I've finished my first work week in the tenure of the Devil, aka, Oracle.
For most people that know me, family, friends, spouse, that means very little. They didn't know where I worked before (or what I did there) and they still don't know, even now that I'm in the pay of one of the world's largest software companies (say Number 1 to me one more time, I dare you).
And that's absolutely fine.
Really. Because of those from my social circle that are left who know who Oracle are, most of them will either pity me now or will get that right-on-the-edge-of-barfdom moment when a little smidge of sick is catapulted onto your tongue in reaction to your body having encountered something it finds repellant.
Oracle doesn't have a great name among the geeks. (and the great names it does have, it keeps to itself.)
So, I've been a little apprehensive, shall we say, about the coming of March 1st, the date that will hereafter be known as LEC - Legal Entity Combination being the impressive sounding missive applied by legal eagles to, what amounts to, consummation of an arranged marriage. The groom finally gets to lift the skirt and have his way. And she loses her name. Miss ATG became Mrs Oracle on March 1st, 2011.
So far, so ... ordinary. We've got our new email addresses, but I'm using the same StinkPad to read the mails. We have new procedures for holidays, sick leave, expenses, peeing but none of them have, as yet, had any impact on writing code, creating bugs or committing the fixes. Nothing much has changed. The sign at the door still says ATG and I still drink from my chipped ATG coffee mug.
Of course, it can't go on like that. Surely. Larry is going to decide that the Belfast crowd should be coming to work on donkey-drawn shillelaghs, singing jaunty little ditties while dancing a reel.
There is no real sense that we belong to the same company as 100 thousand other little demonettes. Looking at the org chart, I'm 7 levels of management away from the world's sixth richest person (I'm not expecting a card mind you). But it's actually a little frightening to see the reach that Oracle have in all aspects of ... everything. We are more than likely in ur payroll messn wiv ur figrs.
Let's see how this big adventure plays out. I hear the jet is free next week. That might be nice.
