The Office vs. Office Space

First, a link. I don't have cool links like Scott so you have to just wait till I find a good one. I have a del.icio list, but I don't know how to incorporate it yet and frankly, I hit the same 10 links each day anyway. The likelihood of me finding really cool things day after day is just nil.

That said, check Pandora. For those who use Launchcast (or I guess now Yahoo! Launch or whatever) it's just another flash based streaming music site, but it's based on the Music Genome Project which tries to break down music into genes (types of vocals, beats, what instruments are used, etc) and Pandora uses that data to select what type of music you might like to hear.

So I signed up, we'll see how good it is. I foresee many, many wasted hours on this.

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So I've been at my new job a week. Yesterday I got my first real list of tasks to complete by year end. So far so good. So I'm taking a break when I realize that by nature, people compare things to what they know. Ok, I do. I don't know what other people do.

So here's a list of things I noticed from my last job as compared to my new job. It's strictly data, I'm trying not to be biased about it. The act of noticing these things is bias enough, so I won't add comentary.

Old job catered lunch every day if you were on the lunch plan. For $2 a day you didn't have to go anywhere to get lunch and it was pretty decent selection. New job is downtown and closer to more restaurants, but no catering, unless you consider my plastic bag full of food and drink catering.

Old job was "staffed" with mostly young guys, very few women or anyone older than 55. New job is a more diverse group of people.

Old job had good toilet paper, but the paper towel dispenser never worked properly. New job has thin toilet paper, but a nicer sink.

Old job was way down on Loop 360 and there's only one way to get there from my house or the kids' school. New job is downtown and there are more choices on the commute.

Old job I had two 20" flat panels. New job I have one.

Old job I shared an office with two other people. New job, I have my own cubicle.

Old job had a window with a view of the parking garage. New job has a 7th story window view of the Wells Fargo building.

Old job I knew about 30% of the people there. New job I don't know anyone at all.

Old job I was paid for my select skills on the software and longevity. New job I'm paid on my marketable skills.

Old job I had a TV which got a few channels off the office satellite, mostly cable news. New job doesn't.

Old job had the same sense of security you'd get from walking down a dark alley in Detroit around Halloween. New job's sense of security is more a warm blanket on a sunny day.

Old job I was in charge of remote maintenance on 25+ machines. New job I'm in charge of some old tapes (so far.)

Old job I could wear jeans, tee shirts, sandles, shorts, baseball hats. New job I have to wear nice pants, dress shirts and nice shoes.

Old job the hours were flexible, as long as you got your work done. New job has a timesheet, but it's always the same hours.

Old job had inexpensive insurance. New job does not.

Old job had a standup cooler full of sports drinks, juices and sodas. New job has a coffee maker and a soda machine.

Old job had two ping-pong tables, foosball table, a PC with a joystick and some old arcade games, and a Quake install on the network for afternoon games. New job has a couple guys who've played video games before.

Old job, people came to me when they needed something creative or graphic. New job, they don't know about that yet.

Old job, there were maybe two places to have a happy hour. New job is near Sixth Street.

Old job I had 8 bosses over 6 years. There were two name changes. The company was bought and then sold. New job I'm guessing nothing will change before I die.

Old job I had 5 weeks of vacation per year, plus the honor system of sick time. New job I won't get any vacation until June 2006 and sick leave is accrued.

Both jobs are across the street from a Starbucks.

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If anyone reading this is good with basic, run o' da mill HTML and IIS hosting, I have a problem with my comic site. If you just type "polariscomics" and hit enter (Firefox and Opera will add the www.__.com) it takes you to www.polariscomics.com/ArtPort/ which doesn't exist on my server. I know I had my ftp site open for a while and some...friendly people used my server to host some movie files, but I've closed it down since then. Now it's acting wonky.

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