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Making IT Visible to Management?
frustrated Dilbert asks: "We are a very small IT dept where the manager participates in the day-to-day operation of IT services. The problem is that he almost never talks to upper management and doesn't get involved in the business side until someone gives him a specific project to handle. The result is that IT is considered to be firefighters when things fail, and generally plumbers that fix stuff when other PHBs create new projects. We run all the mission-critical stuff in a line of business that can not work without technology. The IT PHB fails to see which sides of the business we need to support and which are second in line. I end up doing my stuff and a lot of his duties of picking up the direction of the business and making strategic decisions. The company is actually great to work for, but I was not hired (or paid) for teaching my boss to run his shop in addition to tech stuff. He simply wasn't made for it and got promoted into something he can't cope with. I'm getting really tired of having to do management and not get any credit and would love to have him replaced, but I hate having to rat on him too. How can I get a more organized workplace when my boss isn't capable of thinking ahead?"
That's the ideal solution in a perfect world, but I wouldn't put money on the right person getting fired.
but I was not hired (or paid) for teaching my boss to run his shop in addition to tech stuff
We all have to do things that we didn't expect in our jobs. If that's all you have to do, then go home and spend hours being thankful you're not digging ditches or working for bosses that constantly insult you or that you have a job that pays for a place to live and heat and water and electricity, or that you have an education that allows you to work in a well paying job, or that you're healthy enough to go into work each day instead of spending most of your time seeing doctors to deal with cancer or MS or something else.
I don't think I've yet heard of a job where the person in it ended up doing exactly what s/he expected or wanted to do.
Honestly, that is a small problem in the scheme of things. If it's big enough to make your life that miserable, do one of two things: find another job or step into the Total Perspective Vortex.
Maybe instead of Ask Slashdot, this should be, "Whining Slashdot."
You've already said that "We run all the mission-critical stuff in a line of business that can not work without technology." Who interfaces with the business owners for the support of these systems ? More importantly, who do the business owners deal with on a day to day basis for support of these ? a) you, b) someone else, or c) your PHB ?
Based on the subtext, I doubt the answer is a). However, if it is, it means that management have determined that you are their workaround. It is worthwhile asking for more money, or at least finding how high they'll go in terms of cash and / or other perks (like training, days off, etc)
If the answer is b), then the problem has been solved, but you've either been left out of the loop or never were in it. Maybe you (specifically you) are not as important as you think you are.
If the answer is c), and the substance of your story is true then I'm sorry, management have decided that you (and your unit) are just not as important as you thought. They have actually thought about this, so if you decide to stay, you need to find out who made the decison and why. It may turn out that while it sucks from an IT perspective, it is actually a good business decison. After all, from their perspective, they are still getting the work done...
A big problem I see at nearly every company I've worked at is, concentrating on how to do your own job well is about the last thing people think about. You'll have tech support people making marketing suggestions, marketing people trying to dictate IT policy, etc. The issue is, you'll always make a terrible contribution that way, if you even manage to turn it into more than daydreams.
That may seem like something of a tangent, but hear me out. Just do your own job well. Do that number one, and if it looks like things that need doing aren't getting done, if they're not your job at all, then don't worry about it until you have your own job completely taken care of. The problem is, doing your own job is usually boring, a lot more work than daydreaming about what somebody else should be doing, and doesn't seem like it affects much. That couldn't be farther from the truth. If people always know that your job is done, they'll start leaving you alone; that's when you can branch off into other things. Special projects that make everybody else's life easier will get big notice. Here's the big (huge) thing though: make sure it's related to your job as closely as possible. Nobody knows how to do your job as well as you do, you spend 40 hours a week (if you're lucky) doing it--no one else does. Sure, work on managing the IT department better, but only once you have your own job done as well as it can be under the current management.
If you run into a situation where the people above you aren't giving you the support you need, leave as soon as possible, and stop worrying about it otherwise.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
Hmm.. this is a toughie. I wouldn't advise being sneaky. It was suggested earlier that you let him fail. That's risky. Failures cost money, and if it can be proven you could have prevented that loss, your ass could be in the line of fire. A more subtle approach would be to raise the visiblity of your contributions. If, for example, you need to purchase equipment, maybe create a diagram of the equipment and put your name on it. Then pass it around. Maybe even print a big copy of it and hang it on your wall. That may not be a great suggestion, but hopefully you get the idea. That doesn't solve the problem of getting your boss replaced, but hopefully it helps with the credit part of it. Who knows, maybe somebody'll see what you suggested, and when something doesn't go right, they'll remember that a different solution was proposed and ignored?
Well, I dunno. I wish I knew more specifics about your job and what your boss is failing in. These things happen. Maybe it's the sort of thing a little more communication would help with. I mean, if you became buddy buddy with him and got to where you could converse informally, maybe over time you two could build trust with each other. From there you could get him to realize the problem and either learn how to cope or maybe hire an extra person to help him out. It's hard to say. I agree with your view about not wanting to rat him out, though. Sometimes it's necesary to do that, but exhaust your other options first.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
In my experience, just do the job that is most needing to be done. If that is your job, great, if that is his job, fine. The best way to get a promotion is to do that job and you will eventually get the title and money. The worst kind of employee is one that won't do the tasks that need to be done b/c it isn't in is pay scale (up or down). You do have to remember not to work yourself to death but w/i the bounds of working hours, work on teh important shit as you see it. If they don't recognize your efforts in a timely manner, you can step into your next position w/ much more experience (which should translate into money/power as you wish)
It is likely that you have a line in your job description that reads 'and other tasks'. Many of us have it. Well, honestly, many of you have it since I helped my boss rewrite the job descriptions of my coworkers and me. This includes educating your boss. Here is the trick, if your boss is an idiot, what makes you think you are not? There are several essential skills needed for management, some skills are more important then others depending on position. These skills are technical skills, managerial skills, personnal skills, and networking (suck up) skills. Your boss has to have some technical skills to manage you, but not as great as you have. His level should be enough to make decent decisions based off the information you give him. He should have better managerial, personnal, and networking skills, but not as good as his boss, who would be offset by lesser technical skills. You discuss your perception with you boss and learn his perspective on things.
On a side note, most IT workers expect for some ungodly reason that their bosses have equal or greater technical skills. My manager has an ETL and BI expert (me), two ERP and business process experts (my cohort and me), several SQL experts (7 of us including me), two EDI experts (my cohort and another guy), two pc experts (another guy and me), web programmer (me), a server expert (me), 3 HR process experts (3 other people), and 9 cobal programmers (don't look at me, I don't do big iron). Add in the fact that he also has 3 records retention technicians, their manager, and two archivists (in the traditional sense), one would get the idea how diverse his staff is. How the hell could he be expected to have this skill set? Now he needed to be educated on how we work in some instances. He viewed script programming easy, yet he had never seen complex scripting for business apps on the web before. It is my job to fix misperceptions that would make his decisions wrong and it is his job to ask for information in my area of expertise before shooting his mouth off.
In God we trust, all others require data.
He's delegating the aspects he doesn't understand to someone more capable.
You just need to learn to delegate your job to someone lower down the chain.
Here's the way it'll work. He'll stop doing his bosses job. His boss will fire him. He'll go get a new job.
In the meantime, his boss can no longer get his job done without someone to do it for him, so upper management fires him.
His boss get a new job, as his new boss.
Life has a cruel sense of humor.
KFG
Everybody always thinks that they are the critical link in a company. The truth is everyone is replacable. Not without some growing pains, in some cases, but everyone is replacable. Well, except me. :) Ahem. I am thinking of that Simpsons where Bart is walking around with a pot and a wooden spoon screaming "I am so great, I am so great."
It seems to me that everyone these days is concerned with whats good for them, and hopefully that works out for the company too, but these people are forgetting that the ongoing good fortune of the company they work for also ensures their good fortune and continued employment.
For instance, we offer a 10% profit sharing plan with out employees, the week between Christmas and Newyears off (as well as their regular vacation) and performance bonuses for good months. Every Friday we have a BBQ and the staff get burgers or hotdogs or whatever we decide to make that week. There is a free pop machine in the kitchen. We just had a review and someone said that our bonus plan was not fair. Of course we will not take any action but it sure is a pisser to think that 10% of (net) profit is not a good bonus. Hey that's money right out of my pocket into theirs.
Anyway I'm just ranting but it seems to me that the worker is not very greatful. "Minimum work for minimum wage". What a crock.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.