I used to work in the call center of a regional office for a giant company. I got the opportunity to “apprentice” with another department, which basically meant I would shadow the same employee for an hour or two a week for six months and then I could apply for a transfer and they’d hire me preferentially unless I seemed like a fuckup. The department was staffed with 90% former biglaw attorneys who didn’t want to deal with the rat race anymore and located in the main office. I felt like this the first time I showed up in my nice jeans and a fancy-to-me top to this incredible marbled building full of people wearing suits more expensive than my car.
I got that job, by the way, and less than two years later, it had demoralized to the point that I left “per mutual agreement” and went back to school to move to an entirely different industry. I did also make enough money in that time to finance a move abroad, including living expenses for three years, visas, bringing my cat with me, and grad school though, so I’m not exactly mad about it in the end.
In a company I worked for in the 1990’s, accounting was all women, many hot, and all horned up. I do not mean this as a good thing. I was in a committed relationship to my now wife and these ladies didn’t stop. They also had a stack of Playgirl and other nude men magazines in their bathroom. Very toxic, but that was southern Louisiana back then.
Same. I worked at a Pharmaceutical company in the early 00’s where the CFO, accounts payable/receivable and many managers were all power hungry horn dog women.
My immediate IT boss (one down from CTO) was banging my coworker, a guy who was already banging the HR secretary and a lady in finance all to get favoritism. I literally quit over the whole thing.
Pharma companies are all drama btw. Don’t go into pharma if you dislike drama.
I never come up from my dungeon to talk to accounting. I send a precisely formatted, detailed, and concise email that they inevitably only read half of.
I’d rather have a paper trail anyway.
One of the first thing I learned in my IT internship is that you keep your receipts. That way management can’t blame you for implementing their stupid requests.
Another legitimately great strategy is the Wally Deflector (hate that Dilbert’s creator turned out to be an asshat). Force them to do some work. Anything really works, just something to slow down the firehose and enforce that it’s a partnership working towards a solution. Usually the best way is to just ask for clarification and actual hard requirements.
So many things just shrivel up and die when the person asking for it realizes IT isn’t going to just outsource their full responsibilities including domain specific knowledge or basic fucking thought for them just because it’s going to become digital or automated.
I’ve got a customer right now who needs this lesson taught to them, but I lack the power to properly discipline them.
…and that shaggy MF wants $40,000,000 for next years hardware refresh and 8yr support licensing.
Source: I am that shaggy MF.
and you get just about through the door and they already are saying no.
Manamana
Doo dooooo doo-doodoo
Manamana
Doo too-doo too
A few jobs ago I had the CEO of the startup I worked at tell me that when he was meeting investors they’d question an engineer’s competence if they showed up looking too well dressed.
I had a colleague, she eventually went to Google, who would hard pass candidates that showed up to an interview in a suit. I find that as stupid as dinging someone for not wearing a buttoned up shirt for the interview.
EDIT: I did tell her that was tremendously stupid and that they were just trying to show respect by dressing up.
I worked at two of the biggest accounting firms in the world. You know, the kind that you read about in the news because they’re hiding rich people’s money. And yes, the older ones especially, are useless with computers. We had one secretary to a senior partner who insisted on having a typewriter.
I can actually see the point of a typewriter.
If someone involved in underhanded business gets an email or an electronically letter, they might think there’s an electronic trail.
If the letter was hand typed, they’ll know it’s not quite as traceable
I’ve read that Putin’s security people use typewriters for just this reason.
Well, as a legal secretary in the early 1990s… I had to type things in triplicate (pressure printed on my typewriter…)
I’ll go further back in the Wayback Machine.
When I was very young I got a Disney book where Mickey and Donald Duck are in school. Donald tells Mickey they don’t need to learn to spell because when they grow up they’ll be able to buy typewriters. Donald thought that typewriters would automatically correct any spelling mistakes.
You can forensically link a typed text to the typewriter that wrote it.
Yes, if the person doesn’t burn the message.
Whoa… I am an old shit who does miss her electronic typewriter that actually produced a product in real time without having to rely on cloud/blueshit connections. but okay, since you probably have not had a real time experience… it is reasonable that you don’t relate. Understand… everytime I try to print post op instructions at work, my computer can’t figure out what printer to send it to so I have to select one out of like 30 printers it lists. This is not convenient nor helpful.
I fixed my mom’s mechanical typewriter when I was twelve, when I was fifteen I released a couple of issues of a punk fanzine that I typed up on my mom’s IBM electric typewriter. My mom was a secretary in the days of Madmen, she learned to use words processors and printers. But this woman would phone IT when her typewriter wasn’t working, in 3005 this was not my problem.
Yep, I can confirm.
Accountants think it’s a guy
IT is far more subtle and complex than that
that sentient shroom owns a custom fursuit that costs as much as a small yaczt
Depends if it’s a young tech coming up to fix their computer, or an older tech coming up to elaborate what the recent Capex request is for, because it just takes to damn long to write in email.
If it’s the latter then yeah that checks out.
I would just be happy to not have to delete 25 IT email notifications about downtimes and fixes every other day. Like WTF do I even have to care about that shit? Just make my work email actually functional vs a dumpster of shit dumped on me.
Sounds like someone needs to figure out email filters. Probably best to send it to a folder and mark as read instead of delete it, that way when it does inevitably concern you (something you use isn’t working) you can check them for notice of what’s going on.
Naw, most of the accountants are in their late 40’s / 50’s The C-Staff (including the CFO if you need to talk to him about it) are in the it late 50’s early 60’s/
