Coding In Cuba

The other day I was driving to work, wishing I didn't hate my job. I have been employed there for just under a year and have been contemplating leaving. I originally took the job as a short term thing, expecting an outside venture that I had put substantial time into to become a lucrative full time position.

I work for a manufacturer that produces some very technologically advanced products in the housing industry. Surprisingly for a technologically advanced company, they have absolutely no focus on IT. The owner of the company is self admittedly very anti technology. The company subscribes to lean manufacturing theories, and apparently there is no room for technology in the owners's opinion. Somehow along the life of this company, 50 .Net Applications have been created and 250 SQL Reporting Service Reports have been created! So let me back up... A company that could care less about technology has a ton of reports and applications!

I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio on my short trip to work and the program was on the current state of Cuba. The following facts were stated that I found very interesting

• Currenty in cuba, only 2% of the population has internet access
• Fidel Castro runs the country by fear, intimidation, and control
  

I was dumbfounded at the parallels between this discussion of Cuba and how it relates to my current employer. In one of my discussions with my boss about the owner of the company he told me that "Hank(the owner) likes to treat his employees like he treats his dogs. He says that if you beat one of your dogs in front of the other dogs, they will all respect and fear you."

I had the unfortunate opportunity to see this play out in a few meetings with the owner. In one meeting I was requesting some money for replacement PCs that were 8-10 years old. He flipped off everyone in the room for having the audacity to ask for money for IT. I have also seen him dislike something someone says in a meeting and proceed to pound the person for insane levels of detail right then and there in front of 50+ people. If the person doesn't have the detailed information right then and there, they are full of sh!7 and he will let them know right then and there!

Another amazing facet of this company is that the majority of employees do not have internet access. It's not two percent by any means, but it is a very small percentage. The company does realize that certain employees do need access to the internet to perform work related activities such as emailing customers and doing research. The company made the decision that they needed to implement two completely separate networks, an "Internal" and an "External". This means two desktops on lots and lots of desks(Talk about running lean).

I guess that somewhere along the life of this company somebody emailed some confidential information to someone they shouldn't have and that is how the two networks were born. Having two completely separate networks introduces so many non-lean scenarios to be dealt with that it is almost humorous. Here are a few of my favorite:

• Two email servers, one internal and one external
• Two Domain Controllers
• Constant forms being filled out with approval signatures for transferring files from one network to the other
• No VPN access to work, lots of late night trips to work to fix things that are very simple
• Fiber run to the desktop for all external computers - people are smart enough to move cables otherwise
• Disabling of all USB ports and CD ROM drives. You wouldn't want an employee to have the power to plug in a pen drive from home or burn a CD with confidential information on it.
• No cell phones on the production floor. You never know if the cell phone has a camera!
  

It is such a sad environment to work in and I am so glad that I am moving on to bigger and better things. It is an amazing thing to watch an entire company work harder not smarter. My question was always what prevents people from printing confidential information? Would people really ever try to hack into the external company network? If a competitor really wanted your trade secrets wouldn't they just get a spy hired?

I totally understand the need for safe guarding of trade secrets, however it is a sad day when you try to account for the risk through manipulation, fear mongering, and uber restrictive work environments.

Unfortunately for this company, I have a little too much self-respect to submit to control tactics, restrictive work environments and a over lack of understanding and respect for software development. Too bad, so sad