Holy ****, two months of work at the office almost thrown away because of this excel issue in the "convert text to columns" menu:
Keep leading zeros in number codes - Excel - Office.com
To further complicate the matter, Excel has a maximum precision of 15 significant digits, which means that for any number containing 16 or more digits, such as a credit card number, the last digit is rounded down to zero.
Now, when they write "To further complicate the matter, Excel..." regarding a microsoft program on the microsoft.com website, then you know something really sucks about excel - which surprised me because I am a big fan (of the versions up to 2003).
During my backtesting and tampering with all that trading data, I had never come across this problem, despite using it frequently, because stock market data never has any data that goes beyond 15 digits, at least the data I was dealing with. But at work I am using credit card numbers, which have digits that go from 13 (rare) to 19, and the most frequent, unfortunately, are 16 and 17, which means my two months of work go in the garbage thanks to excel and thanks to these 1 and 2 extra digits of credit card numbers.
Now I've gotta tell my boss, that we sent to the bank of italy incorrect data due to... my mistake. I wonder what his reaction will be. He's usually so stupid that he yells. Let's see if he got any smarter. You know what I mean: he yells for useless purposes. Like when it's not needed. I am here, working seriously all the time, never talk, and there's lots of colleagues screwing around all day long, and of course if there's any mistakes, who's the one making mistakes? The only one who works. So I make all the mistakes.
Besides, this idiot is confusing us all the time with his endless commands and counter commands, and moving people and changing our tasks. He's a complete idiot, but let's make the best of what we've got. I'll go there, shut his door, and say to him "prepare to yell" and then break the news to him. Of course the solution is not that complicated (i can easily identify the correct card numbers, from the original .txt files, and send them to the bank of italy). But he'll first yell, then recover from the yelling, and then I'll have to explain him the solution. Or if I tell him both the problem and the solution he'll still focus on the yelling, because he can't miss the opportunity to find mistakes in someone who considers him an idiot. He loves it, when to make him happy, I say "ok, I made a mistake", even when I am forced to admit mistakes that aren't mine. The way I look at it, is setting aside pride and saying whatever causes the smallest problem. He'll keep on yelling until I say "i made a mistake", so I make him stop by saying it pretty quickly, almost like "what do you want me to say? I'll say anything to keep you quiet".
[...]
Better idea. I will fix the problem as far as I am concerned, and identify all the correct numbers for the months of July and June, and then, when I am done with everything, I will tell him about this whole mess. It's going to take a couple of days. The funny thing is that the Bank of Italy still hasn't told us anything about this mistake, which shows that the urgency I was told about is total bull****. They probably all went on vacation or never even will look at the data we sent them. I mean, the first file we sent them was in early July, so they haven't even looked at that one, in almost two months of time. This whole deal of suspicious transactions reports originated with 911, so it's based on lies anyway and in six years I've been here, I have not seen one report on a real terrorist. All we see is reports on suspected tax fraud.
[...]
Damn idiot. He walked into the room while i was correcting things, I explained him the problem I had discovered, and he yelled, as expected. Tried to stop him and explain to him that it was useless and that I was as sorry about this as he was, but he was rude. What a goddamn idiot. On top of it, he's the one supposed to check my work. So no wonder, if no one except me works then all mistakes are also going to be made by me. I am sick and tired of working for this idiot, who takes all the credit for my work, and gives me all the possible blame and yelling for my mistakes. I was going to walk home, but I am not even mad any more. At this point, this is hilarious. I know I work well, more seriously and harder than anyone else. It's not going to take an idiot like my boss to make me change my mind.
[...]
Back at home now. Very frustrating experience. No boss should ever dare to yell at me. It was a defeat for me. But I didn't reply, because this boss is weak nonetheless. I mean: he's not on top of things, and everything is going wrong on his table, in his head, in his email, on his phone, in his body - he's basically a very disorderly person and everything and everyone around him suffers because of this. Yesterday and the last two weeks he's been telling me "thanks" and repeating it twice sometimes, showing me great gratitude - great feeling. So he was kind and everything, and then today he exceeds on the other end of the spectrum. This is ridiculous. Today, later, he came and told me to go home, because I was staying late fixing the problem - as if he cared for my well-being. If you are intelligent, the first thing you do is not yell at me - you realize i do my best, you pat me on the shoulder if i tell you i made a mistake, you moron.
Tomorrow... who knows? He might yell again or he might tell me "thanks... thanks". This is the same boss I was criticizing harshly for the first six months when the ACE "continuous improvement" team was with us, busting everyone's balls with their useless advice, harmful advice - and he was following them. It's a miracle I am still in this office with this boss, after having criticized him so much... this guy is unpredictable. That is why I try to keep myself under control and not reply "**** you". I've left a couple of times before (I just got up and went home, after an argument with him) so it's not like I can't do that (and I didn't get in trouble). But the thing is that, as much as I can, I want to resist, and I want to avoid overdoing it. Basically I don't want to lose my temper. This guy is worthless, so... the more I know I am right, the more I can handle the situation. Not that I want to get used to being yelled at, but I want to escalate things as little as possible. After all, he has yelled at me only 3 times in two years, which is still very offensive to me, but... basically I don't want to overreact because usually I do. I am hypersensitive and get offended very easily. Another feeling I have is this: I can sense how weak he is, and I don't want to disrespect him in front of others. But he better stop right here. I am not going to take too much more disrespect before devising a plan for action, and usually my plans are a masterpiece. Because I keep thinking about a problem until I solve it, being orderly as I am. So I'd focus entirely on this yelling problem and test various strategies and eventually I'd find the right one. The problem with this guy is that he's erratic and unpredictable, so now he offended me, but it's not enough material for a strategy, because he'll probably not bother me at all for the next four months. Then, unexpectedly, he'll do it again... this guy really sucks. He belongs in an asylum.
But the question repeating itself in my mind right now is "how much endurance do you have?" and the answer is "a lot". That's my best quality. I've survived 3 bosses and this is the fourth I am surviving. All left because the office was too tiring or because they made them leave. I am still there. Sure I shouldn't even be here and this is my defeat of being still at the bank and not retired. But the good thing is my endurance. I feel I will survive this boss, too. He's one of the worst bosses ever, not just for his employees, but also for the work he delivers. He stresses everyone out, makes our work unpleasant, and doesn't deliver any quality. And it's entirely his fault, because the employees are always the same and actually they've been getting better.
Well, let's end it here and let's say that I'm gonna try to
endure, like KRS-ONE puts it:
KRS-ONE Speaks Against Globalism & ObamaNazi(3 of 3) - YouTube
I am not going to focus, at the moment, on fighting back but on enduring the situation. This guy is just too unstable to even endure himself. I just have to wait a watch him fall on his own. He's too erratic to worry about.
[...]
Goddamn **** sucker, he didn't even take the time to understand the problem I was explaining to him of excel's "maximum precision of 15 significant digits" in using the convert text to columns function. Had he understood there is no way he could have gotten mad, because no one who didn't know it could come up with that knowledge. It wasn't a problem of me not paying attention. And I would have noticed the cards' number all ending in zero, but only if he hadn't made me send 100 Suspicious Transactions Reports per month, all by myself, while everyone else is slacking off. What the hell? I do more work, and of course I make all the mistakes, and of course I am exhausted, but then it's not fair that i only take the blame. I'll walk out on him tomorrow, or if he dares to yell at me again within a week. Otherwise, of course, I'll forget about it. It's nearly impossible for an office to function with this guy as a boss.
