Yay Sports!
Hello my lovelies,
WOW! It has been such a day I just had to take a moment and share a bit of my fun with all of you.
Kicking off the day was a meeting with the uber-nerdy IT guys that I work with. Since today officially kicks off the NFL season, the company decided to allow three, count 'em THREE consecutive days (Thursday, Friday and Monday) where employees can wear sports wear to "show spirit for your favorite team!" Yaaaayyy? This concept seems completely ridiculous in a company where there are employees, that on a regular basis, wear slippers to work. Seriously, these assclowns can't even manage to put on shoes, do we really need to three days of Broncos crap, but I digress. Since I am ambivalent about sports I wore the clothes that I typically wear to work. Today I wore jeans, a wine colored shirt and Danskos. At the 8:30 meeting one of the over the top sports geeks asked why I didn't wear my "sports wear."
With a deadpan look I said, "What do you mean, I did! Wine IS my favorite sport!"
Stunned silence, then laughter and finally the ops manager said "That is the best response EVER, I agree, but I'm not sure I am prepared to go head to head with you and wine."
With a nod, I replied "Smart man! So getting back to what we are here for....."
An hour or so later I was at my desk working when the CIO storms into my cubicle and begins loudly exclaiming how disappointed he is that I am not responding to customer reported issues. At the exact moment he was there I was updating the FAQ with the answers the connectivity issues that had been reported over night (I'd already spoken directly to the end users and to close the loop I was just updating documentation.) Now remember, I have only 10 more days (9 more now) at the company, I am a consultant and I don't like this man. I was polite, but direct in informing him that he is grossly misinformed and I'd like to understand what specific issue has not been addressed. Turns out that buried amongst half-a-dozen real issues in an email that I received on Aug 22, was a comment that emojis weren't working in Outlook. I didn't give the comment much credence because in the email where the user was reporting that emojis aren't working, he used numerous emojis and all of them rendered perfectly. On top of that the user that reported it is kind of a goofy guy, so I focused the team on resolving all of the actual problems, logged the emoji comment as a low priority item in the issue log and updated the communications to ensure that the issue resolution messaging was clear and concise. In a nutshell - I DID MY JOB!
Jackwad CIO then starts on a tirade that he's been experiencing this issue since his PC was upgraded two weeks ago and he's is livid that I am not considering the impact this type of thing has on employee engagement. WTF! Somehow I managed to have enough self-restraint to not inform him that his shitty leadership and the ego-maniacal asshats that he employs have a significantly bigger impact on the shitty morale in this company than the f*ing emojis. After he stormed away, I called my technical escalation guy and apologetically told him that apparently smiley faces ARE the biggest f*ing problem right now, so I need him to look into it.
I've never been happier in all my career to forward the CIO a link to the Microsoft site stating that emojis rendering as blank squares is a bug that has been fixed in the latest release. I also sent him an email that received on Aug 25 from the same customer that reported the issue letting me know that rebooting his PC seemed to resolve the emoji issue.
This evening I very enthusiastically completed the background check information for my new gig, because I am beyond ready to get out of this company! Now if you will please excuse me I need to pour myself a big old glass of "sports!" Pinot Noir is my team tonight, though last night at dinner with the girls, I was a big fan of team Rose` and I cheered for team Rioja as well. I have to say, as much I enjoy rooting for Team Rose` especially when the weather is hot, I look much better in Team Rioja's colors! YAY SPORTS!
Until next time...
XOXO