A Week in the Life of a Techie....
Techie : A person relating to, or skilled in the use of technological devices, such as computers
That's the definition of a techie when you google out this word. But i'am sure that there's a lot more than that and in my view the above sentence doesn't fully explain what and who exactly a techie is.
So friends (i mean the ones that will read this crap, I know there's only one and that too i'll have to coax her to read this) that exactly is what my new post is all about. To share some serious and some downright stupid things and events that a techie goes through in a normal week
Okay !! So Introductions first, My name is Ab... or let it be. Well as you see if it could be you reading this post then so it can be others too. I mean people, whom i'am going to talk about in this post and lest they read it and then throw me out with the morning garbage, Hence i'll refrain from giving out my name. Coz leaving normally is far far better than getting kicked out of the company. So for this post lets call my self a Techie and a Software tester at that. And in any case i'am sure that a lot of people (the ones that spend more time in front of the PC than with their friends or families) would agree with me. So whats in a name anyways. And so here it goes...a day by day account of a week in the life of a techie.
MONDAYS
Now, i know that if there's one thing, that is inevitable in this world (as the wise men says), then that is death. But in this case i beg to differ, there's actually two, the first is death and the second is Mondays, Yeah..that's right Mondays, Just when you think that the weekend is around the corner and its relaxing, happy times now...it suddenly gets over and its right on your face with big Signboard " Life a'int going to be that easy, I'am here to screw you " and even if for some reason if you don't happen to realize that its Monday (Which is remotely possible only if you are dead or lying on the Hospital Bed with all your bones broken and simply staring at the ceiling), other people will surely make you realize that. Its that grumpy feeling on everyone's face. Faces as if some one has jus woken them up from deep sleep by throwing ice cold water on their faces.
The mood at the office too is completely lazied and lethargic. I myself have to literally push myself to get up and somehow manage to keep myself awake. Work literally goes for a toss and its like all the Clients were actually waiting for you. All mails and everything else says that you've enjoyed your life enough and its pay back time now. Anyways Mondays goes off like this only....Work, Work and more work till you drown yourself into it...and the only saving grace or a happy moment is when you finally leave for home..
TUESDAYS
Just another groggy day, probably its just the second day of the week that is why, anyways i walk into the office at 9.05 am and then look into my right, and there she is staring at the her screen, completely oblivious of the fact that i have walked in. Yes !! of all the other things that happen in the office, sometimes Shit (read love) happens too, Hmmmmm, Okays...I know that i'am drifting now and before this post turns out to be a script for Aashiqui 3, I'd better get back. So 9.30 it is now and and soon every one starts coming in. Conversation starts and work too. I've never been the one to follow quotes and inspirational lines by famous people, but the one that i do follow is of Murphy's. Well and as said that " if anything has to go wrong, then it will go wrong anyways" or to put it in other words that if "you are bound to get screwed, you will be for sure, and today is that day". So as the previous day passed with tonnes of work been put on me, so its quite human that u will forget something, but then its for sane people to understand. and to prove my point read the below conversation with my team lead.
TL : Did u complete the task, that was assigned to you yesterday ?
Me : Yes i did...and completed
TL : And the demo, with the client
Me : aaaa....ya done
TL : thinks for a second....Okays and did u reply to the client that i had asked you to ?
Me : errrr....aaaa...no, Oh sorry i forgot,
TL : frowns really bad and puts on a face as if smelled a dead rat, that has choked on its own puke..
TL : I told you yesterday itself that you had to reply to that mail, and you didn't
Me : extremely sorry, but i really forgot, there were so many other things, work that i was tied up to yesterday, that i just forgot
TL : deadly silence for a 5 seconds, and when finally when she couldn't find anything else to say, she unleashes the Brahmastra on me.
TL : And why did u forget ???
Clean Bold...!!!
Now, how in this f#@%*ing world, am i supposed to answer this, If only i would have remembered, would't i have had replied to that client email in the first place. Anyways i stand there for sometime with a 12'o clock expression on my face, put up a donkey face and act as if someone who has just shat in his pants and then move on. See that's the point i was trying to make above. All the work that you had done goes down the drain, with just one error of yours. so that's that and the day ends soon. Life and work moves on. I discuss this with my friends. Give out my choicest of expletives (of course in Hindi, you don't get that gist if its not in Hindi) and finally feel much better. and so this is how the day ends.
WEDNESDAY
9.00 Am it is, I arrive 5 minutes early to my usual log in time and find her staring at the her screen. Its either her screen or her mobile phone always. I wont be surprised if someday a hand comes out of the computer screen and completely devours her ....sigh. Projects and its clients in our company or for that matter in any other company can be very demanding and many times leaves you completely exhausted mentally and physically both..Its a common norm that no matter how many projects you are handling simultaneously, for them its like theirs is the only project that you are working on and one issue/ mail that u miss and they wont leave any stone unturned to make your life more hell than it already is. So after you miss out on those issues and the usual verbal rant which you get to hear from your TL and and the project managers (Its actually a chain where in the Project manager screws the TL first, and then your TL gets down to you, and if your luck is really lying somewhere down the office shit hole, then it could be the entire management screwing you together). The best part is that after they are done ripping you is when the other side of them comes out. Yes they do have it and trust me this is the more annoying part and than when they actually rip you. This is the time when they make you realize the importance of the issue that you missed, and you being a such a senior person handling all the issues and so well versed with the project has to understand the gravity of it and blah blah blah blah......in other words they screw you more but only this time in sugar coated words.And then there's always these stupid mindless appreciation mails which in all probability will go unnoticed if its the client appreciating you. Its another thing when the onsite client writes an annoying mail that time everyone, even the office boy or the sweeper comes to know about it. But still they make you realize that you were the superhero of all this and make you rejoice in the useless appreciation mails send over to you by client or team manager. And thus the day goes on and ends like this...
THURSDAY
Almost half the week has passed now.You start to get bored with the work assigned to you as it is repetitive. You know before hand as to what you have to do today. So now that you have become senior, that is when the team lead and the management wants you to start training /mentoring juniors which simply means a way to avoid headache for the senior management. Life does not look all that rosy as it used to look before joining. Then there's the usual, tried and tested lollipop of being transferred onsite which will always keep delaying. Your project manager and the team leads keep nagging and pushing you to complete the tasks and go live as soon as possible. hell with the bugs that are still unresolved as long as it does not impact the system too badly, we'll always go live with it. Its a different thing if the client reports the same issue that you had reported, then all hell breaks loose and you become the sole center of attraction with the inevitable question as to "why you didn't get the issue resolved from the developers"
Trust me ,If there is anything that that is worth coming to the office, something that you makes you happy then that it has to be your friends or colleagues that you work with in the office. No matter how bad your day goes, come lunch time and its all leg pulling and the usual banter. No matter how much ever beaten you are, they always make you feel that you are the only stud. You know that its all fake but then anyways, it definitely makes you feel better.
FRIDAY
Fridays...Well as most of the entire stupid week has gone by and has made you lethargic to the extent that you can sleep off the moment you sit on your chair and open your PC. Fridays are the days when we at our company give the opportunity to our clients to have some fun though at our expense. Yes !! that's the day when we send out a weekly report to all our clients mentioning the issues or requirements that we had worked on in the past week. In other words, we provide them more ammunition to bombard our a#&%s and to vent out all their anger on us, ranging from why this issue was not done and why it took so long and any damn stupid reason. Anyways the mood in the office is a bit relaxed, may be the weekend is round the corner is whats making people feel more relaxed.
Of all the people that you work along with in the office, the maximum time that you spend are with your co workers that are sitting close/ next to you. I would say that i'am fortunate enough to have two very sweet females ( i have to say this as of the two, i'll ask one of them to read this so had to write something nice.......hehehehe, just joking...they are really sweet) sitting besides me. i have my work station between them. So if there's any conversation going between the two it goes through me and yes talks could range from anything like about the new kajal, lipstick, hair gloss and what not and that's the time when i find my headphones most useful and i carry on with my work. Well coming back to work, I don't know why for some reason whenever there's any developer writing the code, they can take ages to write that, but after they are done, the tester has to test it immediately, so immediate as if the client's rear is on fire and it can be doused only when you are done testing. That's what bugs me completely. And to top it all most of the times, all these so called urgent things come up just when you are about to leave. And as its believed that the creators are more important than the ones who are testing it. So all the programmers have already left and i'am here alone sitting in front of my PC, making sure that issue is actually fixed, who cares even if it isn't, our developers can always come and fix it tomorrow, lest i had left for home without testing it, i guess it would have caused a tsunami. Any ways iam done testing and finally reporting to the client and leave at 7.45, a sweet 1.15 minutes after my official logout time and just then i receive a forwarded message on whtsapp from Mr. murthy (infosys waale) about how an employee is incompetent if he/ she cannot complete a day's work in the stipulated office hours....Talk about timing !!!
SATURDAY
Yes, I'am working on a Saturday, There are some companies where you don't have all Saturdays off and ours is one such company. But nevertheless working on a Saturday is far better than working on any other day, the sole respite being that tomorrow is an off and that gets your battery charged to the maximum. No matter how grueling your day goes or whether you are actually enjoying your work or not, One set of people who always seem to find something good and extraordinarily positive about you are your parents, Come any looser, bloody hypocrite uncle or aunty who's sole purpose is to derive sadistic pleasure by seeing or hearing some one else's misery tales or more important how their son or daughter is performing (read earning) less than theirs. So whenever we have any such stupid uncle and aunty coming to our place and asking my dad as to what i do (actually the hidden question is how much i earn, hell with whatever i do), is when my dad's chest proudly swells up and and he comes of with this proud one liner " Bhai hamara ladka toh IT mein hai". Its a different thing that he soon changes the topic to anything like politics or BMC water not being supplied in the other colony when the inevitable question is asked as to how much i earn (Yes, company walo, if not for me, mere dad ke liye toh meri salary badha do). But then u always have such uncle and aunty's whom you can never avoid. Come Saturdays and mommy and daddy dearest are the ones who want to know as to how the week went and what all things i do and its the same answer from me that as usual Kaam tha, Its not that i had never tried my to explain my parents as to what exactly i do, i did once but then 2 minutes into my explanation i found my dad completely blank faced and found him more interested in watching Rajat sharma gruelling Rakhi sawant, and that's when i actually gave up. Anyways, thanks to all developers they have left now. I have finally finished my work now and just then remember Mr. murthy's forwarded message from the previous day and forward it to my other IT friends (devilish smile...)
And so that's how the entire the week ends
SUNDAY
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................need i say more
Ciao....
Techie : A person relating to, or skilled in the use of technological devices, such as computers
That's the definition of a techie when you google out this word. But i'am sure that there's a lot more than that and in my view the above sentence doesn't fully explain what and who exactly a techie is.
So friends (i mean the ones that will read this crap, I know there's only one and that too i'll have to coax her to read this) that exactly is what my new post is all about. To share some serious and some downright stupid things and events that a techie goes through in a normal week
Okay !! So Introductions first, My name is Ab... or let it be. Well as you see if it could be you reading this post then so it can be others too. I mean people, whom i'am going to talk about in this post and lest they read it and then throw me out with the morning garbage, Hence i'll refrain from giving out my name. Coz leaving normally is far far better than getting kicked out of the company. So for this post lets call my self a Techie and a Software tester at that. And in any case i'am sure that a lot of people (the ones that spend more time in front of the PC than with their friends or families) would agree with me. So whats in a name anyways. And so here it goes...a day by day account of a week in the life of a techie.
MONDAYS
Now, i know that if there's one thing, that is inevitable in this world (as the wise men says), then that is death. But in this case i beg to differ, there's actually two, the first is death and the second is Mondays, Yeah..that's right Mondays, Just when you think that the weekend is around the corner and its relaxing, happy times now...it suddenly gets over and its right on your face with big Signboard " Life a'int going to be that easy, I'am here to screw you " and even if for some reason if you don't happen to realize that its Monday (Which is remotely possible only if you are dead or lying on the Hospital Bed with all your bones broken and simply staring at the ceiling), other people will surely make you realize that. Its that grumpy feeling on everyone's face. Faces as if some one has jus woken them up from deep sleep by throwing ice cold water on their faces.
The mood at the office too is completely lazied and lethargic. I myself have to literally push myself to get up and somehow manage to keep myself awake. Work literally goes for a toss and its like all the Clients were actually waiting for you. All mails and everything else says that you've enjoyed your life enough and its pay back time now. Anyways Mondays goes off like this only....Work, Work and more work till you drown yourself into it...and the only saving grace or a happy moment is when you finally leave for home..
TUESDAYS
Just another groggy day, probably its just the second day of the week that is why, anyways i walk into the office at 9.05 am and then look into my right, and there she is staring at the her screen, completely oblivious of the fact that i have walked in. Yes !! of all the other things that happen in the office, sometimes Shit (read love) happens too, Hmmmmm, Okays...I know that i'am drifting now and before this post turns out to be a script for Aashiqui 3, I'd better get back. So 9.30 it is now and and soon every one starts coming in. Conversation starts and work too. I've never been the one to follow quotes and inspirational lines by famous people, but the one that i do follow is of Murphy's. Well and as said that " if anything has to go wrong, then it will go wrong anyways" or to put it in other words that if "you are bound to get screwed, you will be for sure, and today is that day". So as the previous day passed with tonnes of work been put on me, so its quite human that u will forget something, but then its for sane people to understand. and to prove my point read the below conversation with my team lead.
TL : Did u complete the task, that was assigned to you yesterday ?
Me : Yes i did...and completed
TL : And the demo, with the client
Me : aaaa....ya done
TL : thinks for a second....Okays and did u reply to the client that i had asked you to ?
Me : errrr....aaaa...no, Oh sorry i forgot,
TL : frowns really bad and puts on a face as if smelled a dead rat, that has choked on its own puke..
TL : I told you yesterday itself that you had to reply to that mail, and you didn't
Me : extremely sorry, but i really forgot, there were so many other things, work that i was tied up to yesterday, that i just forgot
TL : deadly silence for a 5 seconds, and when finally when she couldn't find anything else to say, she unleashes the Brahmastra on me.
TL : And why did u forget ???
Clean Bold...!!!
Now, how in this f#@%*ing world, am i supposed to answer this, If only i would have remembered, would't i have had replied to that client email in the first place. Anyways i stand there for sometime with a 12'o clock expression on my face, put up a donkey face and act as if someone who has just shat in his pants and then move on. See that's the point i was trying to make above. All the work that you had done goes down the drain, with just one error of yours. so that's that and the day ends soon. Life and work moves on. I discuss this with my friends. Give out my choicest of expletives (of course in Hindi, you don't get that gist if its not in Hindi) and finally feel much better. and so this is how the day ends.
WEDNESDAY
9.00 Am it is, I arrive 5 minutes early to my usual log in time and find her staring at the her screen. Its either her screen or her mobile phone always. I wont be surprised if someday a hand comes out of the computer screen and completely devours her ....sigh. Projects and its clients in our company or for that matter in any other company can be very demanding and many times leaves you completely exhausted mentally and physically both..Its a common norm that no matter how many projects you are handling simultaneously, for them its like theirs is the only project that you are working on and one issue/ mail that u miss and they wont leave any stone unturned to make your life more hell than it already is. So after you miss out on those issues and the usual verbal rant which you get to hear from your TL and and the project managers (Its actually a chain where in the Project manager screws the TL first, and then your TL gets down to you, and if your luck is really lying somewhere down the office shit hole, then it could be the entire management screwing you together). The best part is that after they are done ripping you is when the other side of them comes out. Yes they do have it and trust me this is the more annoying part and than when they actually rip you. This is the time when they make you realize the importance of the issue that you missed, and you being a such a senior person handling all the issues and so well versed with the project has to understand the gravity of it and blah blah blah blah......in other words they screw you more but only this time in sugar coated words.And then there's always these stupid mindless appreciation mails which in all probability will go unnoticed if its the client appreciating you. Its another thing when the onsite client writes an annoying mail that time everyone, even the office boy or the sweeper comes to know about it. But still they make you realize that you were the superhero of all this and make you rejoice in the useless appreciation mails send over to you by client or team manager. And thus the day goes on and ends like this...
THURSDAY
Almost half the week has passed now.You start to get bored with the work assigned to you as it is repetitive. You know before hand as to what you have to do today. So now that you have become senior, that is when the team lead and the management wants you to start training /mentoring juniors which simply means a way to avoid headache for the senior management. Life does not look all that rosy as it used to look before joining. Then there's the usual, tried and tested lollipop of being transferred onsite which will always keep delaying. Your project manager and the team leads keep nagging and pushing you to complete the tasks and go live as soon as possible. hell with the bugs that are still unresolved as long as it does not impact the system too badly, we'll always go live with it. Its a different thing if the client reports the same issue that you had reported, then all hell breaks loose and you become the sole center of attraction with the inevitable question as to "why you didn't get the issue resolved from the developers"
Trust me ,If there is anything that that is worth coming to the office, something that you makes you happy then that it has to be your friends or colleagues that you work with in the office. No matter how bad your day goes, come lunch time and its all leg pulling and the usual banter. No matter how much ever beaten you are, they always make you feel that you are the only stud. You know that its all fake but then anyways, it definitely makes you feel better.
FRIDAY
Fridays...Well as most of the entire stupid week has gone by and has made you lethargic to the extent that you can sleep off the moment you sit on your chair and open your PC. Fridays are the days when we at our company give the opportunity to our clients to have some fun though at our expense. Yes !! that's the day when we send out a weekly report to all our clients mentioning the issues or requirements that we had worked on in the past week. In other words, we provide them more ammunition to bombard our a#&%s and to vent out all their anger on us, ranging from why this issue was not done and why it took so long and any damn stupid reason. Anyways the mood in the office is a bit relaxed, may be the weekend is round the corner is whats making people feel more relaxed.
Of all the people that you work along with in the office, the maximum time that you spend are with your co workers that are sitting close/ next to you. I would say that i'am fortunate enough to have two very sweet females ( i have to say this as of the two, i'll ask one of them to read this so had to write something nice.......hehehehe, just joking...they are really sweet) sitting besides me. i have my work station between them. So if there's any conversation going between the two it goes through me and yes talks could range from anything like about the new kajal, lipstick, hair gloss and what not and that's the time when i find my headphones most useful and i carry on with my work. Well coming back to work, I don't know why for some reason whenever there's any developer writing the code, they can take ages to write that, but after they are done, the tester has to test it immediately, so immediate as if the client's rear is on fire and it can be doused only when you are done testing. That's what bugs me completely. And to top it all most of the times, all these so called urgent things come up just when you are about to leave. And as its believed that the creators are more important than the ones who are testing it. So all the programmers have already left and i'am here alone sitting in front of my PC, making sure that issue is actually fixed, who cares even if it isn't, our developers can always come and fix it tomorrow, lest i had left for home without testing it, i guess it would have caused a tsunami. Any ways iam done testing and finally reporting to the client and leave at 7.45, a sweet 1.15 minutes after my official logout time and just then i receive a forwarded message on whtsapp from Mr. murthy (infosys waale) about how an employee is incompetent if he/ she cannot complete a day's work in the stipulated office hours....Talk about timing !!!
SATURDAY
Yes, I'am working on a Saturday, There are some companies where you don't have all Saturdays off and ours is one such company. But nevertheless working on a Saturday is far better than working on any other day, the sole respite being that tomorrow is an off and that gets your battery charged to the maximum. No matter how grueling your day goes or whether you are actually enjoying your work or not, One set of people who always seem to find something good and extraordinarily positive about you are your parents, Come any looser, bloody hypocrite uncle or aunty who's sole purpose is to derive sadistic pleasure by seeing or hearing some one else's misery tales or more important how their son or daughter is performing (read earning) less than theirs. So whenever we have any such stupid uncle and aunty coming to our place and asking my dad as to what i do (actually the hidden question is how much i earn, hell with whatever i do), is when my dad's chest proudly swells up and and he comes of with this proud one liner " Bhai hamara ladka toh IT mein hai". Its a different thing that he soon changes the topic to anything like politics or BMC water not being supplied in the other colony when the inevitable question is asked as to how much i earn (Yes, company walo, if not for me, mere dad ke liye toh meri salary badha do). But then u always have such uncle and aunty's whom you can never avoid. Come Saturdays and mommy and daddy dearest are the ones who want to know as to how the week went and what all things i do and its the same answer from me that as usual Kaam tha, Its not that i had never tried my to explain my parents as to what exactly i do, i did once but then 2 minutes into my explanation i found my dad completely blank faced and found him more interested in watching Rajat sharma gruelling Rakhi sawant, and that's when i actually gave up. Anyways, thanks to all developers they have left now. I have finally finished my work now and just then remember Mr. murthy's forwarded message from the previous day and forward it to my other IT friends (devilish smile...)
And so that's how the entire the week ends
SUNDAY
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................need i say more
Ciao....
No comments:
Post a Comment