# A unrelated rant - Corporate woes



## Aosto (Oct 12, 2012)

A year ago this month I left a company where I worked 6 years. During this time, I excelled and worked my way up to be the Subject Matter Expert for Voice Services in the Network Operation Center. I put 100% of my effort into learning everything I could, and producing usable results that helped not only the NOC, but other departments in the company. I built relationships with engineers and third party vendors. Created documentation and workflows to streamline troubleshooting. I also assisted with root cause analysis with regards to voice services. All this built upon by my knowledge and training from the engineers who built out the infrastructure.

I also built several applications to assist with reporting and troubleshooting. One of them being an application to validate modem and signals post install, useful for tech managers for quality assurance against their installers. It would query a modem from an existing tool, screen scrape the pertinent information, and display it in a easily readable table. This application was adapted to be used for post number migration following a move to bring Voice services in house. After the number was migrated, all modems would be loaded into my application and give a pass/fail if the modem was online and functioning. I aptly called it "The Validator." 

I also worked on learning the Media Gateways and Soft Switches that we used. I used this knowledge to build an application that would query their data bases and generate customer counts based on the ILEC Tandem or End Office Switch. This greatly improved reporting, especially in terms of gathering customer counts in the event of an outage. 

So what's my rant? One week before signing my offer letter with another company, the company held an awards ceremony. During the awards ceremony, a member of the Tools and Development team (my previous position, and my replacement) received an award. He was awarded $1000 and the achievement award for building the application I named "The Validator." This was my last straw with the company, this is the moment that I decided ultimately to accept the offer from the other company and move on. There had been other factors up to this point that led me to seek other opportunities, but this put the nail in the coffin so to speak. 
Up until that point, I had received no recognition for the hard work I put in. The only recognition I received, that I can see, was being passed up for an engineering position due to my value in my current position. 

Today I found out that the person who replaced me as the Voice SME (as it was titled) received $500 and an achievement award. You ask what this was for? It was for documentation and dedication he provided on the Voice platform. This in-of-itself is okay, no doubt he has released some useful information since my leaving. 
What upsets me the most is that I was there from the beginning. I played an enormous roll in the launch of the voice platform during it's migration. I put out the initial documentation, did the initial training, provided the initial tools and processes to be used. Yet I received no recognition for this work. No validation that the effort I put in was useful in anyway. In fact, when I put in my two weeks notice it seemed as if they didn't care. Just another person to replace was the feeling I got. 

I am beginning to see this trend no matter where I work. It seems those who put in the less effort are those who reep the benefits; get the recognition. I know I'm young, but my 7 short years in the corporate environment have jaded my once great drive for perfection. Going in, I held this grand goal to know and learn everything I possibly could. Now, I feel the urge to throw up my hands and say "What's the point?" 
What's the point in putting in all this effort just to be overlooked? 
Any advise for a wayward soul? I'm taking this on a personal level, but I feel I shouldn't.


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## Penpilot (Oct 12, 2012)

Squeaky wheel gets the the grease. That's my experience not just from the corporate environment. I'm holding my tongue here so as not to go off on a rant myself. People who do their job and let people know they're doing their job get recognized more. It's like that Seinfeld episode where George says all he has to do is walk around looking grumpy and people assume he's working hard. This may not be the case for everyone, but I've seen it a lot.


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## Sparkie (Oct 13, 2012)

Aosto said:


> It seems those who put in the less effort are those who reep the benefits; get the recognition.



Reep.  Reep?  Reep Reep!

Anyway, I can sympathize, especially with the above quote.  I faced a similar situation myself not long ago.

Hang in there, man.  I say it's okay to take it personally, if you use it to make you better at what you do.


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## CupofJoe (Oct 13, 2012)

I call it "shiny suite syndrome" - manages and bosses hirer / promote people that look and act like they do. It is trait nepotism... instead of favouring your gene pool you favour those that do as you do.


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## PaulineMRoss (Oct 13, 2012)

The only company where your talents will be fully appreciated is the one you own and run yourself. I've worked for other people and I've worked for myself, and I know which I prefer.


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## brokethepoint (Oct 15, 2012)

And so I write in hopes that one day I can lock myself in a room with a pot of coffee and a case of beer and write some more.

And if I hear someone else tell me that IT is and expense!


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