So here's what's happened to me at work over the last two days.

Tuesday night I'm in class, and my phone beeps with voicemail. I don't get good reception in the classroom, that's why it didn't ring. I checked caller ID to see if I could figure out who it was, but it didn't register. So I step out to check it. Bridget doesn't call me during class unless it's important, so I figured there could be some emergency. This was about 8:15.

The message was from my CEO's assistant (to be referred to as Asst from hence forth). It said, "CEO is having a problem with his computer at home, please call him at [phone number]." His home computer is a home office computer, so I am responsible for it, but not knowing what the problem actually is is frustrating.

I troubled over this for a moment before I decided that I was not going to call him back. I sent Asst an email by Blackberry to find out what the problem was, to state that I wouldn't be in a position to do anything until morning, and that if it was a real emergency, I could do something about it at ~11 PM that night (after getting out of class and home and greeting my family).

Then mail started arriving on my Blackberry. Turns out the issue was with a program called Earth Viewer.

Let me explain what Earth Viewer is. It's a subscription service which allows you to view 3D images of the earth. From any distance. In fly-by if you want. The images are assembled from satellites and aircraft with cameras on them. The images are not realtime; rather they are between 6 months and 2 years old.

Asst also sent an email to me and the other guy here in the office to try and get someone to take care of this. She reported that CEO got an error message about not being able to connect to the server. Other Guy replied with the information that his home phone lines were out of service, so he wouldn't be able to do anything. Asst replied saying that she had called me and CTO, and hopefully one of us would call CEO back.

At this point, I'm livid. I reply to Asst and Other Guy and add CTO, saying that this is not at all business related, nor is it an emergency, and that no one should be calling my personal cell phone under these circumstances, nor should questions about non-work related things ever reach me after hours.

CTO calls me about an hour later. He'd been in meetings in the city till late. My first instinct was to tell him that this should wait until morning. While he agreed with everything I said, he told me that I should have put that to him and not to Asst. Fine. He related that CEO wants everyone to be at his beck and call 24/7 -- I interrupted, saying that I would be glad to do that, as long as I'm getting paid. CTO also related to me that Asst had called his house and talked to his wife. He also said that I didn't want to lose my job over something like this.

Whoa, hold on. I stopped him. "You mean to say I could get fired for this?" No, he said, but there could certainly be issues is Asst didn't handle things properly, and decided to just tell CEO that I wouldn't help him.

At this point, I'm thinking that Asst, who's fairly green in handling CEO, is the stupid one. Don't get me wrong, she is stupid, as evidenced by the fact that she forwarded my mildly scathing email to CEO.

Next day, Asst starts talking to me, and she's as pissed off about this as everyone is. Apparently, when CEO called her at 7PM, she asked him if the issue was personal of company. "Company," he said. And he kept pushing her to get someone get someone get someone.

(Sidebar: the actual issue was that the EarthViewer server was unavailable. Nothing to do with the company network at all.)

Later in the day, about 4:30, I get email from CEO saying that it was work related, that he was entertaining fancy-pants clients at his house, that "We were discussing a multi million dollar transaction that will benefit our shareholders.," and that "If our employment system works for you great, if not, let me know."

Apparently, the business purpose of the expensive toy (which I also found out was paid for by the company, and we're buying him a new computer for the office office so he can use it here, never mind the fact that it's going to hog all the bandwidth on the T1 and cause employees who are trying to get to the CRM and accounting systems to have trouble) was to be something to impress other important people with. By that logic, his house and fleet of expensive cars should be paid for and maintained on the company dime. What if he'd wanted to show off one of his cars, and it wouldn't start? Does he have a mechanic on call 24/7, and how much does the company pay for that?

After I forwarded CEO's threat to CTO, he called me again to reassure me that everything would be just fine, that he would handle it. We keep getting pushed by CEO to cut costs and watch budgets. We also get prodded for ways to make this company the best company to work for. Hell, our tagline is all about helping clients keep their best people.

So at this point, I have to think that either the company is trying to keep its best people, and I am not one; or that the company is not trying to keep its best people and it's all just a big lie.

Either way, I'm looking for another job. I haven't lost this one, and I doubt I will. But CEO wanted me to let him know if the "employment system" worked for me or not. I'll tell him with my resignation. Besides which, I was wholly unaware when I took this job that part of my job description was to be the CEO's bitch. If I knew that ahead of time, I would have insisted on a much higher salary. They wouldn't have given it to me, and I would have taken the job anyway, so it's really a moot point.

Oh yeah, when Caden woke up this morning, Bridget sent me in to take care of him. Which is fine by me - I get to spend some time with my boy while my wife sleeps, and I get up on time to get ready and leave for work. As soon as he saw me, he smiled. Then fussed. Then smiled again. Then fussed again. While I was changing him, he was both extraordinarily happy and completely pissed off at the same time. What a riot.

So I put him in his bouncy seat show, which he usually likes. He liked it well enough to pay attention and be quiet, but he was still a little fidgety. Once I got out of the shower, I picked him up and he calmed right down. Almost went to sleep. It was time for me to go to work, so I gave him to Bridget and they both went back to sleep in the bed.

Bridget reports that Caden has begin punching things, most specifically the octopus which is one of the hanging toys in his little activity center thingy. She also reports that he has been saying "goo." All of these things happen during the day when I am at work and class.

When I got home last night, it was time to put him down to sleep. I wanted to do it, and he was fine with that, so long as he could see his mom. As soon as she stepped out of view, he began squirming and screaming. She came back in and took him and he was fine again. After she got him settled down, I took him again and he woke up fussy once more. But I did finally get him to relax and he was mostly asleep. Then he was wide awake again, and Bridget took him back. I was satisfied by that time that he didn't hate me, so that was okay.