paying the bills doesn't make you free - Thursday August 12 1999    

It was one of those crazy workdays. In the morning, all 20 web servers were maxing out in the aftermath of an early-morning installation of a major new communication tool. I was trying to help Eric the Web Developer root out the problem, but by lunch we had to pull the plug on the whole thing. It was a major disappointment, the crowning whimper of numerous 20 hour days that Eric had put in on this accursed project. But it was instructive, and during a lunch break at Pick Up Sticks we discussed what this failure said about the whole system under which we toil.

In the afternoon, a core group of engineers were called to a downstairs conference room to discuss our gripes about the new project-based management system which frames our bonus structure. I had a rather angry pre-written monologue on the subject, but the drunken vitriol I had as I wrote it last night was no longer present when the time came to deliver it. So I was nothing but sweet as I said my piece about the system. I said the bonuses were insulting and that there was clearly not enough cash being pumped into developing the product. But I laughed at the Grand Pooh Bah's jokes and cracked a few of my own, and they weren't even subversive. It's hard to complain (or even be cynical) about a session of "open communication." By the end of the meeting we were all promised $1000 bonuses as a token of respect for our hard work. I'll believe it when I see my check.