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Or as I like to call it… Uncertain Future

So as many of you may or may not know, my boss is stressing out something hard core and you know what they say about fecal excrement rolling downhill. This all came to a T recently when I got a ticket early in the morning from our CEO. It was addressed to my manager, not the IT department, and it simply asked for him to see her when he got in.

Well I took that ticket, assigned it to my manager, and sent it his way. He seemed fairly mellow that day, and today as well. He let slip in conversation that his conversation with her went along the lines of: “IT service was better before we hired you.”

Now this simply isn’t true. The company was rife with network configuration issues, VM servers without licencing, etc… My manager was hired sometime in 2015 and since then he has been dragging these problems into the light so they can be addressed. Of course things aren’t running well, not only are we trying to optimize IT infrastructure in a poorly documented environment, the company as a hole is expanding projects faster than anything I’ve ever seen before. This means new users, new sites, new hardware. It’s a lot for just 2 people.

Today my manager told me our plans going forward and slipped in the phrase: “If they don’t fire me first.”

I really hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t want to be responsible for this mess.

Anyway, have a good one everyone and if you’re reading this on Friday. Happy Friday!

20 Spice ups
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Ouch, sounds like a perception of the last people saying there weren’t any problems when the company was rife with them. Best of luck on that.

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wow. that sounds like a stressful situation for you both.

good luck.

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That is a tough situation. Just make sure management has visibility to all of the work that is being done, all of the things being fixed and problems needing to be addressed. Good luck!

3 Spice ups
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I love the situations I find myself in, work wise that is.

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I’ve seen similar situations. I pointed out to the person criticizing that the mistake was theirs and was one of perception. IT is not a “service.” Today, more than ever, IT is the company. There are no more hospitals, for example. There are IT-driven companies that deliver hospital services. There are no investment companies. There are IT-centric companies that deliver investment services.

Suggests that your boss point out to the CEO that it’s really his company and it’s her lack of leadership and direction that’s causing it to go off course.

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Sometimes the most difficult thing for an IT person to learn when they reach management level is how to “Speak Boss” – i.e. how to communicate IT needs, successes and status to upper management (who are almost always non-technical people). If you’re comfortable enough with your boss to provide suggestions, it might be worth it to pass along the link to this presentation:

1 Spice up
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Support your boss as best you can. It is possible to get through to the other side, your trust and relationship with her will be for the better. On the other hand, make sure you have a way out.

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Just make sure you CV is up to date…

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Prepare for disaster and hope for the best.

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I have seen this a few times. Our users work “against” us, even though we try to work “with” the users.

I just smile. No matter how hard they try, they can’t get me pregnant.

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Ouch, one thing I will say. It’s important in IT not just to know your stuff and be bringing positive change, it’s important to communicate that to management and keep them involved. If management is unable to see or hear and you have tried multiple approaches, it’s time to move on.

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From the OP’s writeup, I fear his boss is about to get tossed into the mobility pool.

Seen it happen, in my extensive career travels, three different times. It’s happened to me once. I really should write a book…

Agree with Robert’s statement above: it’s a presentation issue for IT manager / leader / director types. You have to find a way to manage perception of IT. You have to brand or un-brand IT. You have to sell it to the Executroids ALL THE TIME. And it’s a really hard thing to do.

We’re not marketing; we’re not sales; we’re IT folk who fix problems. And stupid is one that “cain’t be fixed!”

You may be stuck with selling a broken, undocumented, dysfunctional set of systems that… might benefit from a meteor strike, so you could just start all over.

You may be stuck in the IT valley while the Big Shots live on Mt. Groupthink. “Great idea boss! That’s why you’re Governor! Oh, no, here comes that IT guy with more bad news…”

So it’s all about communication, preparation, and planning. Do your best, but prepare your exit strategy.

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I generally have to concur. I’ve spoken with my GF and we both agree that should they decide to can my manager, they might come knocking on my door first.

She brought up great points I didn’t think about like:

  • If in my argument for not firing my boss, I can’t come across looking like I’m taking sides.

  • If i’m approached about the state of the IT department, I need hard facts: dates, events, details. All of these needs to be organized and concise in order to effectively convey how everything that’s been happening was because it was messed up to begin with, and we’re in the process of fixing it.

  • Whenever I make discuss anything with them, I need to not deal in absolutes and offer alternatives like: We need more IT staff, or we need to hire some temp help for the large projects.

All these things are things I don’t think about because all I really love is connecting people to technology.

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Hope it doesn’t come to fruition that they let your boss go.