For a number of years I was working at a place where … let me give you an example:

  • please write this software
  • before you write this software you need to talk to x
  • no, you mustn’t talk to x, i’ll talk to x for you
  • oh, sorry i forgot
  • oh, sorry i forgot
  • you’re useless you didn’t write the software

Another example:

image: escher blummen

  • The service being managed can go down for hours, sometimes days;
  • I was given a written warning for attempting to predict and prevent such problems.

Anyway, a consequence was my self–confidence took a knock. I decided I needed to build something myself, without someone with power preventing it happening.

Why did i stay there?

  • brexit: i had to stay in Luxembourg to get an EU nationality to restore those freedoms and rights that the brexiteers stole from me and many millions of my fellow Brits. My profession depends on those rights. Lux is small, and there’s not so much work around for my skills;
  • My ex–employers kindly paid for my language lessons and allowed me space to get the appropriate bits and pieces for the nationality;
  • I liked most of the people I was working with, some of whom were pretty good;
  • I have to stay in Lux for ten years to get a proper pension.

Moving job would be problematic.

I was pretty much completely wasted in the job. Like many places, the people I worked for used their power to block rather than enable, mostly from ignorance. In this case it was very subtle, and it wasn’t obvious that I was being blocked until a number of years had passed.

I must emphasise that I was not blameless. I was put in a software architect role to prepare a new version of the primary product. The fact that this was not mentioned this to me for quite some time after I was in the role (months) was not good. I should never have been put in the role in the first place. However, when I was finally informed, I gave the wrong reaction: I said I could do it, when I should have said I couldn’t.

I’ve always automatically presumed that someone in a position of authority has the knowledge to do their job. It’s a cultural thing; I don’t like to insult people by presuming they’re crap at their job. I’ve been burnt a few times by this error of mine, and I have now been burnt again. I decided years ago that if I was going to work for an idiot, it might as well be me. I’d lost sight of that decision. I had to repair my self–confidence.

Oh, and this website has more than 300,000 pages which really do need checking. None of the tools I’ve found online to do so are up to it.