KillingtonZone.com

MarieM wrote:

BigKahuna13 wrote:Pizza. The pizza in Vermont sucks.

Used to work in a pizzaria when I was in HS. Could teach you how to make pies and heros.

Nothing like a cash business.........

Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

Good pizza, cheesesteaks, panzorattis (sp?), and wings are needed in the Rut and K areas. I'm willing to bet a place that specializes in all four are a very slim minority and add to those a delivery service, and that slim minority slips to nill.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

SkiDork wrote:I actually love IT, I just don't like the lack of any sort of intergrity by the companies in giving a $hit about the employees.

Not sure what else I'd like to do, except maybe just be a ski bum?

This is something I was faced with and I'm still not sure if I made the right choice. As you know I worked for SAP America ... great company, powerful, dynamic, room to move, etc. I could have stayed there and converted from Intern to contractor and then presumably to full-time employee. I could have made $15K more than I do today, but similar to you, I felt a disconnect between myself, some of the teams I worked on, and upper-management. I felt that SAP didn't give two shits about the contracters and interns ... other than a large bonus each year, it didn't appear SAP was too concerned with their f/t tech employees either.

I took a job at a smaller firm (still a fortune 1000 company) took a cut in pay, but a 'plus' in benefits. My manager is a great guy and the management here is great. I've talked to the CIO several times and the director of IT works at my location once a week. It's great to be known and be able to have such a dialog with the powerful people in the company. The downside is I took a cut in pay to get what I want. At the same time however, I have flexible hours and a great boss that lets me take off whenever I need it.

I'm sure you could get a job that is more focused on its employees, but it won't come without some consequences.

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

BigKahuna13 wrote:Pizza. The pizza in Vermont sucks.

Used to work in a pizzaria when I was in HS. Could teach you how to make pies and heros.

Nothing like a cash business.........

Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

You mean kept their fingers out of the till when he was only in the shop "here and there?"

Yup...cash business with absentee management can often mean "one for you and one for me." Back to that whole stress thing.

MarieM wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

BigKahuna13 wrote:Pizza. The pizza in Vermont sucks.

Used to work in a pizzaria when I was in HS. Could teach you how to make pies and heros.

Nothing like a cash business.........

Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

You mean kept their fingers out of the till when he was only in the shop "here and there?"

Yup...cash business with absentee management can often mean "one for you and one for me." Back to that whole stress thing.

You and me might be different and you might stress a lot no matter what, but a good deal of things can be done to reduce and minimize stress and losses. Being an IT guy, it's quite easy to reduce the stress by adding some audit functionality to your Pizza IS system

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

BigKahuna13 wrote:Pizza. The pizza in Vermont sucks.

Used to work in a pizzaria when I was in HS. Could teach you how to make pies and heros.

Nothing like a cash business.........

Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

You mean kept their fingers out of the till when he was only in the shop "here and there?"

Yup...cash business with absentee management can often mean "one for you and one for me." Back to that whole stress thing.

You and me might be different and you might stress a lot no matter what, but a good deal of things can be done to reduce and minimize stress and losses. Being an IT guy, it's quite easy to reduce the stress by adding some audit functionality to your Pizza IS system

LOL...okay...thank you for the "a good deal of things can be done to reduce stress and losses." When you've got a few years of running a cash business that's open from 5 in the morning til 10 at night 7 days a week under your belt, you can tell me about a few of those things.

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

BigKahuna13 wrote:Pizza. The pizza in Vermont sucks.

Used to work in a pizzaria when I was in HS. Could teach you how to make pies and heros.

Nothing like a cash business.........

Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

You mean kept their fingers out of the till when he was only in the shop "here and there?"

Yup...cash business with absentee management can often mean "one for you and one for me." Back to that whole stress thing.

You and me might be different and you might stress a lot no matter what, but a good deal of things can be done to reduce and minimize stress and losses. Being an IT guy, it's quite easy to reduce the stress by adding some audit functionality to your Pizza IS system

Dude - the whole idea behind a cash business is that there's no paper (or in this case electrons) generated that can bite you in the ass some years down the road.

BigKahuna13 wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

MarieM wrote: Been there, done that. The hours suck; it sucks to ask/tell/require people to work on Sundays...lots of stress.

The key is running/opening a business and finding a good manager who can run things so you're not working 24/7. I worked at a pizza shop and I was close with the owner, he's just step back and let his managers do the work while he came in here and there. Great guy and huge bonuses kept the staff at bay.

You mean kept their fingers out of the till when he was only in the shop "here and there?"

Yup...cash business with absentee management can often mean "one for you and one for me." Back to that whole stress thing.

You and me might be different and you might stress a lot no matter what, but a good deal of things can be done to reduce and minimize stress and losses. Being an IT guy, it's quite easy to reduce the stress by adding some audit functionality to your Pizza IS system

Dude - the whole idea behind a cash business is that there's no paper (or in this case electrons) generated that can bite you in the ass some years down the road.

I guess if I was in that business I'd run things differently

And you might have trouble finding employees because everyone wants to work off the books...

And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Ouch...sounds like a great "Office Space" and "Dilbert" environment going on there. They really seem to care huh? Oh well, I'm sure they're just paying you for taking up space anyways. It's not like consultants ever do any real work anyways, right?

(btw...consultants built a business I worked for and then were summarily sent packing.)

SkiDork wrote:And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Wow, that's f*** terrible.

Sorry to hear about this Dork!

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

SkiDork wrote:And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Wow, that's f*** terrible.

Sorry to hear about this Dork!

It isn't such a big deal about not gettin the mug - it's just going over there and waiting in line, then being told I'm not on the list. Sorta embarrassing

SkiDork wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

SkiDork wrote:And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Wow, that's f*** terrible.

Sorry to hear about this Dork!

It isn't such a big deal about not gettin the mug - it's just going over there and waiting in line, then being told I'm not on the list. Sorta embarrassing

I didn't get one either and I am a f**king employee. What I get for having the temerity to be on vacation during the 91% celebration.

Seriously though, in many shops consultants are treated differently. I consulted to one place where I wasn't invited to staff meetings. How they expected me to work effectively as part of their team while excluding me from meetings was beyond me.

With few exceptions - training be one of them - I've always tried to treat my consultants as employees.

SkiDork wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

SkiDork wrote:And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Wow, that's f*** terrible.

Sorry to hear about this Dork!

It isn't such a big deal about not gettin the mug - it's just going over there and waiting in line, then being told I'm not on the list. Sorta embarrassing

I know what you mean. I had similar embarrassing moments as an intern.

I had stayed at SAP as an intern longer then anyone that I knew (13 months which is unusual for an intern)

Normally there is a going away get together ... I left without a peep. All the people I had befriended and helped, noda, no farwells, no good-byes, not even an e-mail (except from a few people outside my dept). Sometimes people just suck, regardless of the industry we're in.

One thing SAP did do ... always included everyone in company events/celebrations/hand-outs. I remember at our huge x-mas party I ran into the janitor, a security guy, and several contractors and consultants.

BigKahuna13 wrote:

SkiDork wrote:

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:

SkiDork wrote:And here's just another example of the low life scurrying rat they consider consultants around here: The company has this big celebration camapign about how they got 91% customer satisfaction on the latest independant survey. Rallies, giveaways etc.

This morning some guy goes around to every cube and says "go get your 91% coffee mug over by Elizabeths office, she's handing them out"

Of course, I go over there and my name wasn't on the list to get one. So I scurry back to my cube and look for more morsels to srounge off the floor...

Wow, that's f*** terrible.

Sorry to hear about this Dork!

It isn't such a big deal about not gettin the mug - it's just going over there and waiting in line, then being told I'm not on the list. Sorta embarrassing

I didn't get one either and I am a f**king employee. What I get for having the temerity to be on vacation during the 91% celebration.

Seriously though, in many shops consultants are treated differently. I consulted to one place where I wasn't invited to staff meetings. How they expected me to work effectively as part of their team while excluding me from meetings was beyond me.

With few exceptions - training be one of them - I've always tried to treat my consultants as employees.

They were giving them out today

91% customer satisfaction?

that would be dismal for a lot of industries..