My Virtual Soap Box
Why I Hate Hops
Hops international is my former employer. Things ended badly. Badly to the point of provoking a hatred of the burning white hot intensity of a thousand exploding suns.
When I first had the idea for this page I thought that Hops and the people that run it were the devil incarnate, and I was going to let everyone know about it.Time has past. I've mellowed a bit since January. Its time to move on, and let the hate go.
But I haven't moved on completely yet. So I decided to go ahead with a limited version of my original vision. What follows is the message I sent to my friends following my resignation to let them know what happened.
A note on honesty: Everything in the following descriptions (my own and others) is completely true. I have no reason to lie, and those involved will be happy to corroborate my story (like Michael for example).
Eight people, nearly the entire development staff resigned in a period of roughly 8 weeks. With statistics like that, I don't need to make things up.
From: mparets
To: Bill, Marion, Marion (home), Steve, Angie, Rick, Travis, Nick,
Workykins, Larrykins, Michael, Melody, Carlos Work, Carlos,
Jonathan, Linda, Me, Parets, Yvonne, Paul, Scott, Troy,
dyuen@hops.com, grogers@hops.com, ddupless@hops.com,
jspinner@hops.com, jroberts@hops.com, lbeller@hops.com,
gdangelo@hops.com, gosteen@hops.com, ogonzale@hops.com,
jmoses@hops.com, jdiaz@hops.com, skohl@hops.com, cknorr@hops.com
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 18:24:03 PST
Subject: Alice Doesn't live here anymore.
Message-ID: <19970202.182308.13830.0.mparets@juno.com>
This message is to inform everyone that I resigned my position at hops international at roughly 12 noon, Friday January 31, 1997. I can still be reached at the e-mail addresses listed below.
I'm happy to share the story of events leading up to my resignation with anyone who is interested.
:)And hear is the reply I sent my sister when asked what happened:
From: mparets
To: LindaNikon@aol.com
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 21:47:04 PST
Subject: Re: Alice Doesn't live here anymore.
Message-ID: <19970202.214613.13830.6.mparets@juno.com>
>YAY!!!!! What happened?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!
What happened? Hmm... I guess the readers digest version goes something like this:
The dark days start at the beginning of December, when we find out that Harvey (the owner) has been tapping the front surveillance camera, and has the receptionist scanning the tapes to make sure we are all working at least 40 hours. This is not the kind of thing a salaried employee wants to hear.
Then after being told for the last 6 months by simion (the CEO), and john (the head of development) that I'm doing a fine job, I got a pathetically small bonus ($1000 when I was expecting 5-15k). It wasn't the amount that cheesed me off as much as that fact that they took the holiday bonus as an opportunity to tell me how bad they thought I was doing.
A quote from john: "Your work is flawless, you have never missed a deadline, But we think you goof off too much anyway". Another was: "There will be a review in 3 months, at which time we might give you a raise; I think you should be making as much as 40K. In other words, if I forget what they did to me, and spent every waking moment programming, I might make as much as a poorly paid Visual Basic programmer.
It goes without saying that I was more than a little miffed. But, it being the holidays, I was willing to give hops another chance. After the new year I contacted George (the supervisor of my current project), and requested that I work from home. I was willing to partake in the review process if I was judged solely on the quantity and the quality of my work. George has no problem with the idea (everyone else on the fraud project is working out of their homes), but needed to clear it with simion. I found out from George on Thursday the 23rd that simion said no. He said that he needed me around the office because the head count was getting low (I'm the 6th programming to quit in 6 weeks), and to help train the new hires. Both reasons are BullShit.
Adding insult to injury, when I get off the phone with George, Joseph (a guy I share my office with) whispers that chris (another hops director, who I haven't worked with in 4 months, and should have no authority over me) has been asking what time I show up every morning (nothing like being checked up on).
Again, I wasn't happy. After stewing about it for a few days, I decided to talk to simion about the subject myself. I figured the worst thing that could happen is that I resign, and go get a better paying job, in a more pleasant environment, somewhere else.
Taking into account the fact that they have yet to pay Michael, Bill, or any of the other former employees the money they owe them for working partial weeks, I put off the meeting until Friday.
The meeting went something like this: I asked simion to reconsider my request to work from home. After a lengthy pause, he asked me on what grounds. I said that I was tired of people looking over my shoulder, and given what was said at my "Holiday Review" that I couldn't trust them to give me a fair review in three months. After going back and forth for a few minutes simion in effect says that I couldn't be trusted to work productively from home. The last two lines were, and I quote:
Me: "simion, I'm not an assembly line worker, it should not matter how I spend my time as long as I get the work done on a timely basis"
simion: "Not if your working here"
At that point I know its futile to go on. I hand him my resignation, he wishes me luck in my career ( with a slight smile on his face), I poof at him, say its been entertaining and walk out of his office back to my desk.
I had planed to collect my things (anticipating his response I had removed most of my stuff Thursday), sign off of the mailing lists I was subscribed to, and leave. I was sitting at my desk for less the 1 minute when Ozie (the general office and financial manager) walks in. He tells me that I have to pack up my desk and leave immediately. I tell him what I'm doing, and after a brief phone chat with simion he tells me that it doesn't matter, that I have to leave right now. So, I shut down my computer, grab my Dilbert doll, and leave.
Charming to the last, I was privileged enough to be afforded the entertaining experience of having Ozzie escorts me out of the building.
I was actually feeling slightly guilty for resigning. I had spent an hour the day before subscribing myself to about 40 mailing lists. But, with simions smug attitude, and my being escorted out, I not only don't feel guilty, it actually gives me pleasure knowing that the mail server at hops will be getting about 300 bounce messages a day until the mailing lists auto remove me.
Such end my life at hops.
No regrets. Its been a very entertaining 18 months, I'm working contract for Equitrac again, and it shouldn't be too hard to find another full time job.
I view it as one really big, long, drawn out joke. And the Punch line? Larry (the only one who really knows how the product works) is resigning a week from Monday. Life is sweet.
So how is life treating you??
