23 October 2001
Last year: The clerk was kindof scary, though.
It's my own damn fault, and there's no point in trying to say otherwise.
There was a discussion in the staff meeting, about a month ago. "We must cross-train!" demanded the manager. "We'll happily learn whatever you want us to learn," returned the developers, "as long as we do it on the clock!:" The manager growled, "We don't have that kind of budget!"
It went 'round and 'round for far longer than it should have. Finally, the manager said, "For the next meeting, I want every person in this room to think of a way we can cross-train without overstraining the budgets!"
Well, there isn't one, and we all know that. But we did our best. The meeting was cancelled, but we were told to e-mail in our suggestions for cross-training.
My suggestion: As part of the project, build in time for an alternate development team to test it. It doesn't actually save on the budget, but since each project needs to be tested anyway, it does mean that the cross-training serves some additional purpose.
I never heard another word of it. I was hoping my suggestion had been dismissed - as a rule, developers (myself included) hate doing testing.
But - alas - no. This morning, I found an e-mail from my manager telling me that my new project, starting today (since the old one is done) will be to test someone else's project. A couple of hours base training from that project's developer, to tell me how the project is supposed to work; and a couple of hours to develop a formal test plan. And the news that next week, I'll be testing another product.
I hate testing.
I certainly hope I'm not going to be the only one tapped like this. Two years ago, I turned down a much more lucrative position than this one because it was going to be primarily testing.
Ah, well, I guess I'll see how it goes.
K.T. got her settlement check from her accident yesterday. After the lawyer and her insurance company each took their bites out of the check, I have to say it sounded almost pathetically small - especially considering the pain she still suffers.
On the other hand, it was enough to equal the take-home pay for a fair salary, so it's not exactly a pittance. I think I'm just astonished at the difference between the amount the other insurance company paid and the amount K.T. actually got to keep.
At any rate, she's taking a bunch of us out to dinner tonight at a nice restaurant, which I'm looking forward to.
(And in addition to enjoying the food and the company, it will be good to have something to do to take my mind off the fact that I won't have my computer. Sometime this morning, it's going in the box and getting shipped out.)
Last night, Matt and I bought Hallowe'en candy - some Snickers and Milky Way minis, and a bag of candy corn for ourselves, and I got a bag of caramels for the office.
This morning, I heard on the radio that some counties are thinking of cancelling Hallowe'en trick-or-treating this year.
GAH!
Word of the Day:
omnibus - 1: of, relating to, or providing for many things at once; 2: containing or including many items
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Kris' afghan