they try to put me down/cheap me out using other means, such as rather addressing me with informaly (in German) than formaly

they try to put me down/cheap me out using other means, such as addressing me with "casual perks" (in German) than "formal compensation"

The rest was pretty good english.

I did flex as I initially said 6 months (I offered more but this was mutually agreed upon for planning), but when it started growing I started making monetary demands and once again allowed them to choose the size of the window. I stated there will be only one extension before I become a very high dollar contractor and decide whether or not it's worth it (extracting everything reasonable to me as guaranteed, including HR after departure). We mutually decided the initial date and I demanded a retention agreement (or feel my wrath in two weeks, but I'd really prefer if we could stay homies). They gave me the agreement, but as time went on, I realized I didn't actually need it. Things eased up as I closed the major projects to ease my successor and identified the most crucial projects to complete with remaining time. Yes they do get lazy, but a good solid bang on your way out (don't slow down) focused on making it realistic for them is the key. A good systems administrator is capable of this and every good systems administrator hopes for it, but we all know how that goes. Finally under my handle :-( sorrry.

I've done both, a couple times. Two weeks notice is always a bad idea, and a generous leave notice is always favorable to future employers. It's a pretty good sign that the dude isn't too worried about HIS situation or their's.

1) I left with two weeks notice, taking an international job, so there wasn't much wiggle room. It sucked, and I kept good rapport to this day assisting them as much as I could by building documentation and working with my team for those two weeks and random calls thereafter. The team replaced me.

2) Left the international job, gave them 7 months. Took 5 to find the new guy. Politics and teaching him where to find information were the killers. He shadowed me for a few weeks, then we started splitting assignments, and then I took a mutually accepted garden leave for the last two weeks handling only critical tasks that shouldn't carry forward. Rapport is strong with these companies still as well.

3) Started the new job. Hired on Friday, started Monday, didn't even have a place to live. This one was a mess and I HAD to start on Monday because the bugger was GTFO. No documentation or best practices. Went through every server, what OS it was running, what applications, and the access. Started to canvas the network, only to realize one week wasn't enough. Focused on access and design realizing quickly it was a big ball of duct tape with VLANs and different OSPF styles.

When it really came down to it, I gauged my skillset, supplemented my tools and information with whatever could carry the biggest impact, and prepared myself to crash and burn. Now, less than a year later, I have started rolling out best practices based on my documentation and there's been a stark change as the enhancements and simplification has begun winning the battle. But it was a big uphill battle. Your armor will be more important than your weapons for a while, but every chance you get to use your weapons to correct something for win-win, do it and don't look back.

1) Housing the content locally doesn't involve sending jitter sensitive material across the net.

2) It doesn't tax their OC3 or whatever to the net, all the bandwidth is consumed locally across their switch or router, which can probably handle it.

3) QOS becomes really easy

4) They know exactly how much bandwidth you have and for the non-super geeks out there they don't have to explain this.

5) It becomes an added benefit to subscribing to so and so's ISP

6) It increases revenue to the ISP and helps them utilize the transport equipment they already have in place.

7) Content owners are much more comfortable with it.

IPTV pays my bills, and I can tell you that there are many smaller telcos who would be interested in this. There IS an industry, and it's coming along just fine.