Cold And Depressing

I still cannot seem to get warm. Two days of colder than normal temps have really put a damper on things. I normally have no problems nuking my lunch in the microwave oven at work and then driving to a nearby park to eat it, but the past two days have not left me with the desire go. In stead, I have been eating lunch in the break room (it has one table and 4 chairs). I hate the break room.

After lunch today I walked down to the now empty NOC (Network Operations Center for you non-IT folk) and looked at it. Depressing. At one time it had 15 people working in it around the clock monitoring network conditions around the world. That function has been outsourced and off shored and the room is empty. I have a picture of it at home and if I remember I will post it.

I stood in the room looking at the large, lifeless displays on the wall, remembering the days when this room was alive. One TV had CNN on and the other had the weather channel while the two projection TV screens had a map of the wold with all the network connections on it. I spent a lot of long hours...nights, weekends and holidays in that room. I really hated the job but it was important. Too bad it was so poorly managed...it may have been fun if it wasn't.

Wandered from desk to desk fondly remembering where everyone sat. The desks are all empty now. All the PC's, phones, and monitors are gone. The war rooms (small conference rooms in the NOC) have been converted into junk storage rooms. The nice tables and chairs removed to some unknown location.

Back when I worked in the NOC, each time someone quit or was let go I moved to get a better spot on the floor. The desired place to be was the back row. The room was designed in a terrace/stadium style with each row a little higher than the one in front of it. I started in the front, on the bottom row but eventually secured a spot on the coveted upper deck.

The only access to our data center was through the NOC...and that was by design. Being set up that way we saw everyone who came to and from the data center. The manager said it was a "line of defense" for the servers. Woo hoo.

I escaped the NOC before it was officially shut down. I went on to do some project management and was moved to an office near the middle of the building, about halfway between the NOC and the front desk. Eventually everyone was either laid off, quit, or found other jobs within IT. The last two to leave were laid off and had been working nights not because we needed them to, but because they were the original night shift guys and did not want to move over to day shift. It really did not matter when they worked...the NOC has not been used as such in over a year. How they were able to stay on as long as they did amazes me.

I looked at the digital world clocks on the wall and realized that it was bout time to go back to my desk and wait for my phone to ring. A quick pit stop at the bathroom as the only thing left to do before I subjected myself to another (un)healthy dose of reality.

As I go back and read this I realize it is one of the more depressing/somber entries I have written in awhile. Blame that on my lack of sleep. I was up until midnight last night, mostly because of an emergency church metting, and had to get up at 5 AM. Needless to say I am a bit tired.