doom, doom, doom
Steve VanDevender
coming. The last one chopped off a limb of the organization, or at
least shook off some really good people, and was handled with stunning
ineptitude by the CIO.
A no-hands, I mean "all-hands" meeting was announced a couple weeks ago,
scheduled for tomorrow.
Today it was also announced that the CIO's boss, one of the Provosts,
would be coming to meet him in our building (an unprecedented event, to
my knowledge), so everyone smile and wave. Hmm. I did spot them
leaving the building together but was not within smiling and waving
distance.
Right about that same time one of my colleagues was called into a
meeting with our boss (subject of many of my previous rants) to be told
his contract would not be renewed at the end of its term this year.
This was conveyed in a letter signed by both our boss and the CIO.
Some of my other colleagues seem to have been hoping that if there was a
reorganization it might mean that our systems group would be reorganized
out from under our awful boss. I personally think nothing so beneficial
would actually happen. I suspect that even if that does happen, the
result will end up being just as awful as our current situation. It's
clear the CIO has no actual interest in helping our systems group since
he happily approved letting our boss let a competent and productive
person go for whatever insane reason she came up with.
I actually won't be surprised if the CIO announces he's leaving for a
new job (apparently he's been looking) and our boss is to be put in
charge when he leaves. It's the most disastrously absurd possibility I
can imagine, so it has a high likelihood of occurring in our
environment. Even if my guess is wrong, whatever does happen ought to
be at least as absurd.
--
Steve VanDevender "I ride the big iron" http://hexadecimal.uoregon.edu/
ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu PGP keyprint 4AD7AF61F0B9DE87 522902969C0A7EE8
Little things break, circuitry burns / Time flies while my little world turns
Every day comes, every day goes / 100 years and nobody shows -- Happy Rhodes
Geoff Lane
> There have been some rumors that we might have another "reorganization"
> coming. The last one chopped off a limb of the organization, or at
> least shook off some really good people, and was handled with stunning
> ineptitude by the CIO.
An organisation of my acquaintance has had a number[1] of reorganisations in
the past few years with little to show for it except frequent visits to the
employment tribunals (a kind of court.)
One might think that something would be learnt over the years but it seems
not.
[1] Two reorganisations = One fire in terms of disruption to services, but
without the advantage of getting new hardware from the insurance settlement.
Peter Corlett
[...]
> An organisation of my acquaintance has had a number[1] of reorganisations
> in the past few years with little to show for it except frequent visits to
> the employment tribunals (a kind of court.) One might think that something
> would be learnt over the years but it seems not.
It's possible that somebody has done a cost-benefit analysis and decided
that the employment tribunals are still cheaper than redundancies.
--
Improvable Tripe: http://tripe.cabal.org.uk/
Steve VanDevender
> It's the most disastrously absurd possibility I can imagine, so it has
> a high likelihood of occurring in our environment. Even if my guess
> is wrong, whatever does happen ought to be at least as absurd.
Apparently I have developed a substantial Strategic Pessimism Reserve to
get me through difficult times, as what really went down didn't quite
meet my expectations for absurdity.
We got told that a new director is being created to take over the
management of our Systems and Operations people who are currently
managed by our execrable harpy of a boss. This failed to meet my
expectations for disaster by allowing for a small chance of a positive
outcome.
Of course, the current situation still means months more under the
management (if I may call it that) of the EHB, who now knows we will be
taken away from her leaving plenty of opportunity for her to sabotage
the new manager by mistreating and eliminating more of us.
One of my colleagues managed to arrange a meeting with our CIO earlier
in the morning to discuss our current difficulties, learning the news of
the intended new hire ahead of the "all-hands" meeting, but also left
his meeting with the impression the CIO is not willing to otherwise
intervene to improve our lot before this new manager is hired, even
though he is himself noticeably unhappy with the EHB.
This intended new manager will also basically be stuck in a position of
having to arbitrate demands from three other directors for Systems time
to work on projects, which will likely be no fun for him or her and
possibly no better for us either.
Maarten Wiltink
news:slrnfq3nbm.ktv...@spc1-burn1-3-0-cust209.bagu.broadband.ntl.com...
[...]
> The logical end point is a gaggle of managers sitting in a committee
> room, meeting to work out a strategy to re-organise themselves to cope
> with not actually having anybody who can do anything, ...
This strategy has recently been discovered and is now being rolled
out worldwide under the name of 'outsourcing'.
Before that, it was named the 'virtual enterprise', but that was hardly
satisfactory, involving as it did still some people with real skills,
albeit elsewhere so the managers didn't have to physically encounter
them while entering their marble office buildings.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
David Gersic
> We got told that a new director is being created to take over the
> management of our Systems and Operations people
Hey, that might even be good news. Toss your resume in the ring for
the position.
> his meeting with the impression the CIO is not willing to otherwise
> intervene to improve our lot before this new manager is hired, even
> though he is himself noticeably unhappy with the EHB.
It may be that the problem is already solved, at least in his mind,
therefor it no longer need solving.
> This intended new manager will also basically be stuck in a position of
> having to arbitrate demands from three other directors for Systems time
> to work on projects, which will likely be no fun for him or her and
> possibly no better for us either.
A challenge, to be sure, but one that a non-EHB should be able to
manage.
David Gersic
> The logical end point is a gaggle of managers sitting in a committee
> room, meeting to work out a strategy to re-organise themselves to cope
> with not actually having anybody who can do anything
Be sure to install a remote operated camera on the way out the door.
ne...@buffy.sighup.org.uk
> This strategy has recently been discovered and is now being rolled
> out worldwide under the name of 'outsourcing'.
You can outsource some stuff, such as painting the walls. However, when you
see a company outsource a part of their business work flow, sell any shares
you have because an all mightly cockup is rapidly approaching.
Our wonderful UK government just _loves_ to outsource business work flow and
as a result we see such cockups as losing 25 million names, addresses and
bank details in the post.
Maarten Wiltink
news:slrnfq4nls.8ue....@my-286.local...
> ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender) wrote:
>> Of course, the current situation still means months more under the
>> management (if I may call it that) of the EHB,
>
> First parsed, of course, as E....-Haired Boss. And then I tried
> solving for E. Didn't go well.
E pericoloso solversi.
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Jasper Janssen
<feeping....@cow-tapult.example.com> wrote:
>ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender) wrote:
>> Of course, the current situation still means months more under the
>> management (if I may call it that) of the EHB,
>
>solving for E. Didn't go well.
It's not Medusa, the Evil-Haired Boss?
Huh.
Jasper
Tai
> Steve VanDevender <ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu> writes:
>
>> It's the most disastrously absurd possibility I can imagine, so it has
>> a high likelihood of occurring in our environment. Even if my guess
>> is wrong, whatever does happen ought to be at least as absurd.
>
> Apparently I have developed a substantial Strategic Pessimism Reserve to
> get me through difficult times, as what really went down didn't quite
> meet my expectations for absurdity.
That's OK. Karma's just prepping you up for something else. It
always comes around. Or, there's something _really_ bad coming up, so
Karma decided not to fuck with you too much yet.
Ultimately though, I think Karma's a zero-sum game. I saw this
plainly last year. While we had the week from hell, my peon was off at
las vegas, on my dime. He was late to the airport, so got a free first
class upgrade. When he arrived, the hotel didn't have his room ready,
so gave him a free upgrade to a $3k/night room. Did I mention my week
of hell, or the collective hell my peer mangler's group and mine went
through? Oh, it was budget month too.
-Tai
--
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