Escape from Hell

Today is the anniversary of one of the most life altering events I have had in recent years. It of course falls after meeting my husband, marrying my husband, and the birth of my daughter, and a few other things I'm sure, but still it was very important. Today is the day of my escape from Hell. A year ago today was my last day to work for Digital Dog.

I did have some wonderful times at the company, and met some people who still remain my close friends, J, L, C, G and M - you know who you are. I also learned a lot while I was there, some of which I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't worked in that type of environment. Still the majority of the time the environment was Hell a lot of the time all because of upper management.

I was hired as a production/design assistant straight out of college which was cool. But apparently included in that job were, receptionist, office manager, QC for everything, Tutorial creation, and being everyone's keeper to make sure they had the stuff they needed for meetings. All for the lowest salary in the company. So over 2 years time, I handled all of this. Working overtime almost everyday. Often times as late as 7 or 8, and several times til 11 or midnight. All without comepensation or even a simple thank you most times. I take that back, I once worked 28 days straight, commuting an hour and a half to Nashville 7 days a week, and I got to have Halloween off without having to take a vaction day. But being the only "real" job I had ever had, I didn't know it shouldn't be like that 365 days a year. If it hadn't been for the people I worked with I would have probably had a mental breakdown multiple times.

If anything went wrong with a project and it could be traced back to me, even if I had just answered the phone, the ensuing lecture or punishment landed at my feet. I had design privileges taken away from me more times than I can count for a misspelled word on a site, or missing something when I QC'd an application. I was put on a 30 day probation, with the threat of reduced pay and/or firing after that, and had a pay-raise put on hold for 2 months (after a year and a half of working there)if I didn't get my act together, all for missing something when I QC'd an application. The client wasn't even upset, but I paid for that mistake like you wouldn't believe. Other employees had almost crashed servers, lost clients, etc and not had that harsh a punishment given out, but for me, missing something not adding shipping was enough to banish me to the land of shame for a month.

Now that I think about it, the turn over rate for that company was ridiculously high. There might have well been a revolving door in the entrance, because that was what it was like. I was one of the ones that lasted the longest, but mainly because again, I didn't know any better, and wasn't going to jump out of a job with a steady paycheck.

When internal issues came up between middle management and upper management, I will be forever grateful to those who made sure I knew what was going on and ultimately convinced me to quit my job (you 2 know who you are!). I would probably have stayed if not for their encouragement, that I could do better and was more talented than upper management would ever acknowledge. I would probably still be in my corner desk, doing the same thing, for the same pay a year later if not for them.

Since I left the company has threatened to sue me for talking to an old client (note I signed no contracts, no non-disclosures, no non-competes, nothing) and they refused to fill out paperwork we needed to purchase our house. And they said I left on good terms, yeah right.

I have been much, much, much happier since I left. I landed with a new company CentreSource with the help of one of my old co-workers that I absolutely LOVE. I love the people, the environment, and my boss isn't a psycho. He genuinely cares about his employees. (When your boss emails you to get off the computer while you are on vacation, he cares about you taking your time off to de-stress). I am also management now. A big step from low man on the totem pole to running a division and being responsible for the look and quality of all designs that leave my shop.

I now have my self confidence back. I know that I am damn good at what I do, and no one will ever be able to change my mind. I am considering going back to school next year for my MBA, at the encouragement of my boss, something I would never have done in Hell, because what does a website builder need a business degree for.

I thought I would share my experience so that all of you out there in jobs that treat you like crap will know that sometimes taking a leap of faith out of the situation will take you to a wonderful place. No one should have to put up with being treated like that. I put up with it to long and I'm glad I left. I will never look back.

Time goes so fast

Why is it when you are a kid, summers last forever. I mean my memories seem like they lasted for months and months. School years took forever too of course. As I get older though, time seems to keep picking up speed. College went pretty fast, but each year I work it seems to go by even faster. Its been a year since I left the job from hell (more about that in a later post), and almost a year since I started my current job. My daughter is 8 years old (8 YEARS OLD) how the hell did that happen? She was so small a second ago and now, she's a foot shorter than me. The child is 8 and is 4'2. (I see a professional basketball career or supermodel, just depends on if she is more girly girl than sports fanatic).

I am afraid that the older I get, the faster time will go. Will summers soon seem like days, instead of the weeks they seem like now. I hope not.

A rare weekend

I get to play being a single girl this weekend. Well kind of... The husband is working at the truck and tractor pull, making sure everyone behaves themselves. (If not its off to jail with you!) He got a late shift of 5pm to whenever they finish up, which could be 2 to 3 in the morning. My daughter is spending tonight and tomorrow night with her grandmother, Lolly, so I have 2 nights with no child and no husband. What is a girl to do with herself? Normally, I'd go home, work, read, sleep, the normal stuff. This weekend, no way.

Today I am going to go hang out and play pool with a bunch of the guys from work. It should be a good time for all of us to get together outside the office. Tomorrow, I am going to visit my best friend from college and have dinner, watch a movie, bitch about our husbands, etc. etc.

An unusual week for me, I normally don't get so much social time, so I'm going to get as much as I possibly can.

Things that made me smile at work today

1. The new flash guy started today at work. Finally, I have help.
2. A client told me I was very good at training because I could bridge the gap between technical knowledge, and normal people and make it where they can understand.
3. Our business analyst told me, in front of the boss, that I have good business skills, no one ever told me that before.
4. My boss said in front of everyone that I managed to launch 30 to 40 sites in the last year from my department, and that it was pretty amazing. (maybe not his exact word, but you get the idea)
5. A new partner who used us on a trial bases for one project, has decided that he will use us for more based on his experience with my team on the first one.
6. None of my projects blew up.

It was a very good day.

Workaholic ?

My husband is convinced that I suffer from a Workaholic disorder. He has been subjecting me to online quizzes for this disorder, and when I answer the questions the way I think they should be, he changes them to the way he sees them. As a result of his changing answers, I am a workaholic according to these online quizzes. (on the low end admittedly, but still) So the question I raise is, I am a really a workaholic or, because he thinks I am, is he just determined to try and make me see things his way?

Either way, I am not an workaholic in a bad sense...am I?

Seems like the beginnings of a good day

Ever have one of those days when you finished getting ready in the morning everything had just fallen into place, your clothes fit right, your hair didn't freak out, and your make-up actually looks good. That was my morning. It started out well, knowing I look good when I walk out the door always boosts my confidence, lets just hope I stay up.

Maybe a little conceded to say I look good, but hell, if a girl can't tell herself that occasionally what's the point of being a female.

Quitting Smoking Helps Asthma Patients..

Huh, who'd of thought?

As if my daughter and 2 real pets aren't enough

Why does this worry me...

http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/#1519874

Its the video at the very top of the page. I'm not sure what worries me more, the fact that girls this age don't have a clue what suffrage is or the fact that they will willing sign something when they don't have a clue what its for just because someone puts it in front of them.

Epiphany

I think I spelled that right, anyway...

I'm beginning to realize that some of my family is missing me alot even though I only moved a half hour or so away. But seeing as I am the first from that group to not live within 5 or 10 mins of everyone else, I guess that is a big deal. My mom has started calling me on my way to or from work just to talk, something we use to not do so often. My grandmother sounded so excited that we were going to be able to come to a family thing at dinner tonight, because I told her earlier in the week I didn't know if we could. The reason this is an epiphany is because I just never felt that my presence was all that important. Why I don't know. I mean I know they love me, but I am the one that is different from everyone else (the closest one like me is my mom), so I don't always fit into their "ideals" alot. I guess even if you are the "black sheep" of the family, they still miss you. If your not there, who are they going to pick on :)...

I'm glad today is today...

Because I'm so glad I won't have to drag myself out myself out of bed at 6am, and that I won't have to fight rush hour, and that I can relax and do whatever I want, but most of all I'm glad today is today, because my significant other told me I could go on a shopping spree, what better way to end a day.

Local Politics

For some reason I started thinking about something.

Do local politicians, the ones on the county level really have a platform that they campaign about? I mean I live in small rural county (I just work in Nashville) and its always the same when I go vote, each candidate runs as an independent, they don't want to risk loosing votes by actually admitting to being either a republican or democrat, and there never seems to be easily accessible information as to what they plan to do differently, or what they've done better if they are trying to keep their job, than their opponent.

It usually comes down to what seems like the campaigns for Student Council in high school, the most popular person wins*... Am I just not paying attention enough to, I don't know, whatever it is I am apparently missing? It seems like a waste, but when I go vote I either skip a category where I don't have a clue who the people are, or I vote for the person who's name I heard the most. A lousy way to pick a mayor or sheriff, but at least I can say I voted, for all the good it seems to do me.

*and don't say "of course the most popular person won, they got the most votes" you know what I mean when I say popular..

Focus MGal Focus

I am having such a hard time focusing this week at work and I can't figure out why! Maybe because I don't have a deadline breathing down my neck and I have room to breathe or maybe its because I just do this every so often. Either way I need it to stop, I feel like such a slacker.

What am I doing...

I have no idea really. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now and just never did it. I guess I was afraid to put my thoughts out there for other people to see and judge. I have this little (ok huge) insecurity problem with people judging me. But what I have realized after reading and commenting on blogs is that no matter what you say someone is going to agree, someone will disagree, and the rest won't care. So here I go, trying to find my way through one more thing....