Still Possible
Sep. 7th, 2005 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI found a new bug at work today. I fired an e-mail about it to my programmer, even though I know he's too busy with urgent important projects.
This is not an urgent important problem because I have the power to keep my system from imploding. I simply find and delete every single piece of data that has the kind of placeholder that causes the system to crash. And keep a list of all these things. And check that list every time I get the data I need to fill in the space the placeholder is holding for me.
I was hoping the programmer would say to hold off on that while he spent a few minutes looking for the bug. Or that my boss would say to hold off while he talked to the programmer or the programmer's boss. But as of 5:00 I still had no response.
My job philosophy is that so long as it is possible for me to do my job properly, I'm okay. But once it becomes impossible, I actually consider quitting before having another job lined up. I had one job where I started keeping a list of impossible-sounding tasks I had to do: Fit this large amount of writing into this small box for a grant proposal. (No--I'm pretty sure they don't want 3-point font; let me just edit this down a bit and see if you like that.) Make 250 copies of this 40-page document, double-sided and stapled, for my class in thirty minutes--oops, is that the copier repair guy? (Run to another department and ask to borrow their copier.)
And this is possible too, so I'm okay. But applying band-aids half the day to keep things running is not nearly as fun as working on new things. And it's starting to get old.
I shouldn't whine. A friend is volunteering at our local shelter for hurricane evacuees and has to spend much of his time telling people he can't do what they want. He's doing his job properly; a newer volunteer would have to say no to even more people out of ignorance (no--I just read that he's made an FAQ for the help desk). I don't deal well with that kind of situation.
I once quit a job because I didn't think I'd ever be able to do it well enough, even though it wasn't about me; it was about the job. I was a cashier at a grocery store where people stepped into line with their carts overflowing. I could enter prices at light speed, sack fairly quickly, and enter financial information with continuous writing, even while looking up the next bit of information. (Yes, this was in the 1980s.) But I once timed how long it took a customer to get through my line, and the answer was thirty minutes. Even if I became a sacking god, tossing each item with one hand, and catching and placing it in the bag with the other, there was no way I could get that time down to anything reasonable. (Oops, I forgot to mention that job and the job I held the same time at a pizza parlor in my Job History.)
This is not an urgent important problem because I have the power to keep my system from imploding. I simply find and delete every single piece of data that has the kind of placeholder that causes the system to crash. And keep a list of all these things. And check that list every time I get the data I need to fill in the space the placeholder is holding for me.
I was hoping the programmer would say to hold off on that while he spent a few minutes looking for the bug. Or that my boss would say to hold off while he talked to the programmer or the programmer's boss. But as of 5:00 I still had no response.
My job philosophy is that so long as it is possible for me to do my job properly, I'm okay. But once it becomes impossible, I actually consider quitting before having another job lined up. I had one job where I started keeping a list of impossible-sounding tasks I had to do: Fit this large amount of writing into this small box for a grant proposal. (No--I'm pretty sure they don't want 3-point font; let me just edit this down a bit and see if you like that.) Make 250 copies of this 40-page document, double-sided and stapled, for my class in thirty minutes--oops, is that the copier repair guy? (Run to another department and ask to borrow their copier.)
And this is possible too, so I'm okay. But applying band-aids half the day to keep things running is not nearly as fun as working on new things. And it's starting to get old.
I shouldn't whine. A friend is volunteering at our local shelter for hurricane evacuees and has to spend much of his time telling people he can't do what they want. He's doing his job properly; a newer volunteer would have to say no to even more people out of ignorance (no--I just read that he's made an FAQ for the help desk). I don't deal well with that kind of situation.
I once quit a job because I didn't think I'd ever be able to do it well enough, even though it wasn't about me; it was about the job. I was a cashier at a grocery store where people stepped into line with their carts overflowing. I could enter prices at light speed, sack fairly quickly, and enter financial information with continuous writing, even while looking up the next bit of information. (Yes, this was in the 1980s.) But I once timed how long it took a customer to get through my line, and the answer was thirty minutes. Even if I became a sacking god, tossing each item with one hand, and catching and placing it in the bag with the other, there was no way I could get that time down to anything reasonable. (Oops, I forgot to mention that job and the job I held the same time at a pizza parlor in my Job History.)