Gotta get out!

"So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life. "

-Peter Gibbons

Here was what I actually did last Thursday afternoon. I was sitting in a meeting where I had no responsibility whatsoever, growing more and more bored, when I decided it would be fun to sketch a portrait of the guy sitting across from me. 5 minutes later I had a drawing that to my amazement actually looked like the guy. I was so proud of it that I scanned it and spent the rest of the afternoon emailing it to people and accepting their praise and laughter.

So in an apparent effort to top that, today I rolled in to the office 30 minutes late, took a 2 hour lunch at a nice French restaurant and charged it to the company, and then left 90 minutes early, making sure to leave my computer and desk lights on so that anyone walking by would think I was still there but just away from my desk. I'd say in a given week, I do about 15 minutes of real, actual work. I wonder how many bored 20-something cubicle clowns compare their life to Office Space every day?

I'm in desperate need of a change, since I clearly don't give a shit about this job any more. Its been 2 or 3 weeks since I got the non-negotiable offer letter from HR and learned that I'd be making less money in 2005 than I did in 2004 and would once again have the job title that I had when I started working here 2.5 years ago and had been twice "promoted" beyond. Ever since then I've pretty much given up on this gig. I just have to smile until my yearly bonus payout in 3 weeks.

My career options at that point:

1. Try to get a job with our competitors. I'd probably make more money and have more responsibility, but its just another 9-5 in a world that ultimately doesn't interest me.
2. Try to find some other job in something totally different. Ideally I'd find a small company where I can make a huge impact really quickly and use more of what I have to offer. The problem with this is finding the right situation is damn hard, and then convincing them that I'm right for them might be pretty hard also. I have a few years with a highly respected company, so that will perhaps count for something.
3. Go back to school. School is great, but I would have to be damn sure its what I want to commit 5 years of opportunity cost to getting a PhD.
4. Play poker professionally. I'm fairly confident, but far from certain that I could make a decent living from poker at least for a few years. This is obviously extremely high risk, not to mention socially challenging, but there isn't a better time in my life to try to "scratch that itch." I could always try it for a few months and if it doesn't work out just retreat to one of the other options.
5. Keep limping along where I am until I figure out something better.

Or various combinations of these. Melanie (who deserves an entire post sometime soon) had a quote on her desk that was something to the effect of: "If everyone waited to act until they knew their actions could be perfect, nothing would ever get done." If I subscribe to that way of thinking, I should probably scratch #5 off the list.

This isn't something I'm going to figure out tonight, but here is what I can do:

• Search through job listings and other sources to see what opportunities are out there
• Put together my resume
• Start to more seriously investigate school options
• Do some details financial planning for the poker option (which I've done to some extent, and might address in a post on my other blog)
• Talk to my friends at the local companies and see what my options are
• Keep writing about things and organizing my thoughts
• Two chicks at the same time!**
  

That's all for now. Its 5:30 and I'd just now be leaving the office, so I consider this already a victory for my personal productivity.

Oh, and I think I might forget my plans to keep this just to myself. I got nothing to hide, especially not from the people who would actually take any time to sit there and read what I write. So I probably will put a link to this one in my IM profile too. Maybe I'll write more later about that decision.

** CLARIFICATION: "Two chicks at the same time" is a quote from Office Space, a movie that I had already referenced several times as a running theme to this entry. As the final paragraph hints, when I started this blog it was only seen by a few close friends, most of whom would have recognized this memorable punchline. Like 90% of what I write, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, which I now feel the need to make clear since my readership has expanded to people who might be on the far side of the sarchasm. Believe it or not, even I have limits to my tastelessness, and I doubt I'd ever be so boorish as to write about something as private as my sex life in a public forum.