I've just gotten home after spending a lovely evening with two former co-workers. One is a dedicated programmer. One is a very talented Business Analyst. Both are still working in the IT department of the nutso company I parted ways with almost 12 months ago.
We met at a tapas restaurant not too far from where I live. There's just something about sharing a couple of pitchers of sangria (which came in awesome hand-thrown ceramic pitchers) and a table full of munchies (aka: tapas) that makes conversation flow and laughter abound. Anyway, here are the highlights of our little gathering:
Food Related Stuff:
- The hand thrown pitchers were far superior to the actual sangria they contained, but after a few glasses, who really gives a rat's ass?
- The calamari was great.
- The garlic potato salad kicked butt.
- The eggplant in Spanish mystery sauce was so-so. The dish would have been greatly improved had the chef actually checked to see that the eggplant was cooked. It's not a vegetable that should be crunchy...
- The scallops were in a great garlicky veggie cheesy creamy sauce, but the actual scallops were a tad mushy.
- We had a beef sirloin tapa that looked like an unconstructed shish-kabob. It was draped in sour cream and was reclining on those little shoestring potato things that you find in a can at the grocery store. I have a sneaky feeling that they do it a little differently in Madrid.
Nutso Company IT Department Related Gossip, God's Honest Truth, and Great Stories Stuff:
- The senior management of the IT department just spent untold tens of thousands of dollars building a state-of-the-art executive conference room (complete with a table that cost 40K and all sorts of remote video meeting cameras and such). It seats 20. Nobody is allowed to book this room for meetings except senior management. There are 3 of them. And they usually only meet with each other. Apparently they like a lot of elbow room. They also built it on the only wall on the floor that has actual windows, so now the IT department itself (filled with cubes of hardworking wage slaves) gets no natural light whatsoever. Everybody is expecting bats to move in shortly, as the atmosphere is so delightfully cave-like.
- None of the worker bees in the IT department got raises this year. They did get a lecture on the company's fiscal woes, a wistful look, and a firm handshake from their senior management. All of the senior managers got promoted.
- They haven't hired any new actual IT employees since I left. They have hired lots of consultants. One is a lady who is a little chubby (my programmer friend describes her in terms of tonnage), and wears lushly colored crushed velvet pantsuits. Exclusively. And sunglasses. Indoors. Apparently she also has a rather severe incontinence problem. On her first day, she managed to dampen every chair she sat in. So everyone has removed the side chairs from their cubicles to prevent her from watering anything in their workspace.
- This company is famous for hiring respectable looking married men who immediately start cheating on their spouses (with coworkers, vendors, cafeteria ladies, anything with a pulse) as soon as the ink on their acceptance letter dries. We had a field day listing all of them, along with who they were currently carrying on with. We even toasted some of the girls they'd discarded along the way. We lit a candle for their unfortunate wives.
A good time was had by all. I've said it before. I'll say it again. I would rather spend the rest of my life making 9.50 an hour working for The Plant People than spend one more nanosecond working for the numb-nuts that run most IT shops.
It was so good to see the girls!
