In which we find out why he's creating a blog at 6:00 AM

My job focuses a lot on projects, either ones initiated within the infrastructure groups, or through engagement by the various business areas.  As such, one weekend a month I end up having to work starting late Saturday until after-the-sun-comes-up Sunday.

Normally I don't mind it too much.  I work from home in comfy clothing and my comfy chair, so I can stay focused on my work without too much distraction, and it gives me an opportunity to goof around during my downtime, such as watching an entire season of a TV show on Netflix (currently loving on Leverage), or play an MMO for awhile (tonight I leveled my Conjurer from 22 to 28 mostly on FATEs in Eastern Shroud).

However it's incredibly frustrating how much politics goes into these events.  The amount of paperwork is mind boggling - I'm pretty sure several of these organizations were trained by the IRS.  However, there were several changes I wanted to make this weekend, but because the "powers that be" decided their changes were more important, mine were scuppered until next month.  So even though I'm not making any changes, I still have to be to validate that other people's work doesn't break the software I support.

My manager tried to sell this to me as "making sure I don't have to work this weekend", which is BS since I did have to work this weekend.  Pushing me out only means I have to work another weekend next month.  Two for one is not a positive thing when late nights are involved.  Plus I go oncall next week, which means I'm saddled to my phone while recovering from sleep deprivation, which will repeat again next month when I'm oncall after the late night work weekend.

What is most frustrating is that I'm nearly 20 years younger than the average age of the people in my work group.  There's pros: I work with people who have been in this industry for 20+ years and have already worked out all the kinks, so I learn from experienced professionals who have "been there done that".  A number have taken me under their wing, and it's been through their efforts that I've been able to succeed at my job.  The cons?  I'm treated like the young pup on the playground, and some of the old dogs don't want to share.  Others are threatened that I'm trying to show them up and refuse to back or support me for fear that they may lose their job.

This weekend was a prime example.  It didn't matter that I made my case that the changes were completely passive, and would not disrupt any other activities.  The fact that they have been in the testing environments for the last 6 months wasn't not accounted for.  What mattered is that someone else decided they didn't want anything I'm doing to mess up their projects, and seniority fell in their court.

Rage!!!

That's my rant.  Just let me do my job and go home.  I'm not looking to advance up the corporate ladder - I'll be quite happy spending the next 10-20 years as a senior engineer - and I have no desire to ever go into management in an IT organization.  I've been sitting here watching an IM chat for the last 9 hours waiting for someone to say "everything is good", after which I'm taking my caffeine crash to bed for the next 3 hours before the noise level of the house wakes me.  This is not an aspect of the job that I would consider desirable.