I did that just the other day. I’d previously worked at this organization for nearly 10 years. I quit a couple of years ago to pursue my own endeavors and hopefully be successful ‘out on my own’. Well after trying for two years, getting by but by no means living rich – the opportunity presented itself to go back to work where I used to work. I was requested by name to go back and work on a new project. The caveat was that I had to help another group play catchup with their software development.
It’s a government organization and without getting into too many details – it was plainly and painfully obvious that I was spinning my wheels, accomplishing nothing, and getting flack for faults that are endemic to the organization. The managers involved were only interested in producing a happy statistical variance that made it appear they were actually producing a product. They have no concept that keeping the developers happy should be their number one job. Give us what we need to do our jobs, keep us happy and we can be very productive. I managed to suffer through the place for nearly 6 weeks. In that time I’d received no real input as to how to accomplish my tasking, multiple finger pointing regarding access issues etc. After that entire time I STILL didn’t even have access to email from my desk. Last Thursday I just packed my bag and walked out of the building.
I still can’t decide what to do next. They claim they’ll make it all better if I go back. I am somehow sure this won’t happen. My contract manager (yes I am/was a contractor) apparently can’t read and has annoyed me with his attitude, treating me as if I was a pluggable resource with as much respect as one might feel for a toaster. I have no tolerance for idiots and every time I walk into that building I feel my IQ drop 50 points.