New hire, brought on board comes to a Monday meeting.

The company Quality of Worklife Balance survey has been returned, and it’s awful. It’s just after the 2008 crash, and we’re barely treading water, but the company held on. The CIO brought everyone into the largest conference room, meant for hundreds (there’s a couple dozen of us standing around, the chairs weren’t setup) and we stand around her as she procedes to tell us “Why is your QWL so low, you should be talking to your managers about this! I don’t wanna see another QWL survey this bad ever!” In a very yelly tone.

One of the managers raised their hand, and asked, “Folks feel like they’re not being listened to and that they’re not getting enough leeway to make decisions.”

CIO: “Well they need to get over that.”

And that was the first meeting a bunch of developers and IT folks got to see at that company.

Many other shenanigans occurred there, but my personal favorite was the quarter million dollar genset system all setup and tested multiple times – fueled and ready to go, failed in a major power outage because someone left the key in the “test” position on the generator.

– That CIO thought they led people, they did nothing of the sort.

Because there are sadists in every field.

We tend to forget he was the “Example” the authorities tried to make at the time.

He was portrayed in court as “a man who could whistle nuclear codes” as the reason for preventing him from having access to the phone as he was entitled. They took his cans of tuna-fish away because too many people were providing him food assistance from outside the prison.

I will remember Kevin as the “kid that coulda been me.” His persona and personality afterwards, well I try not to judge him too harshly, but I got “Do you know who I am”'d at least once while volunteering at a Con by him. He definitely enjoyed the limelight and played as many encores as the staff let him get away with.

Never had a beer with him, but I’ll pour one out for him this year. RIP the last man to be able to whistle the nuclear codes.

“You must be new here”

We’re always the first adopters.