on good terms.

I know one of these leads will take me on my next path, and whichever way it goes is new and good. With friends like all of you as a support group, everything is great.

Vikki, I know, lots of times you`re unprepared ,because it just doesnt make any sense....but somewhere there is a reason, for someone.......I was fired (only time ever fired, laid off yes, but never fired)from may previous job (my dads dealership) while on vacation....came in to work, worked half a day , he comes in and says "you dont work here anymore".......

reason: (as he said) I didnt know how to run the place!

truth (his new wife wanted me out of the way)

and as for Volvo, I had just come back from a 10 day paid (by Volvo) trip to Hawaii , as being one of the top 5% of dealers in North America! had increased sales from 500 Volvos/yr to 800 in a 'downtime'...83-90..
so "reasons" dont always make sense!

Sensibility is definitely lacking in the equation. But that's fine, they made a choice and I've had a weekend to explore some of the possibilities that await me.

I'm about halfway through this journey, and about halfway through my working years. No reason I can't try something completely new and different if I choose to.

There are days Bjorn I wish my dad would come in and give me my walking papers. Maybe if I went to lunch every now and then he would.

Well, first off, Happy Belated Birthday Vikki. It has been a long while since I have visited here, but that's another story. Our company continues to grow and expand, and we are always looking for good people. Here is a link to check it out: FEV Inc. If you are interested send me a resume and I can refer you to get a little more "pull" if you are interested.

On a side note, I'll be working this Sunday at the GM Tech Center car show for the bearing burners auto club parking cars. Anyone from here going?

Vikki,

I'm sorry to hear of your predicament. Michigan sure is a tough place in which to work these days. I've been asking most of my customers about how they handle their IT work - none are looking for help (most should replace whom they've hired). I've got Johnson Controls on Tuesday, but I'm not holding my breath.

But one thing of which I'm definitely sure ... it always works out for the best once we're afforded the gift of hindsight.

I'll keep digging and will let you know if I come up with anything. Hang tough.

- Jake

Right now I am getting a good laugh over how inept the person they've tasked to do a portion of my job is. Brand new national website rollout, and it's only up 60% of the time as they had no idea there is a difference between a programmer and an administrator.

Bugs me too, as I worked my tail off getting the entire network up to speed and was finally getting to the point where I could cut my schedule from 80 hours to 40 or less.

I started up a new business. The challenge, the energy, is something I need. Now I need clients.

Took a company from Ohio to Michigan that was deeply in the red turned in a huge profit maker treated like my own had a nervous breakdown. Owners brother needed a job so bye bye Gary. Forget about loyalty, that is a one way road. I was glad I could retire.

IT is such a strange field because only IT people understand it. And IT people usually aren't doing the hiring, firing, and decision-making.

Excellence goes unnoticed because everything is working "as it should". No one realizes what it takes to implement and maintain systems - only the IT people. But when something goes wrong EVERYBODY knows that it's the IT's person's fault.

It's an odd area of employment. I've watched it develop over the last 15 years, shaking my head the whole time.

You guys should see it from an electrician project management perspective.

- Jake

I agree, Jake, as I owned my business for over 20 years I had to be educator, sales consultant, vendor intermediary, purchasing agent, installation team, tech support and administrator. If I do everything perfectly they don't even realize I did anything at all, and that it's not like buying a new calculator that you plug in, turn on, and you're ready to go.

I can accept that. And I can accept responsibility for actions or inactions on my part that affect operations. If I need to work 7 days and nights on call just to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done to keep things operational, I will do so if properly compensated.

How they will find a contract provider to do that for the "$1,000 a month" quote that they used in my exit interview would be nice to know. Not with that network and all its services.

"If I do everything perfectly they don't even realize I did anything at all."

Perfectly said.

I have yet to see a company do what it did to you end up with better service. Yet I see this same thing happen over and over and over again. Why?

Because NO ONE UNDERSTANDS I.T.!

It's totally nuts. We skirt IT systems all of the time (basically pulling wires and powering up racks), and I get a front row view of the customer and his IT support crew. It's never pretty. You couldn't pay me enough to do your job.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

- Jake