Okay, so this post is for people that have worked at Microservices. It’s going to be really boring for those that haven’t… I mean, read it if you want, but I make no promises for it being my typical thrilling adventures. 😛
Okay, so, my life at the UO began about 4 years ago, when I was a freshman and started working at Microservices. At that time, there were about 8 or so of us there, and things were pretty bad. Shortly before I got there, Microservices had absorbed another Computing Center department that was basically “front desk”. 3 people came with that job, and most/all of them were rather computer illiterate. they didn’t like being part of MS, and MS didn’t really like them. that caused, as you would guess, a lot of tension. I came on, and new people thrown into such situations don’t do very well… they usually become the target for employee agression. Soon after, Chris got hired, and sooner after that, Kat got hired. I’m not sure how Kat was treated, but Chris and I were treated pretty poorly by our fellow workmates. People talked behind our back, made rude comments about us playing games now and then, etc. Some of the staff stayed out of it… but not many, and not for long. I really was someone clueless about it until later when Chris would tell me what people were saying about me, and most of his strife came from Shannon. *shrugs*
So, after one of the people there went off to a department, and a few others graduated, Micro got pretty quite. Everyone got along pretty well. Sure, there was one occation that caused a problem, and I almost got fired, but all and all, people got along. Then, well, one person got hired. Sara and I pretty much got him the job, and as the time got closer for his interview, we started to think we might want to stop it. Really, he’s a shovenist. pure and simple. A jock. thinks he’s gods gift to women, but really has some seriously messed up emotional issues that should get straightend out. But, we didn’t say anything. I know I personally vouched for him to the bosses at the time and said he was a good worker, etc. They had their doubts at first… but, he got hired. Then the trouble started. He’d be on desk and spend all his time helping cute girls… he’d, rather than find the correct answer, completely BS an answer and hang up the phone (I have proof of this since he BS’d one of the SOJC grad students, twice, and we had to clean up the mess). He didn’t care about macs at all, and would do everything he could to avoid supporting them. He was loud as hell on the phone and was basically yelling. But, it went on. When a new girl started working at Micro, he was basically all over her borderline harrassment. No one said anything. He finally gave up when she blew him off.
Now, he’s been given a department… since then, he’s gone on and on about how great he is, how much he knows, and how he was the best canidate for the job. Tara just got a department… and since that time, he, behind her back, has said that “somepeople don’t deserve departments, like Tara and you”. that was speaking to the girl he was all over when she was hired. She thankfully blew him off by saying something to the effect of “you know, you’re not the smartest person to ever go through micro”. that appearently pissed him off. Appearently he’s affraid of the truth. He’s not that smart, he’s by far not the smartest person to go through micro when it comes to computer knowledge. Chris, Micah, George, Torgie, Blake, Kat, Tara, Sara, Jones, myself, etc could all run circles around him knowledge wise. Tara ran circles around him when she was working with an exchange student and decided to play a customer to him and asked him at least half a dozen questions that he couldn’t answer.
Oh, and to make things worse, he’s barely doing his job. He rarely goes to his department, and then has the audacity to complain when other people get positions? basically, he’s creating strife at micro again. Micro was pretty healthy for the majority of the time I was there… I left right around the time he got there. If it weren’t for some objections, I would have told him this shit to his face… told him that I basically got him the job there. But, this will have to do for now. So, if you’re reading this… STFU. Why don’t you work on your won perfection and then worry about other people’s. When you can snatch the pebble out of my hand, then we’ll talk… until then, you’re just a whiney grasshopper.
Thanks for listening to me rant… I promise to post more soon that can appeal to everyone and not just the few of us that worked at micro.
Chris says
Gee Ryan, whoever could you be talking about?
I saw the fallout from this coming a long time ago. It’s unfortunate, but the person in question did always strike me as a little too ‘act first, think second’ for microservices. Not that that attitude is without merit, it’s just not helpful in a support environment. Customer Service, maybe, but not support. Which department did he get?
Not to mention the fact that his personality/opinions about everything was diametrically opposed to almost everyone at micro. And he loved to stir up arguments for no reason and then not give up when he was beaten. The noise thing on the phone never really bothered me, but then again, I was never there when he was on the phone, so… yeah.
Wait, I can look that up.
Wait, no I can’t. (Stupid lack of VPN)
Anyway, it’s too bad things escalated to that point, but departmentland seems to solve the social problems at micro anyway by removing people from it. Unless he’s got a department in the building or something. That would suck.
Speaking of the micro crew… I would really like to round up everyone for at least a small LAN when I’m in town. I know I usually hate LANs, but call me nostalgic or something, I really want to play some BF/DC with some beer and friends.
Chris says
I picked up FFX-2 this weekend. It’s actually kind of fun once you get past the whole Barbie aspect to it. The story is mildly compelling, and the jobs are sweet, though some jobs are incredibly useless and some are horribly powerful, but that always seems to happen with these job games.
Speaking of Job based games, I’ve heard good things about Disgaea. Have you had a chance to play it? I haven’t console gamed seriously since I have been here until this week. I had no idea what I was missing.
Anyway, I’ll be back stateside in less than a month. Let me know when you’ll be availiable around graduation time.
Rachel says
Our Llama friend group has grown and expanded to include many people over the past few years. In a friend group as large as ours is, communication problems are inevitable. It saddens me that instead of being directly confronted, one of our friends has been publicly insulted. I would like to think that through our tempered friendship, we would have the maturity and respect for one another to confront each other directly when we have communication problems.
To Matt’s credit, I always found it a pleasure to work with him at Microservices. While I was grumpy at customers for calling me during my paid homework hours, Matt was always courteous and eager to help customers. When he didn’t know the answer to a heinous question, he would always ask a boss or research the problem himself before getting back on the phone to give the caller a good solution. He may not be an alpha geek like some, but through my observations he is a good employee and coworker.
Matt says
Well this is probably not the response you’d expect…
You’re absolutely right that almost everyone in the llama D knows more about computers then I do. 100% But you know what? I never really questioned that. You remember when I called you trying to put together a machine because I needed help? If fact, previous to getting hired at micro I had no knowledge base besdies what came from gaming, which was pretty rudimentary.
I think I’ve learned a lot at micro, but macs still scare me and I have a hard time dealing with a lot of mac problems, even the ones in my department I’ve had Patrick help me with some of them. The 2 out of 4 (only half)(I’ve only been there a week) that I’ve fixed on my own I was really proud of, because I didn’t think I could do it.
As far as giving bs answers, I have never done that on purpose. Thats just a lie, I’m sorry. I’ve tried to give the best answer I can, and I have to go to the bosses for help more then I’d like, which is embarrasing because there are other people who don’t have to do it nearly as much.
I didn’t get my department because I’m sooo good with computers as you seem to think, I got it for three reasons: they know I try my best, I show up for work on time and regularly, there was on one else more qualified at the time that hadn’t already turned it down.
I never gave a second thought as to why I got asked to go before Tara until I heard that you and her had made a big deal about it. And, because Tara has shown up late a lot, I thought the reason was rather obvious and was insulted that you would go behind my back and complain to the bosses. It was because I’ve been late maybe 4 times since I started working there, thats it.
I really don’t want to come off as defensive, but I have no idea where you get the “rarely goes to his department” thing. Because we were understaffed Spencer had me stay at micro an extra month? I’ve only been there for a week and I was there the 18 hours I was scheduled for.
And for women. Wow, gods gift to women! Ryan, I haven’t had a girlfriend since Allison, thats almost two years now. The closest thing I came to was a younger girl who only wanted sex and treated me like shit, I wanted a relationship and she shot me down. Gods gift to women my ass, you want to know something smart guy? I’m so desperate to find someone who will care about me I signed up on match.com. Hope that makes you feel good. You’ve had a fucking happy relationship for 6 years and you complain about someone who’s desperately lonely flirting with cute girls? And I really hope you weren’t talking about Allison, who was at my desk for like 6 hours a couple weeks ago, because I’ve known her since I was 15 and have never asked her out, partially because I know she’d say no.
And to the Jen section, well, I guess I’ll ask her about that, I thought we were good friends. She never shot me down, I never asked her out.
Borderline hassasment eh? Well, if I did make an ass out of myself, I had no idea and Jen certainly never said anyhting to that effect.
And to deserving departments.. that comment.. wow, theres an out of context isquote if I ever heard one. Jen came in with about the same amount of knowledge I did, maybe a little more, and she’s been there a lot shorter time. I think at that amount of time when i had been there I would have been lost/uncomfortable in a department. In fact, 6 months ago, I told the bosses as much. I said “I’d like a department eventually but I know I’m not ready.” My feelings are the same for someone else in a similar position that i was in then, I never said anything about deserving.
And for Tara, if she had just been promoted, even promoted over me, I wouldn’t have had any issue, but that you and her went in and coplained that it was unfair for me to be promoted, that made me defensive, and I said I don’t think someone should be given a department because they complained and had others tdo the same. I’m sorry if that offends you. I like Tara as a person, I just don’t agree with that method of getting what you want.
As far as the loud thing goes, well, I’m sorry if I have a loud voice, I really try wheneer I notice, its not on purpose.
As far as not smart, and this gets tied into “stirring up dispute.” This is one place where I will defend my “ego” to a degree. I may not know more about computers then you, but I am an intelligent person, even if you’re one-sided viewpoints on things don’t allow you to see that. I like to see the grey areas, and I like to talk about them, because I learn from the conversation. For example, I got into an arguement with Micah about why we were going into Iraq awhile ago, he was right, and he convined me of it. Diametrically opposite? What? That just doesn’t make any sense at all, I vote liberal just like the majority of people at micro, just because my views are less extreme then yours doesn’t make me a bad person.
Cockblocker says
Hey Matt….let’s go play soccer this weekend. Give me a call.
Chris says
I’d rather not beat a dead horse, but I’d like to get this out.
Shit… sorry man. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. I suppose that what I said should have been said face to face, to avoid having to backpedal and clarify shit after the fact, but for one thing, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you were a bad person… just that I had felt a bit of tension between people in the office and it arrived after you did. Now, I’m not saying that your political views or your opinions on things cause you to be a bad person, just that friction can occur and does and always has often occurred in the microservices group.
It’s like that in every workplace believe it or not. At least every workplace I’ve ever worked for.
This reply will meander between an explanation, an apology, and an attempt at justification, but I don’t intend any of it to sound like I am criticizing anyone or telling them what to do. The only person who should feel criticized from this is me. I’m only offering my ideas. While parts of this may come across sounding like they are less than apologetic, I’d like to make it clear that this is an apology and I do feel horrible about what was said and the manner in which it was said.
I regretted some of the decisions of the management while I was at micro, though I always tried to see their side of it. I think you’ve discovered the answer to Ryan’s lingering question when you highlight attendance as an issue matt. The attendance thing is certainly a deciding factor in choosing who goes to a department and who doesn’t. It always was. It’s something they all value highly, and rightly so, given the attitude of most students toward attending anything while in college. Though to be fair, in my experience many professors and staff have just as crappy an attitude toward punctuality. Perhaps it’s a college thing.
I’m losing track of things. Again, I hate to sound like I’m backpedaling over the internet here, but there are some things that came across meaner than I’d have liked them to, especially about you.
All I meant about your opinions being ‘diametrically opposed’ was that every time I was in micro while you and I both worked there, there seemed to be some kind of argument/discussion with you on one side and the rest of the office on the other. I’m not saying this makes your opinions wrong. I’m just trying to point out something I noticed.
Without trying to sound too paternal or condescending (I’m worried about that, so let me apologize if I come across that way.), I think that sometimes you have to choose your battlefields. I admire what you said about critically discussing your ideas with others in an attempt to clarify your own views. That’s commendable and I confess to enjoying and pursuing the same thing. However, in my experience (especially at micro, and more so now), people don’t generally enjoy having their views confronted at work. While the entire idea of higher education is to encourage discussion and the free trade of ideas, the workplace isn’t the best place for open-ended discussions about politics and here’s why:
Political discussions (and any discussion about any ideal for that matter, from religion to science to history) lead people to make statements that can be taken the wrong way and can cause them to make judgment calls about your personality and character. Whether or not this is fair is beside the point, those decisions that people make simply based on the words you choose to express yourself can and often do cause friction. Personally I try to refrain from any serious discussions at work because of this. People don’t often enjoy going to work with people they disagree with because there is always the chance they might say something else offensive. If it’s a classmate or an acquaintance, you can avoid/ignore them, but at work you have to deal with it. Some people don’t want to confront people either, instead choosing to be passive.
I didn’t think that anything I wrote in my post was directly insulting to you. However, some things were worded slightly stronger than they should have been, and sometimes there is a delay between what you think and how you say it that is greater than the time it takes to type it out and hit ‘post’.
One thing I do regret is the comment about ‘act first, ask questions later’. You are an intelligent person, and I’d never meant to make it sound like you weren’t. Your technical expertise isn’t something you should be made to feel inferior about, regardless of the workplace. If all the employees at micro were expected to be as brilliant as the rest of the geeks there, I’d have never gotten a job. I know that there are people there that know more than me, and I know that there will always be people in the world that know more than me. I think that you and that everyone else that has been hired know enough to get the job done, and that’s what matters. If someone doesn’t know, they probably know the resources where they can find out.
After re-reading it again (and again), I also regret including the word ‘beaten’. It makes it sound like you are stubborn. That’s not true, you’re just equally as passionate about your opinions as everyone else. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that though. Again, my most humble apologies.
I feel like an ass. I’m sorry.
The internet sucks, but I really don’t have a better way to address this as I’m lacking individual e-mail addresses, plus I’d like to publicly apologize in the same area that I made the comments. I hope this gets back to all the parties originally involved.
It’s something I’d rather say face-to-face, but I don’t have that option unfortunately.
I’m not going to back pedal too far however. I think that a certain amount of bitching about coworkers goes on behind everyone’s back at every workplace. If my current employer is any gauge of reality, it happens frequently and there is nothing you can do about it. The odds are very high that someone is at the moment or has in the past bitched about you to someone else. Even close friends, regardless of how well you know them. It’s not something we should get too bent out of shape over. It sucks when it’s brought into the open like this, but I’m not about to suggest that everyone stop doing it, because that’s as retarded an idea as asking men to stop being obsessed with T and A or women to stop being so emotional about everything.
It ignores the real issue, which is that people don’t want to intentionally hurt others, but from time to time they need to let off some steam, and no matter what you do that steam might be about something you did or didn’t do or did or didn’t notice or whatever. It’s life. It sucks, but it’s human nature. There is no justification for it, but at the same time it’s not going away. Bitching to people about problems is cathartic. It makes you feel better.
However, from personal experience, and again from this one, I would say that the internet is clearly not the place to bitch to people about anything.
That being said, mine own LJ is something that folks at work have thankfully not stumbled upon. Fortunately no one here seems to understand or enjoy the internet as much as I do. I’m sure I’m in for a rude awakening one of these days. I hope they choose to be as forgiving about online journals as I do. I would make it a more private and less public journal, but the thing I liked about LJ was that it allowed me to get feedback from other people regarding my thoughts. Sometimes our thoughts are dead on, and sometimes they’re way off the mark. Sometimes you aren’t always able to express what you want to the people you are in direct contact with every day.
To counter that though, taking an argument from the real world on to the internet is the worst way to solve said argument. It leads to this kind of passive, waiting on pins and needles kind of back and forth he-said-she-said stuff.
I think there was definitely emotion behind both posts, and emotion is something that often twists our words outside of their intended meaning. I’m trying to be as level headed and detached as I can about this reply. I’m spending a lot of time on it and I really want to make sure I don’t leave anything out.
I think a personal journal should be a place where one can vent, and I think that as a LJ user myself I expect a certain degree of leeway from my readers. However, as I mentioned earlier, I do see how this can blow up in your face. But, when one posts to an online forum, they are quite often doing it while fueled by an emotion. That emotion is not always positive. I can but I won’t hold against anyone what I read in their online journal. If I was curious enough to read it, I should accept that as their thoughts at the moment and not as something they hold as their feelings all the time. As Ryan’s close friend, I felt that he was ranting to hear a sympathetic voice. As his friend, I wanted to provide that sympathetic voice as much as possible without betraying my own feelings about either party involved. However, it was my own fault for not choosing a more isolated and private channel to do that within. As a result I am responsible for what was said and I understand the shock and anger to which my comments were received by others. I’m not done apologizing for this.
Though, had the tables been turned I would have expected nothing less from any friend. I still consider you a friend, even if the things I mentioned earlier were less than positive. Again, I apologize.
However, after going through this on my own recently here in Japan, I would make an active effort to confine any comments made to a round of beers. I think people have things they need to get off their chest about everything, especially other people, from time to time. I think also that any reasonable person should forgive and forget anything said over a few pints.
Apologies to all, hope to see you in 17 days, provided I survive the next 15.
Matt says
Thanks Chris. I agree that people need to
let off steam about their co-workers.
Perhaps you’re right that because I am so innundated with political disscussion through my major I thoughtlessly bring up topics casually that others find uncomfortable. I’ll try to
take that into account before bringing up any more divisive political conversations. Again, thank you for the effort you put into this
reply.
I appreciate it.