Slashdot Mirror
IT Management Always Blames the Worker Bees
An anonymous reader writes "A refreshing dose of sanity, It Management Fail: Always Blame the Worker Bees counters Security fail: When trusted IT people go bad, which advocates the usual reactive and punitive Big Brother measures for keeping those icky, untrustworthy IT staffers in line. Management really needs to look in the mirror when IT screws up."
If you do your job correctly, then everything runs smoothly and you don't get any attention (or credit) at all. But as soon as something goes wrong, it's obviously because YOU FUCKED UP, and you get LOTS of attention! Other than money, can anyone cite an upside to working in IT?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The guy who sneaks into your bookstore with a portable scanner and makes a copy of a book and leaves without buying anything isn't a "customer."
No, that's what we call "a potential customer".
Sure they might do that.. If they were well paid and treated with respect instead of treated like a replaceable nameless cog in a giant machine.
Silly... i know... But hey.. If you want respect and loyality from the worker... You have to show them some yourself.
The workers are learning the lesson business is teaching them. Get whatever you can by any means. The only thing that matters is the bottom line.
Slashdot has always been that way. You (or we I guess) just got older. And blogs got more common too, so blogger opinion pieces went from being on a few sites to being absolutely everywhere.
It isn't that the site has changed, it's that your memories of slashdot a decade ago are rose-tinted.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
...throw employees under the bus. My boss told me I had X number of days to get a project done (X = I don't remember the days). The code needs to go through a senior developer before it hits QA. Here is the kicker: I was given this project because a senior developer did not have time to get it done. Now you may be thinking, "Well if the senior developer did not have enough time to do it, wouldn't that mean that he would not have time to go through the code?" If that is your question, the answer is, you are correct. The senior developer did not have time to look this over. What happened was that this sat at the senior developer for about 3 days with my boss yelling and getting snarky at me. I told him where the code was. No changes were required for the code. What happened was that this manager was looking to get rid of me (there are reasons that there is no need to bring up, but let me just say he pulled me into some office politics and I had never been in the situation and did not know how to handle it). and since this was a new manager, he thought he needed to fire somebody so that everybody knew who was boss (I seriously had confirmation of this with people I have kept in touch with from the company). Also, the senior developer the boss really liked. Even though the senior developer took 3 days and found nothing, I got fired from it.
What does this have to do with anything? My boss really liked the other person and did not want to tell people in a business meeting that the project was late due to him taking too long. I got thrown under the bus since according to my boss, "if it was going to take that long for the senior developer, I should have gotten my portion done in 4 days instead of the 7 I took".
Some IT managers will blame everything on the "worker bees" (even if it was the manager himself who pulled in an unrealistic due date when he personally knew how busy the senior developer was). He knew that the senior developer could not get the project done in time and needed a scape goat or whatever it is called, so it was all pinned on me. I will not say all of them, because I have had some incredible IT managers as well.
The world is how you make it
Don't forget the ITExampleCorp that has 1500 legit copies of XP running on 1500 machines, but when the BSA come a-knockin' can't definitively prove that each machine has a valid license. Say, the machines started out OK, but over the course of business they got wiped, reinstalled, cloned, moved, repurposed, etc... There may still be 1500 licenses and 1500 machines, but that won't cut it when dealing with the BSA. In the end, ITExampleCorp is coerced into shelling out even more money to appease the BSA and be deemed "legit", even though they did nothing wrong.
So, yeah, suing a customer.
There are a few things I've seen in work places that really contribute to the bashing:
1. Suits who won't talk to IT staff
2. IT staff that won't talk to suits
3. Both sides bitch about the other behind closed doors and the grapevine still passes the scuttlebutt
4. Both sides having a superiority complex
I'd encourage the IT staffs to go and talk with your management. You'll be glad you did.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
No, FOSS types love the BSA. Not only are they "vigorous" in promoting license compliance, but they're a walking billboard for the pitfalls of closed source/proprietary software.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
This is nothing new. Any industry is exactly the same. Blame it on whatever you like.
I used to work in IT - management would screw over the staff at a moments notice for no readily apparent reason.
I now work in Healthcare - where managed screw over the staff at a moments notice for no readily apparent reason.
It's called Capitalism.
Reminds me of the programmer joke:
A man flying in a hot air balloon suddenly realizes he’s lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts to get directions, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"
The man below says: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."
"You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.
"I do" replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but It's of no use to anyone."
The man below replies, "You must work in management."
"I do," replies the balloonist, "But how'd you know?"*
"Well", says the man, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault."
You treat me like something you can squeeze work from and throw away when there's nothing left, so I treat you like something I can squeeze money from and throw away when there's nothing left.
The prisoner's dilemma optimal solution applies. I cooperate and adapt. You cooperate, so will I. You defect, so will I.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Ability to:
Some people can, some can't. And yes, many managers fail at this too.
A former company of mine ran into this issue, and the issue was that over the years they had purchased from multiple VARs, some of which no longer existed. How do you ask your VAR to check your licenses, when the VAR has vanished from the earth?
This isn't even rare. Any company that has been in business for a significant amount of time (say, since Windows for Workgroups) will have gone through several VARs, had churn amongst all personnel who might know about licensing, and couldn't tell you where all their licenses are if you put a gun to their heads. I guess in that case you just re-purchase some subset of your licenses every few years. This must be the "rental" model I've been hearing about.
Even in cases where licenses were purchased directly from the vendor, the contract was sometimes vague as to exactly how many licenses of what type could be in use simultaneously. In the best of times it's a headache.
It's "showing intent" that's missing from the equation.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I don't agree with her response, just think she is more sympathetic than the others. My problem with the way the whole tale was presented was that the company's actions, which in my opinion were very nearly as bad as "Sally's" are glossed over as perfectly reasonable. Of course you outsource the entire department. Of course you don't tell anyone till the last possible moment. Of course you don't provide counseling or job search assistance.
While their points about escalation of privileged and job separation are perfectly valid, their most "valuable" piece of advice for this one appeared to be "Watch your employees close when you're about to screw them, the sneaky bastard probably figured it out." They didn't even bother to mention being open and honest with your staff, providing transition services or any of the other things the company could have to done to prevent or cushion the proximal cause of the employee anger.
Sure, watch people, especially people under stress. Sure, don't give people access to systems they don't need access too. Sure, make sure you know who has what keys. Also treat people with a bit of respect and don't fuck with them any more than you have to at a bad time.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
My current job is actually the first where I *don't* have a beer with lunch every day. The German's and French have been doing it for a very long time without their society collapsing. My current employer has a clause specifically excluding drinking on company time so I generally don't push it even though lunch is technically my time and the CEO's office has about $100k worth of wine.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
The German's and French have been doing it for a very long time without their society collapsing.
And the English, and the Australians, and the New Zealanders...
I'm sure several more countries have similar attitudes, best described as "you're an adult, we trust you to behave yourself and make adult decisions, and if you don't, well, you're also adult enough to take the consequences". I just mention the places with whose work structures I'm personally familiar. The U.S., on the other hand...urgh...forget it, or at least on the east coast (everywhere I've worked, from Maine down to Georgia). In a country where personal rights are ferociously guarded, I don't know why this should be so, but I follow it so I won't get fired.
Otherwise known as "soft skills". I.e. not acting like a complete tool around those who live by the dictum "time is money" and thinking they're a lot funnier than they really are.
You'd think this isn't that difficult, but every day I'm constantly amazed by how many people I encounter who handily demonstrate otherwise and then proceed to moan about their managers.
Some people say everyone deserves respect, even strangers.. but what they really mean is everyone deserves consideration.
That sounds like a problem that resolves itself, though.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
No, the problem is that some Americans have not had an evolution in their moral makeup since the Puritans landed.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Agreed, I'm pretty well paid and treated like a real person at my workplace, hence I hardly ever steal and keep my illegal porn operation small enough to not tax the company servers way to much.
/M
Or decency, which indeed should be bestowed upon everyone, perhaps especially on those who don't deserve it.
But respect? No, that has to be earned. That's what makes it respect. Like with love, you can pretend to respect someone, but unless you feel it, it will be a sham. And again like love, when it's mutual, it truly blossoms. If one part fakes it, it doesn't.
In other words: No, I won't respect you in the morning. You haven't earned it. I will treat you with decency and consideration, though. Not because you deserve it, but because it's what's keeps me on the path from caveman towards civilization. May we one day get there.