Brain Damage...

Let me start by saying that I love my job. I love the company I work for and I especially enjoy working for my current boss.

But...DAMN!!! I am working on a new project that should win me a Karp Prize for logic when I am done. By 2:00 p.m. I have to stick corks in my ears to keep my melted brain from oozing out. Even then, I have noticed by the end of the day my head feels lighter and my hats are becoming too big.

I work for a home building company and we are redesigning our purchasing system. People with much larger heads than mine designed the original system, but it doesn't do even half of what we really want it to do. Nobody else makes a system that is even close so we are altering our own.

Now I get to tell the programmers the new magic that I want the system to do and oh yeah, I also have to work out the logic for them so they know how to program it. I have been working on this project for over a year now. First we had to conceptualize what we wanted to do, then we had to meet with everyone so they could bless it, then we had to meet with a subgroup to ferret out the details and now that we are in programming I feel almost like we are back on square one with everyone peeing on it.

I really love the concept part and don't mind presenting to groups over and over but when it comes to the end where you have to answer a gazillion questions about every little thing, I start to get stressed out. It is especially difficult that we are all in different offices so I can't even draw them a map of where I want them to go. It is all verbal.

Then add the pilot city that is already trying to use the programs we have pushed out and one of the people keeps asking for things that are incredibly mundane and not important to the functionality of anything - at all... It would be okay if it were just one or two things, but every five minutes gets old pretty fast. "Can you make this report automatically fill in X and Y so I don't have to type it every time". The answer is Yes, I can, but more importantly Will I? Hmmm...right after I thump you on your noggin. (I am sensing a bit of frustration here...)

On top of it, our main programmer will be on vacation for a week so we are furiously trying to cram everything we need into this week. I feel sorry for her...well, just a little bit, not really!

Now that I have gotten that out of my system, I am actually smiling! Thanks Blogger!!!