Feeling good about helping others

I hate it when good people get screwed. I hate that our company is about to outsource most of its artistic talent to India - to screw the lives of 22 people and their families because of the misguided belief that it will save them money. I hate that there are managers in our organisation that are so stubborn that they flat refuse to listen to logic and reason, yet when things fail because of their arrogance, there's never any accountability. They take the praise for anything that goes right that they didn't touch, but apportion blame to everyone else when something they did touch goes wrong. I've been in the business so long that I have a clear feel and knowledge for when things will work, and when they will fail, and I hate that managers with little experience in this business do not regard my experience as valuable, rather as arrogance. It's arrogant of me to say 'I told you so' when blindly following a project I told them five years ago would fail. It's arrogant of me to tell them if they'd listened to me they would have saved N-million dollars. It's arrogant of my to have more talent and more experience than most of those above me in the chain of command. I could change that I suppose. I could go from being an office drone to someone in power. But I'd make a horrible manager. I care about people and I want to deliver an excellent product to customers. I'm passionate about my job and it drives me crazy that there are others in the same office and company as me who think that the way to solve problems is to add more management and more process to a system that, to even the most casual observer, is plainly broken. This self-destroying system has caused me to melt down in a meeting last week when I was within 30 seconds of handing in my resignation. Now I'm not the most level-headed person, so that's hardly a surprise. When confronted with lunacy and mediocrity I come out fighting. But two of my colleagues who are so calm, so unflappable, so serene that they have until now been able to float above it all - also melted down in the last couple of weeks. That's the sign that something is badly wrong. When they come unglued, it's a bad omen. This mediocrity and 'screw you' attitude of companies isn't just present at my company either. It's everywhere. I hate it when I hear of people who are trying to do the right thing, and are being hindered at every step of the way because companies and organisations they rely on are dragging their heels, overcharging, and generally being a pain in the arse. A friend of mine has a couple of friends in just such a situation - they're starting a fledgling business and website and the company they contracted out to to design their site has screwed them from here to the east coast and back. So at least I feel good about one thing tonight - I've been able to offer this couple some much-wanted relief from their problems. It might turn into a side job for me, but at the very least I've been able to ensure that they now own and possess their own source code. Something their previous IT people have been unable to do. I was able to help out. That makes me feel good. For now.