Suck It Up

For the past six months, myself and two other engineers at work have been working on a standalone product (it's more complicated than that, but 'standalone' fits the usage), implemented with a library and language we selected after arduous research. We were quite proud of the work we'd done, and eager to show it off and promote it within our division. Really only a couple of weeks work remained to finalize it.

Then two days ago news arrived that my boss' boss had heard of the technology we were using, and had, for want of a better word, an emotional response. My boss cautions me that rational discussion is not an option. So while the product is not cancelled, all our work has to be thrown out and we must start over, because this PHB overrode engineering decisions on the basis of some emotional problem.

To add insult to injury, the PHB held a project review yesterday, and his closing remarks were to urge us to work hard and quickly to beat the competition. It took all my restraint to avoid saying "except for the occasional six month irrational reschedule from above."

I know it is probably not wise to publish this, but since my weblog is really only read by my sister and a couple of friends, I thought I'd blow off steam. I'm mostly over the anger and astonishment. While the disgust and bitterness linger, I'm ready to suck it up and try implementing this thing in the PHB's platform-of-choice. Sometimes life is stupid.