But no one said it'd be this hard
No one said it would be easy
No one thought we'd come this far
"No One Said It Would Be Easy"
by Sheryl Crow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Af1qeouMc
I wish it hadn't been this hard but it has.
I came to this new job at Jackson Hewitt (JH) back in February and wanted to understand it all in an instant (or at least six months), thought with my many years of IT experience it should be easy, but I've learned that some things you have to experience for yourself in order to understand.
The concept of a "season" for software is new to me and what it boils down to is our busiest time of year, making sure the tax software is bug-free(ish) and ready to be used by all the tax preparers across the country, is right around Thanksgiving - and Christmas - and New Years. No one gets to take time off during this period, totally unlike what I experienced in Milwaukee at Northwestern Mutual. There, things would go dead for a good 2-3 weeks and if you were so unlucky as to have no vacation left for the year (always the case with me), you were left in a virtual dead zone at work; it got real quiet and various projects usually screeched to a halt because people often weren't around that you needed to move things forward.
I was trying to figure out why it felt so different at work, at JH, this time of year ("the most wonderful time of year" after all), and it finally dawned on me that it's because everyone is there at work, pulling together and working hard and trying to make often ridiculous deadlines. It was downright festive the day before the long Christmas weekend (when the office does *close* for two days: today, Xmas Eve day and of course Xmas day as well), with people bringing in cakes & cookies and giving out Xmas cards, candy and gift cards. It was so much fun!
I say that JH "closes" for Christmas only because so many people keep right on working, either remotely or coming into the office like I did today for a bit. If only to "lead by example" for my team: a group of 4 full-time and 8 seasonal testers who work their asses off, even while some have a slightly disgruntled attitude that I try to just sear away with my positive sunny outlook on a daily basis. :) I inherited A LOT of crap (and not all just personnel-related), when I took on the role of Team Lead back in August, but I am doing my best to handle it. I wrote on FaceBook to a co-worker who recently left JH in large part because of how hard it was to be on a team that was so dysfunctional "today I found myself saying 'I'm staying positive even if it KILLS me...and it just might' LOL."
And it is not just the difficulty of trying to uplift a team caught in downward spiral of sinking morale and overall negativity, it's been learning how to be effective at testing tax software - not as easy as it might sound! Due to various factors that I wouldn't bore my worst enemy with, this job has challenged all my well-founded ideas of how to test software, how to manage code, how to manage change to the software and how to document the requirements and determine "expected results" or behavior of said software. It has been a HARD learning process! And at many times I have wanted to give up, to flee, to find another job or just to quit even without another job to go to. That's how bad it got for me, emotionally, at times.
Yet, as I have done already with so many difficult situations in my life, I persisted. And slowly but surely I feel like I have *gotten* it...the rhythm of the work, the patterns of the software (my husband often says that so much of working in IT is about "pattern recognition"), the organization of the VOLUMES of test cases that have to be completed. I think I sort of see a method to the "madness" as I thought it all was when I inherited it, even while I recognize possible opportunities for changing it, to make it better, more sane.
And I recently found myself writing a co-worker from my last job this email: "But, strangely, I'm actually pretty happy at my work now, it's a recent feeling so cross fingers for me - but it feels like it's kinda paying off, thanks to some tenaciousness on my part and then just the company finally meeting me half-way with the promotion/raise for all the additional responsibilities of Team Lead (which turns out to be a lot more like a real manager than I realized when I agreed to take it!). So, despite A LOT of difficulties (and my copious complaints that you got to hear at our Girls-Night-Out), at the outset, I'm really enjoying it now. I work with great people and, as usual, that makes all the difference..."
I worked 55 hours the week I wrote that, I think, coming into the office both Saturday and Sunday because the work goes so much easier with two monitors (which I don't have at home), and that garnered some respect from my micro-managey kind of harsh boss. He seems to have softened recently whether because of my efforts or that I complained about him or because he is terrified we might all quit and he'll have to do the work himself! :) Not really sure, but either way I will take it.
So, all in all - rough year! Not sorry to see it go...but happy I'm still here, on this planet first & foremost and at my current job. Here's to 2013 going just a little more smoothly, at least in the area of work. The rest of life will probably still be as challenging as ever but "no one said it would be easy." Merry Christmas everyone!
I wish it hadn't been this hard but it has.
I came to this new job at Jackson Hewitt (JH) back in February and wanted to understand it all in an instant (or at least six months), thought with my many years of IT experience it should be easy, but I've learned that some things you have to experience for yourself in order to understand.
The concept of a "season" for software is new to me and what it boils down to is our busiest time of year, making sure the tax software is bug-free(ish) and ready to be used by all the tax preparers across the country, is right around Thanksgiving - and Christmas - and New Years. No one gets to take time off during this period, totally unlike what I experienced in Milwaukee at Northwestern Mutual. There, things would go dead for a good 2-3 weeks and if you were so unlucky as to have no vacation left for the year (always the case with me), you were left in a virtual dead zone at work; it got real quiet and various projects usually screeched to a halt because people often weren't around that you needed to move things forward.
I was trying to figure out why it felt so different at work, at JH, this time of year ("the most wonderful time of year" after all), and it finally dawned on me that it's because everyone is there at work, pulling together and working hard and trying to make often ridiculous deadlines. It was downright festive the day before the long Christmas weekend (when the office does *close* for two days: today, Xmas Eve day and of course Xmas day as well), with people bringing in cakes & cookies and giving out Xmas cards, candy and gift cards. It was so much fun!
I say that JH "closes" for Christmas only because so many people keep right on working, either remotely or coming into the office like I did today for a bit. If only to "lead by example" for my team: a group of 4 full-time and 8 seasonal testers who work their asses off, even while some have a slightly disgruntled attitude that I try to just sear away with my positive sunny outlook on a daily basis. :) I inherited A LOT of crap (and not all just personnel-related), when I took on the role of Team Lead back in August, but I am doing my best to handle it. I wrote on FaceBook to a co-worker who recently left JH in large part because of how hard it was to be on a team that was so dysfunctional "today I found myself saying 'I'm staying positive even if it KILLS me...and it just might' LOL."
And it is not just the difficulty of trying to uplift a team caught in downward spiral of sinking morale and overall negativity, it's been learning how to be effective at testing tax software - not as easy as it might sound! Due to various factors that I wouldn't bore my worst enemy with, this job has challenged all my well-founded ideas of how to test software, how to manage code, how to manage change to the software and how to document the requirements and determine "expected results" or behavior of said software. It has been a HARD learning process! And at many times I have wanted to give up, to flee, to find another job or just to quit even without another job to go to. That's how bad it got for me, emotionally, at times.
Yet, as I have done already with so many difficult situations in my life, I persisted. And slowly but surely I feel like I have *gotten* it...the rhythm of the work, the patterns of the software (my husband often says that so much of working in IT is about "pattern recognition"), the organization of the VOLUMES of test cases that have to be completed. I think I sort of see a method to the "madness" as I thought it all was when I inherited it, even while I recognize possible opportunities for changing it, to make it better, more sane.
And I recently found myself writing a co-worker from my last job this email: "But, strangely, I'm actually pretty happy at my work now, it's a recent feeling so cross fingers for me - but it feels like it's kinda paying off, thanks to some tenaciousness on my part and then just the company finally meeting me half-way with the promotion/raise for all the additional responsibilities of Team Lead (which turns out to be a lot more like a real manager than I realized when I agreed to take it!). So, despite A LOT of difficulties (and my copious complaints that you got to hear at our Girls-Night-Out), at the outset, I'm really enjoying it now. I work with great people and, as usual, that makes all the difference..."
I worked 55 hours the week I wrote that, I think, coming into the office both Saturday and Sunday because the work goes so much easier with two monitors (which I don't have at home), and that garnered some respect from my micro-managey kind of harsh boss. He seems to have softened recently whether because of my efforts or that I complained about him or because he is terrified we might all quit and he'll have to do the work himself! :) Not really sure, but either way I will take it.
So, all in all - rough year! Not sorry to see it go...but happy I'm still here, on this planet first & foremost and at my current job. Here's to 2013 going just a little more smoothly, at least in the area of work. The rest of life will probably still be as challenging as ever but "no one said it would be easy." Merry Christmas everyone!
