Summer is here, the reprieve from school is nice! Life will be even better when I get the Dayshift slot at work. I’m actually working daylight this weekend. I must say that I like it better!!!!! Today we’re running a big monthly backup job. The majority of what I do during weekends/holidays involves monitoring applications that backup large quantities of data that is sent out of state. I work with a robot that moves data tapes to and fro’ in a large tape library. Robots are cool! Due to the intense use of processing power required it’s done during times where peak useage is minimal i.e. middle of the freakin night. It seems alot less desolate and isolated than during the night. 12 hours with little to no human contact and trying to stay awake makes you pretty punchy by the end of a shift. I have conversations with myself, find really odd web pages to explore, listen to the BBC, eat crap food like funyons and red bull, vacum dust bunnies out of the sub floor.
It Seems the past few years that change is a constant with us. Mostly change for the better (I think?) This Fall semester will be a big decision maker for me. My ITM Degree combined BSU’s former Operations & Network majors into 1 with an emphasis in DEV or NETT (development, networking). My interests have been in the DEV emphasis since day 1. With further exposure to coders/developers(computer programmers for those of you not hip to the current verbage). My interest in Development is such that I’ve been looking at switching my Major to Computer Science, with an ITM Minor. I’m taking Intro to computer programming this fall and will have a good idea if I want to to go this route or not. I’ll be doing further research before I do anything official. Computer Science is equivalent to being a Math major. Makes sense considering that Binary is your primary language. Heh, Wouldn’t that be ironic? Starting in about the 3rd grade I began hearing about how I was having math issues. Mostly related to a bad teacher according to my mom. This eventually grew into Todd is not good at math which I eventaully bought into. Why bother trying something when your “not good at it”. I don’t blame this on anyone but I will use it as a reminder to avoid dropping these kinds of labels on my guys. So now 20 years later I’m having to play catchup. Starting next week I’m going to be cracking the books on the weekends while at work and start getting prepped for the next semester.
Further crossroads will also be arriving. There’s been discussion at our household regarding…I can’t believe I’m going to use the “M” word…..moving! NO NOT AGAIN!!! And when I say move I don’t mean across town…we’re talking to the west coast…more specifically the Portland or Seattle areas or somehere between. This won’t be happening for awhile, for one thing our 5 year old would divorce us and my side of the family will have a rough time of the idea….. but there is a method to the madness. Shan & I are dropping some serious bucks into our degrees. Her program requires monthly travel to Portland, not to mention when comparing job availablility and pay for her field….there are much better & more opportunities west. Not to mention my Geek degree and Seattle being a major world Tech mecca…AND the University of W’s CompSci program is HIGHLY rated. And thirdly…this State pisses me the f**** off and I say that as a state employee and spouse of a state employee.
There is a misconception that State Employees get all of these great benefits and pay and have a minimum volume of work. This is generally not the case. The one thing about State Employment here historically has been Job Security. But even that is not as valid as it used to be. In this State, regardless of qualifications, you start at the entry pay grade…there are exceptions, but this is the generally the rule. There are no cost of living increases. If you’re lucky you may get a 1%-3% pay increase based on merit & performance but this is dependant on the legislature and budget analysts. And this doesn’t cover the 3% benefits increase.
SO our Governor has an interesting philosophy. He’s reduced the number of positions (there goes job security) with the idea of contracting out more services. I can’t fault him for that- Private companies are more efficient because they’re not bound by all of the silly bullshit and redtape that state agencies have to deal with. He has also made it public that he wants to state jobs to appeal to a “younger workforce”. I don’t think his intent is as agist as that sounds I think he’s trying to compete with private industry for talent. State Jobs are often used as entry level positions for some training & experience and then people move on to make better money elsewhere. So his idea is to reduce benefits and increase wages. Nice idea but in the private world there is a much better margin of income. Real Raises, bonuses, profit sharing etc. would certainly make it possible to function with fewer benefits but this state won’t ever get there. I could blog all day about my experiences in state government but…I won’t =)
So anyway …that’s what our latest discussions have been covering. Life’s an adventure….might as well make it a good one!
