Corporate Environment 2.0

I have been working IT now for about 1.5 years, "professionally"...meaning I've been getting paid for it. Before that, I worked in a corporate environment - suit and tie, cubicles, etc - for 2.5 years.

I realized in both jobs that I was the youngest person on the staff, and continue to be 4 years later...but with that in mind, there were some ideals in the corporate environment that I didn't jive well with...and working at the law school for the past 5 weeks has shown me how I work best - again.

My first IT job, I was allowed to come to work with jeans on (I eventually dressed better because it was what I wanted to do to stand out, and having just come from the corporate world, was what I was comfortable in, and all that I had). But during the last 5 weeks, my work environment has been completely different...

Normally I have a desk - it's in a bull-pen environment in the basement of the library, in an overly White-tinted room. I have a computer on the desk that is a stationary PC running the company's software, with the company's permissions in effect, and a chair to sit in. I stay in my area, and leave when I have menial tasks to do that I can't do from my desk. That is my life at the main campus.

Here at the law school, I don't have an office - I'm mobile. I don't have a desktop computer, I have my personal laptop running Linux, plugged into their network. I'm not bound by their software, nor their permissions. I can hit any server, including my desktop computer at the main campus just from my laptop. I don't have a chair - I have a couch; I sit in a comfortable couch, by a window. I don't get menial tasks - as my role over here is somewhat a consultant position to help with their projects. So once my project is done, I'm done for the day. When I can, I help fill in the gaps with their day-to-day processes and solve the tough problems with just minutes of thinking when the main campus has to come up with meetings about for weeks on end.

When I come to work, I don't dress in slacks and dress-shoes and a fancy shirt/tie...I wear Chucks, cargo pants, and a good-looking shirt. I look like a student, but often times have more permissions and know-how of the main campus and the network to do things that the folks over here haven't been able to do for lack of either know-how or permissions.

Here, I'm mobile, comfortable, useful, and free to solve the problems the way I know how. I'm not bound by the politics and petty rules put in place by people that want it "their way" and only their way. They say "well, we need to have a meeting" about something that we've been having meetings on for weeks, and I say "F your meetings, nothing gets done in them...this is what we're going to do. We'll call you when we're done and it works." And then we go do it, and get things done.

My biggest problem with companies is the lack of dedication to doing what gets the job done, and the emphasis that is put on playing the political bullshit with everyone. If it doesn't make sense when I'm asked to do something, I question it...if they can't provide a logical answer - there is a 50-50 chance of me either saying "all right, whatever, I'll do it, and we'll see if it works" or "f-that, I'm doing this because common sense says it should work."

As my coworker-supervisor here at the law school put it, he and I both have a low tolerance for stupidity, and subscribe to the Common Sense way of thinking.