once again, my job has driven me to drink. i'm in the middle of beer number five tonight (what better way to enjoy the baseball all-star game?), so forgive me any lack of logic or sanity here. i don't think i'm very good at my job anymore. it's not that i've lost my touch with Pro/E, it's just that i've lost my touch with customers. i'm starting to think that they deserve better than me. like today, a complete dickhead calls up. and he is, too... a dick. because he has an expectation of our software that cannot possibly be met, and expects our manpower to make up for his lack of willingness to either learn or put in the effort to construct what he needs. and i was mean to him. i was a fucking asshole. not overtly, mind you, but i wasn't being a pushover, you know? i wasn't going to blindly promise something i couldn't deliver; i wanted him to clearly define what he had, why it was wrong, and what he deemed was 'right'. he called 3 more times today, and each time, i was more and more strident with him. when he was wrong, i told it to him lacking in no detail, with great emphasis on why he should have known he was. when i conceded to look at his data i carefully explained what he had to send, and what he had to tell me, so that i could help him. now, none of this is inappropriate, indeed it's all really necessary, but let me be frank. i was a jerk about it. this is one of our 'gold-level' customers, to boot; i should be kissing his ass, but i was patronizing, and bordering on sarcastic.
now i'm a little worried. i've been doing this job for about 3 years now, and i was good at it. it's not inappropriate to say that i'm a fucking bad-ass at pro/e. but i think i've lost my ability to be solicitous of the jackasses that i talk to. these people pay us good money (actually, their companies pay us a shitload of money, but they think it's their money, so it's the same difference), and while they get someone technically proficient when they talk to me, i'm not so sure i'm a good people person anymore. i'm sick to death of smiling and saying 'thank you sir, may i have another' when people dump their problems in my lap, and make them my problem. it ain't my damn problem; they just don't do their goddamn work, and when things go to shit, they get us to bail their sorry asses out. that ain't what they pay PTC for, and PTC sure as hell doesn't pay me enough to do their work. so, after 3 years, i've got to start looking for another job. i really do, but i sort of wonder, what am i qualified for? hell, i don't know... all i know is i'm burnt. stick a fucking fork in me. shit, well, thanks for listening to me whine.