NASA?

After the hundreds of meetings that I have been attending in the last few months or so, I get the impression that I am working at NASA. The kind of discussions at work really makes me think that if I err even by the thinnest of margins, the satellite that is scheduled to take off on the next production install night is going to miss the moon's orbit by 1/3 degrees and will not relay the video signals from the suspected terror camps to the optimum accuracy and the military will not be able to chalk out their "Operation Eliminate Cobra" perfectly.


WTF!!! Seriously... 


We work on a product which computes pensions. Everyone gets it mostly once in their life. Probably twice. It might be a few decades before today's IT generation, who believes in hopping jobs every 2 years, reaches retirement age. And by then, pensions will be history.


So, what does one do? Do I play tow and pretend that we have the most important work in the world after UN security council? Or do I what I believe in and put my foot down and say it out loud in the team meetings that all these discussions are useless. Just go back to your desk, bury your head inside your laptop and wait until 5 pm and walk home just like any clerk in the 1950s used to do.


Then, some wise man said -- Think all you want with your heart... Decide with your brain... 


And there I am, arguing with fellow managers how paying 1 penny more to every employee is going to cost the organization, of 10000 employees, $1200 annually when this meeting itself is costing them $3800... 


Until the next time I get frustrated, life is so good...