Pointy, pointy hair
I know I promised a while ago not to harp on about work, but somedays I just can't help myself. Like today.
I should probably give a little background on some of our MD's past misdemeanors, since he's the one who's prompted tonights entry. Apologies if I've gone over this before. After the last round of redundancies were announced in December, MD held a meeting the following week to discuss the rational behind them (he didn't say much when he actually made the first announcement, since he fled the room immediately after giving the news). During this meeting, he essentially congratulated the development team for having put together a stable technical solution that was meeting the current needs of the business... and then cited that as a reason why fewer developers were now needed. Naturally we all inferred from this that the reward of doing a good job is the prospect of redundancy. Huzzah. The development team manager did a hasty bit of damage control following this.
I can only assume that it was pointed out to MD what a grievous error he'd made, since at the next company meeting he took the trouble of singling out some of the development teams achievements. A laudable goal, but his presentation suffered somewhat when it became obvious to all that he was simply reading the list from the powerpoint presentation and really had no clue what any of the items actually meant. He just doesn't understand anything about the technical aspects of the business. Whether he actually needs to or not is a different question.
Anyway, today the company newsletter was delivered to our desks. I'd like to quote a few choice excerpts from MD's contribution.
"Less positively, one blight recently has been the number of occurrences of delays in projects being implemented due to resource constraints [...] However, my sense remains that we are not operating at full tilt with the staff that we have. Project delays do not appear to lead to working beyond contracted hours [...] It may be that more staff are needed but it would be good to be able to conclude that this is because everybody is flat out: and that is simply not the case based on walk arounds at 5:31 in the afternoon.Shame on the development team for not working overtime to compensate for the lack of our numbers. To put it mildly this wasn't received well by any part of the business.
Today I left work at precisely 5:30.
I wasn't alone.
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I probably shouldn't post my actual thoughts on that as there is the chance that MD in question could read this...
Speaking as an ex-manager; someone who had to interview, fire, and manage teams and projects alike, I am fully qualified to state that this guy's an idiot; but by no means atypical.
It makes me mad even reading about it. The fact that a manager criticises for not working beyond "contracted hours" - stunning. I wonder if the same criticism would hold if overtime was mandatory beyond the "contracted hours," which I'm guessing it currently isn't.
And frankly, the fact that someone like this can criticise at all given the situation suggests either balls the size of the Millennium Dome or a state of clueless oblivion the likes of which even I have rarely seen paralleled.
Lay a ton of your employees off, point out that their own good work is one of the reasons, make it clear that they're on borrowed time, then expect them to work above and beyond just because. And then bitch them out - and I use the phrase deliberately because that's what that comment was - as what, an attempt to encourage them?
You know the sad part? He probably genuinely doesn't understand why this wrong.
It never ceases to amaze me the sheer levels of stupidity to which people will sink when you give them a management position. I mean, what does this man think he's doing ? Does he believe that this is a good way to manage people ? Or does he know it is wrong, and just not care ? Or not feel he can do the right thing ?
Fire most of the staff, and then reprimand the remainder for not working longer hours than you pay them for. I mean, who seriously believes this is good management technique ?
He's not alone. A certain former maneger of mine did something almost exactly similar. Fortunately he was eventually fired, for related stupidity. But the fact these people tend to have long and apparently succesful careers as managers is what really amazes me. I mean: how is it that someone with such an apparent total lack of clue can keep a job ? Or worse still get a second one ? It makes me quite cross. Really it does.
Not only did you get to finish work at 5.30pm, but you get to play hookey with me tomorrow!! Yay!!!