Warning - Whining Follows

Monday, March 23, 2009
I love my job. The work is interesting, my boss is flexible, I'm paid well, and (best of all) I'm still employed.

Employment FTW!

But like every job, there are aspects to it that annoy me.

Today's annoyance is the fact that covering for vacationing engineers on complex long term projects is a huge pain in my ass.

It's not the fact that my team-mates go on vacation and I need to cover for them - I'm a strong, strong proponent of leaving your work behind when you take time off, and my teammates are gracious about covering for me when I'm gone. I don't resent doing the work, because that's just what you do.

But when changes need to be made on a design for a complex long-term project, and the engineer is on vacation, then it takes FOREVER to figure out what the project is about, how the engineer designed it, what changes need to be made, what the customer currently has installed, etc., etc., ad naseum. What makes this particular project even more challenging is that the customer is notorious for wanting dozens of iterations on a project before they finally make up their minds - and then they always choose the least expensive option.

That's all I wanted to complain about. Feel free to call me a whiny-butt and continue on with your day.

4 comments:

Geek Goddess said...

I'm not the only one?

Janiece said...

Geek Goddess, you have no idea.

We'll be Hawt Whiny Engineer Chicks together!

Some dude stuck in the Midwest said...

That's why there are scopes and documentation :)

I am feeling smarty-pantsy, because I avoided just that recently.

Janiece said...

Kanstantin, it's still a pain in my ass, even with a scope and documentation.

Plus the scope let a bit to be desired...