tcpip: (Default)
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2009-07-22 09:22 am

War with the boss

As regular readers will know, I work for a high-performance and scientific computing centre. Half my time is seconded to provide collaborative service technologies to an Australian-wide and federally-funded group.

My manager in the later group is a problem. He is ignorant of the technology he manages, he is incompetent at actual management, and he uses the 'big dick' method of staff relations. Needless to say, this does not engender much respect for the tech staff he manages.

My last two quarterly reviews have expressed, in no uncertain terms, that I have been extremely good at responding to customers and pleasing to work with. In this one, the manager has decided there is a problem in this area - without providing any evidence of course - and has started waving his authority around.

I think it's the realisation that he's getting the push from higher up, so he's responding in kind. After all I am the sort of person who doesn't automatically give deference to a person just because they have 'manager' in their name, and I am also the sort of person who will say something or somebody is in error if they are. A manager should be able to take that.

In a nutshell, I'm going to war with my boss. Wish me luck.

[identity profile] serehfa.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:00 am (UTC)(link)
YEARS of sympathy, and best wishes...I have been fired a couple of weeks after getting a good review and a payrise, so anythings possible :)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:08 am (UTC)(link)
Good lord... That is bizarre. What was their excuse on that one?

[identity profile] serehfa.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
The owners hired a toe-cutter, ex waterfront dispute troublemaker, to be "hr" manager. He'd been amusing himself following factory workers home at lunchtime to see if he could get them fired for anything.

They changed policy to put all the engineers together (were 2 separate design departments for 2 product lines) and fire a few. They left the blokes alone; got rid of one girl by pressuring her until she found another job; the other girl was slapdash and arrogant and didn't give a shit, but was fast at producing rubbish, much like some blokes I have worked with, and thus apparently won their respect for it. I was singled out by putting me in a production role when I had been hired for R&D, then being told I wasn't fast enough. He was arrogant enough to tell me his game plan so I played til I got sick of it, then won a months salary at the Tribunal. That was a "learning experience" which finished tarnishing my expectations of working as a professional, but its been useful.