Category: Geekery

And every day you’re in this place you’re two days nearer death

One of the “joys” of working in a large, old, poorly maintained and shrinking chemical plant is the constant barrage of dangerous chemical smells. I used to walk from the parking lot to the entrance under a pipe bridge that carried a bunch of pipes, one of which was labelled “Ketone”. There was often a strong smell of aromatic hydrocarbons under that bridge.

Today, just after I’d posted my previous posting, three company firemen were standing in front of my cube, wearing breathing tanks on their backs (but thankfully not using them). One of my co-workers came by and said he’d reported a nasty smell and something dripping onto his desk from the ceiling above, and they’d come out.

Movie tickets

Our project has a custom of handing out free movie ticket coupons every year as sort of a bonus. In the past, either one of the admins has handed them out, or just stuck them in an interoffice envelope. No ceremony or fuss.

This year, my boss Nancy comes over. She says that she’d had to go through my pimp for this (and I’m suddenly thinking “hey, is this my first raise in 5 years?”) and then congratulates me for a good year and hands me the movie tickets. Sure enough, as well as the usual cover letter from my boss’s boss, there is another one from the pimp agency. Knowing it went through them, I immediately counted the coupons to see if they took 35% of them. But no, it appears they’re all there. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Ten Ways to get fired and/or arrested at work

You know those silly corporate IT security rules? The ones that they say are there to prevent you from accidentally turning your company computer into a spam bot or exposing company data to thieves or infesting the corporate network with viruses? Well, since that’s just gobbledygook to you, obviously you can subvert those rules with impunity, right?

Ten Things Your IT Department Won’t Tell You – WSJ.com

I’ve got an idea – try all 10 of those ideas and see how long you keep your job. If you’re lucky, you won’t end up in jail for it, but good luck getting another job that involves a computer more sophisticated than a McDonalds cash register.