posted
I had a fairly unplesant weekend, wondering whether or not I was about to be fired. My boss was out of town last week, attending Bush's inaguration, and during his absence a report came in from the IT division that controls the firewall that I had been surfing the hell out of some site called Sakeriver. A number of my coworkers were tasked with investigating me (because that's part of their job--the people tasking them with it didn't know that they were my co-workers). The whole thing was treated in a very hush-hush way, and I'd have known nothing about it if a couple of them, with whom I'm friends, hadn't confided in me about the situation. The quiet way that the thing was being handled, and the bloodthirsty approach that the guy left in charge was taking toward it (while pretending to suddenly befriend me--this would have aroused my suspicions even if I hadn't been warned of what was going down) led me to believe that there was a good chance that I was going to be made an example of. I was warned by my friends that if I wanted to keep my job I shouldn't visit Sakeriver again (and one of them told me that it was a cool name for a site, just FYI Mike) So, I spent the weekend playing the "Oh #$%&, what the daisy am I going to do for money" game.
I was really dreading going into work this morning, so I went in early--when I feel scared about something I tend to face it and kind of swim upstream into it, which I suppose is a way of exerting a certain degree of control over the situation. My boss wasn't there yet though, so that kind of defeated the purpose of going in at that time, but oh well. Anyway, when he finally did come in he just walked into my cube, looked at me for about 20 seconds with his head cocked and a half smile on his face, and finally said "Yeah, what do you say you *don't* do that again?" I kind of laughed and nodded, and he walked out.
From my friends I found out that he had, indeed, deflected an attempt to have me canned (it's nice having a powerful boss who is also a cool person), and was pissed off at the guy who been coordinating things in our dept. for the way he'd handled it.
So, long story short, I have a job, and I'm not going to be hitting Sakeriver from work anymore. Until things cool down I'm going to be avoiding all recreational surfing, so that means you won't be seeing so much of me at Hatrack or The Cactus either.
This is why I'm not going to be running a game for the time being--I know for a fact that I don't have enough time to run one in the evenings right now. That may be changing in a month or two, so the game is on hold rather than being cancelled. The Overlook, Segrada, Khadanira, and Kalevan campaigns are going slowly enough at the moment that I think I'll be able to keep up with them in the evenings. If this proves not to be the case I'll be at least temporarily handing Osred and/or Artavazdes off to celia, assuming that that's okay with Slash and Raja (and assuming that Slash hasn't done Osred in in today's Overlook turn, which I have yet to get to in my inbox). I haven't really thought about who I think would do a good job with Buchek and Surin. Hopefully I won't have to give up any of them, but if I do are there any people who would like to play either of those two?
[Edited for vulgarity, which is okay at Sakeriver but not so much here]
posted
I'm sorry to be seeing less of you around, but I'm even happier that you don't have to find a new job.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I'll still be around in the evenings though, and frankly, I'm astounded at how much more I was able to accomplish at work today without Hatrack and the satellites to turn to. I think I've been pouring more energy into this place than I was aware of. I found myself approaching problems at work in a much more creative way than I have for some time, and as I tended to my Domino servers I found my thoughts naturally running toward programming, and I even spent a little time puzzling out how at commands work, which is the sort of thing I haven't bothered with in a long time.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Well, don't throw out the character sheet just yet--there is a decent chance that the game will go forward after all--just not right this minute.
A Hatrack hiatus can definitely be a good thing--there's more than a little truth in what Amka has said about such things in the past.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I'll see if I can dig one up, but with any luck somebody more skilled with the Hatrack search feature will beat me to it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I wrote a novel while I was off hatrack. I probably should quit again so I can get the thing edited.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
And while I'm being slow, I'm not real clear on why what you did was a firing offense, Noemon. I mean, did you use Nefarious Means to get around the firewall? Or were you just visiting sites that weren't work related? If the former, I guess I could see how that maybe, possibly might be reason to fire you. If the latter, then what kind of nazi death camp do you work for? Jebus.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: So, long story short, I have a job, and I'm not going to be hitting Sakeriver from work anymore. Until things cool down I'm going to be avoiding all recreational surfing, so that means you won't be seeing so much of me at Hatrack or The Cactus either.
You will be missed.
That is *so* cool that you didn't lose your job and that your boss stuck up for you! The cold fear that rushes over you when you fear being fired, especially in an ugly way, that is an awful, awful feeling.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Well Storm, I agree that firing me would have been out of proportion with the offense, but big bureaucratic machines can be less than sensible sometimes.
Somehow their logs showed that in one month I'd spent 600 hours on Sakeriver. Given that there were only 744 hours in the month in question that would have required quite a bit of overtime, of course, but they didn't seem to realize that. Plus, if they did much poking around they probably realized that a fair amount of what I was doing on Sakeriver was email. They recently forbade the use of webmail, and managed to block most of it at the firewall. I was able to slip through with Sakeriver's mail system. So yeah, I was definitely going against their expressly stated wishes, even if I wasn't spending 80% of the month of December surfing around.
They've also put measures in place to cull all incoming and outgoing email that contains swear words or other phrases that they deem inappropriate. No delivery failure messages to clue you in to the fact that your message didn't get where it was going--just *paff* and it's gone.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Thanks bev! I'll still be around some though. It's no coincidence that on my first day at work without Hatrack I'm up until almost 1 AM posting. Not that I'll be making a habit of this. I don't do so well when I'm sleep deprived.
Yeah, that rush of cold is horrible, isn't it? It's a lot like falling into icy water, really. It is great to have a boss that protects the people who work for him.
Really, it's because of him and the majority of my coworkers that I haven't gone looking for a better job. The work isn't especially exciting, and the over all company isn't so hot, but my immediate department is great (well, except for that one guy).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
(reposted from Sakeriver, as I don't know whether you'd be checking here or there first) ----------------------------------
Oh, Noemon. I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
It sounds like you are dealing with it in a calm and sensible manner. I know it must have been internally tumultuous for a while, but yu pulled through.
Are you adverse to being sent personal emails, so long as you have several weeks to respond? i would love to catch up with you, but I'll wait until you let me know if that would make things more difficult for you.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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quote: Somehow their logs showed that in one month I'd spent 600 hours on Sakeriver. Given that there were only 744 hours in the month in question that would have required quite a bit of overtime, of course, but they didn't seem to realize that. Plus, if they did much poking around they probably realized that a fair amount of what I was doing on Sakeriver was email. They recently forbade the use of webmail, and managed to block most of it at the firewall. I was able to slip through with Sakeriver's mail system. So yeah, I was definitely going against their expressly stated wishes, even if I wasn't spending 80% of the month of December surfing around.
I'm glad you're not fired, but maybe this is a signal you should find employment elsewhere.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Yeah Storm, I'm thinking that may be the case.
Sara, sure, mail away! May take me a little while to get a chance to respond, but I'd love some email!
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posted
I'm glad to hear that you still have a job. I'm presently playing the I don't have enough work game and money doesn't stretch as well as I'd like for it to.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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