Collecting ideas

[Shadow]

Hi there,

if it's possible, I try to collect and share some ideas here. I think that's better than complaining about today's weather or my always existing little health problems.

Someone said the following:
"If you have some spare money you can take a risk. If you just have enough money you mustn't take any risk. If you don't have money at all you have to take any risk!"

This is a little bit confusing, but it's true.
The problem still is that people often risk too much and start making stupid things...

So I would add: " And don't hurt anyone, including yourself! "

I used to work day and night. As I mentioned before this lifestyle is dangerous for your health. Today I don't work more than necessary.
I just relax when I think I should take a break. I take my time and feel better now.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not lazy. I just deliver constant quality and not quantity at work.

So my tip for the day:
Take your time, relax. Life won't run away.

Oh! One last thing: If you ever wanted to live your dream or have a phantastic idea - don't be afraid. You can do it if you find the way to reach your goal. It's never too late. It feels better when you know that you have tried your best than being old and asking yourself why you didn't try all.
After all it's your life and you decide what you want to do.


P.S.: I'm no native English speaker so please tell me when I write nonsense. Thank you very much!

 

[shawn]

I have slowed down just like you at work. I realized that a mistake building a circuit board can cost the profits of 20 good ones. So I make less errors and keep the profit margin higher and my boss happier. That is very good advise for someone that may not have already known it.

I like the advise of Ralphie Mae the comedian about arguments with your woman. It's better to be happy than to be right. Now that is pure gold.

 

[Shadow]

~Living with conflicts~

The last weeks were a real mess here. My customer where I work at now is never satisfied with anything. He is someone of the kind "be part of the problem and make it clear to everyone".

So what happened?

After months of work without any kind of project management things came like they had to. The team wasn't able to communicate enough because of the extreme workload and in the end some deadlines were unreachable. There was no coordination and who is to blame - you gess - the freelancers.

It's a wonder that we were able to rescue at least some minimum results. But that doesn't mean we have to work less now. Expectations are still unrealistic.

I'm no project leader here, so I can only moderate. But it makes no sense at all.
It's a hard time for me and the team.

Though I thought of quitting I won't do that. It's not the money. It's time.
I have my contract till december.

I believe it's better to stick with it and take the cash if it's a short time I have to keep calm. My feelings though are really negative. It's harder to control yourself than letting emotions flow and kick some asses. Reminds me of Star Wars ;-)

I think it's worth to take the trouble and let it be afterwards as long as the results support my personal goals.

To tell you the truth. The customer already shouted at us, especially me, since he had the highest expectations in me. He "warned" me, offered me to get outside and have a real man's fight. Ridiculous! He also threatend me to go court or demand refund,quit the contract...
And why? Just because some images weren't converted completely lossless to jpg format and one (!) size was missing in the open source software he decided to use. If you place the threats besides the "company existence threatening errors" you come to the conclusion that some people just want to play a game of power and are not interested in solutions but only problems.

So what to do?

I decided to check my options. It's never too late to change the course.

Quitting would result in unneccessary extra "fights" during the final two months. My customer would seek any small reason to kick me as far as he can including refunds and most devastating collateral damage. He would try to ruin me, just because he wants to.

So I double checked my contract. He can't do anything against me. Only in case of real financial damage. But he can always take it to the court and it doesn't matter whether he is right or wrong. So in the end I just asked my insurance agent for getting an insurance which would handle all things. It'll cost a hundred bucks I think, but it's worth the price. To be prepared is never wrong ;-)

What next? I play "worker". I just concentrate on the task I have to do and get it done as good as possible. No matter what he thinks in the end. There will be no weakspot left to attack. He will see a "big improvement" and he will think that his strategy works.
If he asks for another contract after the project - I will smile and refuse it.

It's the only way these kind of despots can be dealt with if you want to get as least damage as possible.

I interviewed my team comrades and it was no surprise: the years before 75% of all IT personnel has quitted due to problems with their boss.

If there is something like karma this boss will be punished by the stars in the future and there will be nobody who will help him then.

I will be glad when it's christmas because I'll be free again and I will be more cautious in any further project offers.

Wish you all the best and I hope that nobody here will have any comparable problems ever.

 

[Shadow]

The last time I wrote here about my job for a customer. We are still there. But we have reduced our presence and raised the price. It's not a victory but I needed the money to achieve other goals. In summer I got married finally and last month I replaced my old car by a better one. My programmer also got a raise this year. I wouldn't say it was a really bad year, but I think my customer is the worst of all. Probably we end up in court sooner or later. I don't care. The hard earned money gave me the opportunity to regroup with other partners. I'm preparing a new start up company here.