not hard work but weird work

The oft-thought-of KAH would say "We may work hard but the work we do is not hard work." I assume he was thinking of his brother toiling away in the plastics factory while we wore our virtual white collars to the office.

I think of that quote often as I get irritated with my commute and the occasional turkey trying to get to work faster and sooner than anyone else. I think of that quote when I'm working on a problem that's intellectually challenging (or maybe it's just me who's intellectually challenged).

But I must say that even if I don't do "hard work," my work has taken a definite turn for the weird lately. I can't say a whole lot right now (ref: dooce, dooced). But I will say this.

Up until I left for our trip, things were humming along nicely with the occasional, predictable bump in the road. That's software development for you. You hit a bump, you figure out how to address it, and you keep going.

While I was traveling, we moved into our new offices (yeah! shorter commute, though still long, and still including afore-mentioned turkeys). And upon my return, that's when all the weirdness broke out.

I came back to discover that our company's plans (though not its product direction) had changed completely. What had been a fairly sure thing when I left has been split up, rearranged, and rescheduled. That was a little surprising, though perhaps fairly predictable. There was a new guy at a fairly high level whom I've now seen but not met (I'm scheduled to meet him this week, over a month after he arrived). Yesterday, through whispered conversations, I heard that there have been some departures and there will be more.

At past companies, these sorts of changes have been promptly and clearly communicated -- you're called into a meeting and someone "in charge" announces the change. They patiently answer questions without providing any real content until everyone gets bored and is ready to leave. It's a known and comforting ritual.

At this company, it's all top-secret. If you work for a communicative boss who keeps you informed, you're lucky. But there seems to be no coordinated plan to talk to worker-bees. That means that you need to stay plugged into the gossip mill and you need to pick your rumor-mongers carefully.

It's not necessarily any better than the content-free update meetings, but it is weirder in that it's so unfamiliar. I sit, I observe, I go to work, I come home, and I continue to think about it.