The Obligatory Work Post, I mean, Rant
May. 25th, 2008 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hobgoblinnI've alluded to it several times the past couple of weeks, and it's already driven me to drink And do karaoke. So it must be serious, right?
Long time flist denizens know that my place of employment is the poster child for dysfunctional system. Several of its more charming features can be read about at some length in the pages of the DSM-IV. Back in March, we got bought out by a real company, and suddenly I had benefits and the possibility for advancement. Our jobs were safe, we were valuable, and we should just keep on doing what we've been doing, and all would be well.
Except if we had been doing all that well, we wouldn't have gotten bought out in the first place. And the management team that has run us into the ground with its politics, incompetence, turf wars and blame games, is the same one we're depending on to lead us into the Brave New World. We recently had some layoffs, but the people we really need gone in order to have any chance of turning things around, did not get pink slips.
Add to this I have a young supervisor who is suddenly being asked to account for his time, to get things done whether he thinks they're a good idea or not, and to generally get along with his new superiors, and he is instead obstructing change at every turn, acting like a spoiled child when treated "disrespectfully" by said superiors, and taking offense at every new (very reasonable) request/demand/order. I have never seen someone so bent on Professional Suicide. And so absolutely not willing to hear voices of reason from friends and colleagues on the subject.
In the meantime, we have a Client Service Manager who has decided that her life would be ever so much better if she simply got the New Order to abolish programming. So suddenly she is flooding the Powers That Be with formal petty complaints and copying God and Everyone on them. She is instructing her staff to reply to reasonable requests for clarification with "I talked to your lead about this issue; seek clarification from him" instead of answering my damned simple question about what the Client Wants (not "How Do I Do My Job", which is what they tried to make it look like.)
First off, if they get rid of programming, we no longer have a product. Not sure what about that is not clear. Second, all this does is make the PTB look at us going "we clearly need better mental health benefits for these losers. Perhaps this isn't worth saving after all." It makes us all look bad and either they will fire us one by one for cause, or enough people will leave that there will not be anything To Save. They might as well relocate the facility to Columbus or Dayton and hire sane people to learn to do things, maybe according to their business model instead of our insane one.
This cannot possibly end well. I finally got to meet a higher manager last week and had what amounted to a mini job interview, which went well and left me feeling hopeful. But then we had one of our most experienced guys give his notice, others are actively looking, and I am not good enough to keep this thing running on my skills and knowledge if one or two more guys besides our Lead leave.
It does make for stressful days. Again, I am So Glad I bought my shiny new birrrthday present, my precioussss and transferred my files over. Even if I get the axe, I have my important files backed up. I'm pretty sure it's not "if" anymore, but "when." And every time my lead and this particular CSM manager do a fine impression of an elementary school playground squabble and demand their bosses make the other "meen kid" stop being "meen" we are one step closer to that "when."
Long time flist denizens know that my place of employment is the poster child for dysfunctional system. Several of its more charming features can be read about at some length in the pages of the DSM-IV. Back in March, we got bought out by a real company, and suddenly I had benefits and the possibility for advancement. Our jobs were safe, we were valuable, and we should just keep on doing what we've been doing, and all would be well.
Except if we had been doing all that well, we wouldn't have gotten bought out in the first place. And the management team that has run us into the ground with its politics, incompetence, turf wars and blame games, is the same one we're depending on to lead us into the Brave New World. We recently had some layoffs, but the people we really need gone in order to have any chance of turning things around, did not get pink slips.
Add to this I have a young supervisor who is suddenly being asked to account for his time, to get things done whether he thinks they're a good idea or not, and to generally get along with his new superiors, and he is instead obstructing change at every turn, acting like a spoiled child when treated "disrespectfully" by said superiors, and taking offense at every new (very reasonable) request/demand/order. I have never seen someone so bent on Professional Suicide. And so absolutely not willing to hear voices of reason from friends and colleagues on the subject.
In the meantime, we have a Client Service Manager who has decided that her life would be ever so much better if she simply got the New Order to abolish programming. So suddenly she is flooding the Powers That Be with formal petty complaints and copying God and Everyone on them. She is instructing her staff to reply to reasonable requests for clarification with "I talked to your lead about this issue; seek clarification from him" instead of answering my damned simple question about what the Client Wants (not "How Do I Do My Job", which is what they tried to make it look like.)
First off, if they get rid of programming, we no longer have a product. Not sure what about that is not clear. Second, all this does is make the PTB look at us going "we clearly need better mental health benefits for these losers. Perhaps this isn't worth saving after all." It makes us all look bad and either they will fire us one by one for cause, or enough people will leave that there will not be anything To Save. They might as well relocate the facility to Columbus or Dayton and hire sane people to learn to do things, maybe according to their business model instead of our insane one.
This cannot possibly end well. I finally got to meet a higher manager last week and had what amounted to a mini job interview, which went well and left me feeling hopeful. But then we had one of our most experienced guys give his notice, others are actively looking, and I am not good enough to keep this thing running on my skills and knowledge if one or two more guys besides our Lead leave.
It does make for stressful days. Again, I am So Glad I bought my shiny new birrrthday present, my precioussss and transferred my files over. Even if I get the axe, I have my important files backed up. I'm pretty sure it's not "if" anymore, but "when." And every time my lead and this particular CSM manager do a fine impression of an elementary school playground squabble and demand their bosses make the other "meen kid" stop being "meen" we are one step closer to that "when."
