In my experience, its almost always the management that is incompetent, not the IT staff themselves. Its been said before - people who want to lead are often the worst choices. The really good IT guys just want to code all day.
People are stupid and generally quite entrenched into their behaviour. I have had managers tell me that I need to think about leaving enough work so that everyone can stay employed, and not to code away their jobs. I said the employees would have more time to do other things that would benefit the company more, and have to do less repetative and boring tasks, and probably enjoy their jobs a lot more.
I am not currently very liked by the management at my company. They dont fire me because I r0x0r, but I don't doubt the possibility was considered.
My primary role in the company I work for is to interface with external data sources. This involves lots of maintainence of parsers/state machines, and calling help centers when the data source goes sour beyond my own ability to hack it back into health. I have a good dozen or so major sources, and it is very obvious which ones have outsourced their IT. Maybe its just something in the financial industry, but I have received nothing but poor service ( and poor recognition of base concepts ) from those that have outsourced.
Of course, the homeland ones aren't great either, but there is a significant margin that seperates them... at least the ones I deal with.
If you look at the Doom 3 SDK, there is little love of the windows platform in the comments. Granted, im sure none of them are Carmacks, as he probably works entirely in the rendering area, which is definitely not in the SDK.
Ah, I was unaware of a straight-to-tv variation.
The first one was also bad due to the fact that the director was a newb. Total newb - first movie. Watch the special features on the dvd.
Yeah, the kids thing does kind of fsck you over. The marriage thing shouldn't (in theory), but we all know it does anyway. I have a friend who is currently buying a home, paying off his college loans, buying a truck, and paying for his wife's classes (who doesn't work, natch).
He wonders why he has no time and is always so stressed, and takes it out on work. So sad...
Better yet, stop buying expensive things for a while and save money. Of course, most people are locked into a home loan or car payments or something, cuz thats what you do here in the states. Get a job, then go out and buy a house so you can stress about how much you need the job so you dont lose the home.
I have been working in IT for a good few years now, and I have enough of an income to start to buy a house, or get a really nice car. But I dont. I really like the fact that I can go up to my employer and tell them I wont work weekends, even when they ask it because they think it isn't getting done fast enough.
Of course, you need the skills to back this up. If your nigh worthless, and they cant work the crap out of you, then you are probably going to be fired.
The shoulder buttons on the cube's controller aren't exactly the greatest. The little clikey thingy at the end tends to go out after extended usage.
Thats about the only thing I can think of, though, and its not all that big of a deal, but still worth mentioning.
Bleh... only if you like button mashey racers. The only way to win online is to do that terrible snaking manuver. Power sliding on straightaways never used to be effective. Go Nintendo for supporting the twitch-jerk gamer and ruining what was once a fun game.
Also... WTF is up with no online battle mode? I mean, Nintendo totally dropped the ball there.
They lost points with me on this one. Major points. Still above all their competetors by a margin, but its getting smaller...
Dude, they have a BILLION dollars. You could feed a country on the interest on that if you put it in the most worthless savings account possible. I mean, what sane man thinks of a 401k when they have that much money.
To a certain degree, I concur. I feel the reason why most democratic governments grow corrupt is mostly due to their size, rather than the structure. In a corporation I feel this would be true as well. So, for small corporations ( 200 ish ) I figure this scheme could work well. Larger sized things would probably be less effective.
While there are manuals for managing people, none of them can really help you get over the fact that you just may not know how to work with people well. IT peoples aren't exactly known for their great socializing skills. I know I could do it, but I also know several people in the industry that would not make good managers. They are very introverted, and don't like talking to people. While they could go through the motions, that doesn't mean they would be very good at it.
I find that people do the best at their jobs when they actually like what they are doing.
People like to buy big things that they cant afford. Usually these things are cars and houses. They get big loans in one form or another, that basically lock them into working continuously for years. I don't do this, and I have a fairly sizable amount of money put away such that I could quit and not have to work for a year or two. This does mean I don't have as shiny of a car as my coworkers, but the ability to just walk out the door at any moment is worth far more.
Do it. Just dont do it stupidly. State the facts, quite cleanly, and without displaying your disdain. Explain that he may very well be a good manager, but he needs to adopt a more civil tone when adressing his people. Makes you feel uncomfortable, and reduces your ability to work competently.
Once you distill complaints down to the raw facts of the matter, its really very hard for people to take offense at them. I find most problems with people complaining is they are angry when they do it and dont think about it much at all. I usually take a good 15 minutes or so, sit down, and write a nice, precise e-mail. I've had good responses so far, if thats indication.
My company's standard contracts state that they can be terminated by either side for any reason at any time. We still have crappy management. I think theres this general misconception of what 'good' management is, and it just keeps perpetuating, like some of those urban legends.
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In my experience, its almost always the management that is incompetent, not the IT staff themselves. Its been said before - people who want to lead are often the worst choices. The really good IT guys just want to code all day.
People are stupid and generally quite entrenched into their behaviour. I have had managers tell me that I need to think about leaving enough work so that everyone can stay employed, and not to code away their jobs. I said the employees would have more time to do other things that would benefit the company more, and have to do less repetative and boring tasks, and probably enjoy their jobs a lot more.
I am not currently very liked by the management at my company. They dont fire me because I r0x0r, but I don't doubt the possibility was considered.
Im assuming this was a public university. If so, I am not suprised.
My primary role in the company I work for is to interface with external data sources. This involves lots of maintainence of parsers/state machines, and calling help centers when the data source goes sour beyond my own ability to hack it back into health. I have a good dozen or so major sources, and it is very obvious which ones have outsourced their IT. Maybe its just something in the financial industry, but I have received nothing but poor service ( and poor recognition of base concepts ) from those that have outsourced.
... at least the ones I deal with.
Of course, the homeland ones aren't great either, but there is a significant margin that seperates them
If you look at the Doom 3 SDK, there is little love of the windows platform in the comments. Granted, im sure none of them are Carmacks, as he probably works entirely in the rendering area, which is definitely not in the SDK.
Ah, I was unaware of a straight-to-tv variation. The first one was also bad due to the fact that the director was a newb. Total newb - first movie. Watch the special features on the dvd.
So he will go film in another country with a similar loophole.
Doom == Resident Evil on Mars. Super Mario Brothers = well ... lets just not go there.
Dont forget the Evil Dead series.
No, same movie ... you are just fscked in the head :)
Seriously, the movie sucked. Yeah, there were some scenes that made me wince in pain less than others, but overall it blew. Hard.
Empire at War will be much different than Warcraft III. There is a demo available - highly reccomended download.
Yeah, the kids thing does kind of fsck you over. The marriage thing shouldn't (in theory), but we all know it does anyway. I have a friend who is currently buying a home, paying off his college loans, buying a truck, and paying for his wife's classes (who doesn't work, natch).
...
He wonders why he has no time and is always so stressed, and takes it out on work. So sad
And I thought Jedi were going to be too common when I last looked at the game years ago ... this pretty much removes all possibility of me playing.
Better yet, stop buying expensive things for a while and save money. Of course, most people are locked into a home loan or car payments or something, cuz thats what you do here in the states. Get a job, then go out and buy a house so you can stress about how much you need the job so you dont lose the home.
I have been working in IT for a good few years now, and I have enough of an income to start to buy a house, or get a really nice car. But I dont. I really like the fact that I can go up to my employer and tell them I wont work weekends, even when they ask it because they think it isn't getting done fast enough.
Of course, you need the skills to back this up. If your nigh worthless, and they cant work the crap out of you, then you are probably going to be fired.
The shoulder buttons on the cube's controller aren't exactly the greatest. The little clikey thingy at the end tends to go out after extended usage. Thats about the only thing I can think of, though, and its not all that big of a deal, but still worth mentioning.
Bleh ... only if you like button mashey racers. The only way to win online is to do that terrible snaking manuver. Power sliding on straightaways never used to be effective. Go Nintendo for supporting the twitch-jerk gamer and ruining what was once a fun game.
... WTF is up with no online battle mode? I mean, Nintendo totally dropped the ball there.
...
Also
They lost points with me on this one. Major points. Still above all their competetors by a margin, but its getting smaller
Dude, they have a BILLION dollars. You could feed a country on the interest on that if you put it in the most worthless savings account possible. I mean, what sane man thinks of a 401k when they have that much money.
w00t - utopia!
I was promised flying shuttlecraft. I want my flying shuttlecraft.
Move to a different state. Auto insurance isnt required up here in Wisconsin. I dont have any.
To a certain degree, I concur. I feel the reason why most democratic governments grow corrupt is mostly due to their size, rather than the structure. In a corporation I feel this would be true as well. So, for small corporations ( 200 ish ) I figure this scheme could work well. Larger sized things would probably be less effective.
Program vcr -> read manual.
While there are manuals for managing people, none of them can really help you get over the fact that you just may not know how to work with people well. IT peoples aren't exactly known for their great socializing skills. I know I could do it, but I also know several people in the industry that would not make good managers. They are very introverted, and don't like talking to people. While they could go through the motions, that doesn't mean they would be very good at it.
I find that people do the best at their jobs when they actually like what they are doing.
Name of company plz
People like to buy big things that they cant afford. Usually these things are cars and houses. They get big loans in one form or another, that basically lock them into working continuously for years. I don't do this, and I have a fairly sizable amount of money put away such that I could quit and not have to work for a year or two. This does mean I don't have as shiny of a car as my coworkers, but the ability to just walk out the door at any moment is worth far more.
Do it. Just dont do it stupidly. State the facts, quite cleanly, and without displaying your disdain. Explain that he may very well be a good manager, but he needs to adopt a more civil tone when adressing his people. Makes you feel uncomfortable, and reduces your ability to work competently.
Once you distill complaints down to the raw facts of the matter, its really very hard for people to take offense at them. I find most problems with people complaining is they are angry when they do it and dont think about it much at all. I usually take a good 15 minutes or so, sit down, and write a nice, precise e-mail. I've had good responses so far, if thats indication.
My company's standard contracts state that they can be terminated by either side for any reason at any time. We still have crappy management. I think theres this general misconception of what 'good' management is, and it just keeps perpetuating, like some of those urban legends.