The Workermonkey

Thursday, January 14, 2010

career advancement 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 1/14/2010 02:33:00 AM

Career Advancement:

Its 1:00 am local time. I worked 12 hours today, plus dinner and drinks equaling almost 22 hours of “on” time. I’m flat out going to be a mess tomarrow. I’ve stayed up far past my bed time, I haven’t slept in days cause I’m in a forign country and i’m not pooping correctly anymore. I’ve use some shit disposable razor for three days and I can’t get a good shave to save my life. The hotel i’m staying in has a bed about as soft as concrete. I’ve also spent nearly 300 euro’s of my own money.

But I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve done more in the last 48 hours for my career than I could have done in years of good hard, honest, work. The good work I’ve done over the last three years has apparently been noticed and is both awesome and bad. The bad is that I’ve made the people above me look like fools because I can contradict what they tell the people above them. But at the same time, I make the people I like look like geniuses. Maybe I’m being overly confident from a great meeting over drinks with people I hardly know. Maybe I just don’t get corporate culture. But I’ve made the right people look good, and the wrong people look bad. To the right people. That’s the key part, it has to be to the right people.

Here’s the back ground. I’m in spain to fix a cleanliness problem with parts we make. The VP sent me here, which I now know, was because he’s fucked and on his way out. I don’t like him and don’t agree with many of the things he’s done, but he knows I’m a good engineer, and when his back was against the wall, I was sent to spain to cover his ass. He sent me against his own wishes because he was told to or he would look bad. I’m here to make his management decisions over the last 6 months look good. I don’t agree with them and tonight I had the ear of the right person. This problem has caught the attention of the board of directors and without my knowing it, I’ve solved it.

Now, I haven’t actually solved anything. I’ve really just gotten us closer to a solution. But that doesn’t matter. I’ve impressed the right people and there happens to be 5 upper management people staying in my hotel at the same time. I couldn’t have planned this better if i tried. I’m having breakfast with them every day, and spending at leat 2 hours a day making the people I like look good by giving results proving what they “feel”.

One of the guys I work with who has a direct line to thte VP’s ear, he loves me. He’s staying 2 rooms over. The other VP of quality, I’ve never spent more than 5 minutes with him, he loves me and three drinks tonight with him and a 40 minute casual car ride has done more for my career than anything I could have ever done on my own. This is like a perfect storm situation.

At first the guys in spain told me to fuck off cause I arrived a day before everyone else. I had one day for them to impress me or treat me like a normal person. They blew me off. The lab guy I was here to see, told me very directly on day one, “ I don’t’ know why you are here, but just keep busy and stay out of my way”. Wrong answer, asshole. That has now been communicated to the VP of his division, who loves me because I told him David beckham was a punk ass bitch in the states. This guy happens to be from England, not “British”, apparently they take offense to that.

I’ve spent ht e last 4 hours drinking beers abd telling stories with this guy. He couldn’t be happier and neither could i. we agree about a lot of things and appently I have a good reputation with the board of directors. And they agree with a lot of the things i say. Including when I yell at people.

I was correct about getting the HR guy knocked down a peg but it wasn’t as much my fault as I thought. I just put the last straw on the camels back and forced the issue. They used it as an excuse and at that level, any excuse will do. It’s more like high school than you would think. Remember; cover your own ass, at any cost. Piss off everyone and anyone who gets in your way. There are lpeople who notice, because there are others who benefit from the people you hate failing. Now the HR guy has been knocked down from Global HR director of 20+ plants, to HR manager of 3. fuck yeah.

Corporate culture is amazing.

Don’t get labeled as a YES man, its not good. I might leap frog my boss because of it. And get a few people fired. Not intentionally, but totally worth it. Apparently the people above me notice more than I think. Not one level, but two or three levels above me. The one drunken message I spew gets moved around until the right person can use it against the wrong one.

Amazing. I couldn’t write a better script if I tired. The most amazing thing in the world is the truth.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

5 comments

I'm giving you till April.

By  Brancibeer, at Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:11:00 PM  

hahahah....

no it was a good trip and the best thing i did over there was spend time with my upper bosses. i can't believe how many times i heard "i shouldn't be saying this.."

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:42:00 AM  

yeah rereading this, it wasn't the best rant. i can say as a follow up, i was the only one who was able to make it in the next day. the VP never showed and the other guy went back upstairs after breakfast.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:05:00 AM  

Sounds interesting and good for you. It is rather clear that personal interaction is more important than one's resume. All my engineering work (5 different employers/clients) since moving to VT has been found in some way other than looking at openings.

No one is British, and the Welsh in particular are offended by that (since they also get screwed when people refer to Britain as England, and are generally forgotten about.)

By  Damon, at Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:35:00 PM  

Be wary of the corporate karma. Some young punk may come and boot you in the ass in a few years...

By  ron, at Monday, January 18, 2010 10:37:00 PM  

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