Work, work, work

Big day at work today. It's Friday and I've spent the whole day in meetings to reconfigure our plans for getting the doc done in time to meet the yet-again rescheduled software release. Our first target was for October. Then it was moved to January '09, now it's moved back to late Oct/early November. I have a phenomenal team of folks working for me and they are really making some huge improvements in what we deliver to our customers, but the job is daunting and time is fast running out. Unfortunately, the scope of what we deliver has changed dramatically over the months, and one of my employees is on an extended disability leave. Not fun. But we'll get done what we can and move on to the next release. Documenting for enterprise-wide software systems is never simple. Yet it pays the bills and most of the time, I have fun and get a rather big kick out of working with the folks I work with. So, rather than face traffic, I'm blogging! Actually, traffic isn't all that bad. So, I won't complain. I just knew that if I didn't blog now, I might not get to it for a few days. Sometimes, over the weekend, I forget to log on! (HORRORS!)

Working for HP Software (http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/software.html) is almost like working for Uncle Sam. It's interesting to me that I began my career working within a huge megabureaucratic environment, and if I play my cards right, I might get to end my career working in something similar. I know that folks who run this place would probably be offended if they realized that I compare the two. However, the processes in both places, for the most part, take more time than the results of those processes. We have a gazillion levels of management. (I think there's 7 or 8 levels between me and the CEO.) Most of my support from HR and IT comes from faceless emails or voices on the phone from faraway, exotic places (actually, that wasn't happening when I worked for the gov't!) Other than that, one big difference is that when I worked for Uncle Sam, I got wage increases more often! :-)

Nonetheless, I do like my work and the folks I work with, so I'm basically a happy camper. If the powers that be align, I could envision myself staying here until I retire. Of course, after being laid off by BMC (http://www.bmc.com/) back in 2003, I take each day as a gift and have no expectations for security. Just wishes. It's interesting to me that BMC is the #1 prime competitor for the product I now work on! Amazing how the world works.

As you can see in the picture, I work in a cube farm. First time ever in my life! Guess I was lucky it didn't happen earlier. It's better and worse than I imagined. You can see from the picture that it's certainly not extravagant! But, it does lend itself to keeping one's nose clean. Everyone knows everything about everybody. HP at least puts EVERYONE in a cube--even directors and VPs! Not sure about our CEO.

So, that's today's bit of thought. As I sign off, I happen to look up at a quotation from the Daily Word (http://www.dailyword.org/) that I have on my bulletin board: "I am a willing participant in change, a process of unfolding good." I'll keep that in mind the next time they change the release date.