I'm amazed at how true the saying "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch" is when applied to a work environment. I love my job. I find it challenging, interesting, and can see the impact it has on others. Everyday I learn something new or have a new experience. I also love working for BuCorps. My work group is pretty amazing, too. We've got a great mix of energetic young go-getters and more experienced experts. Our customers are great and consistently push us towards excellence.
Nearly a year and a half into my job, I'm getting to the point where I am useful in a technical sense. No longer do I constantly wander around trying to understand things. Now, I get what it is that we do. The basics no longer befuddle me and I've had the opportunity to get my hands deep into some technical problems and help find solutions independently. Understanding how everything works and being able to think about it intelligently is a great feeling and comfort. I am thankful to have had great mentors help me get up to speed so quickly.
This technical knowledge has come with a price. My technical knowledge is great enough that I understand what my teammates are doing and can talk with them about it. I'm also at the point where I can tell when someone is bullshitting their way through a day. Everyone, I think, has those days where they want to go through the motions of the day without thinking. Lack of sleep or an inability to focus on work hits everyone at some point. It is part of being human. But, I work with one guy who is like that every day. This guy has been with BuCorps for 6 years and came in with technical experience. But, I can count the accomplishments this guy has had for the past 6 months on one hand. And, the accomplishments aren't big. They're things I did 6 months into the job. The guys work output isn't due to a lack of technical work to be done. He's even been assigned to lead two efforts. Three months after the assignment, no gains have been made on either project.
The lack of progress, or willingness to work towards progress, is incredibly frustrating to me as a junior employee. I work for less than half of what this individual makes and achieve more results and work harder than I have ever seen him. Several occasions have cropped up where he has asked me to fix a problem he created.
It blows my mind that this guy has been allowed to operate like he does. The rest of the team is busting their ass to get work done while this individual sits at his desk, checks Yahoo mail, and sometimes types on the keys. All without getting anything done. I'm not sure if my boss realizes what the game is. We submit monthly status reports. I don't know what his could possibly contain. That, for me, is the most frustrating part. Everyone else on the team has to work harder because this guy does nothing and I'm not sure if our boss is technical enough to understand. How do I manage this? Should I ignore it and let this guy keep sliding through life? Do I call the boss out on the lack of results the guy generates? One would think that eventually he'd get busted but despite several screw ups all still seems well. His lack of performance and desire to work are killing my morale.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Times are a changing...
This week I had several conversations with various co-workers about the cultural differences between our generations. In my immediate work area there are two of us under 30 and the rest are all over 40. Sometimes it is clear that we grew up in different times and under different social norms.
Last weekend, BuCorps employees had a day out at the ballpark. My boss was sitting a row or two in front of me with his wife while I was text messaging co-workers who were tardy trying to see where they were at. The bosses wife, Susan, (who had met my tardy co-worker John and is in her early 30s) wanted to call him and yank his chain about being late. Since I had my phone out, I dialed John's number and handed it over. They had a brief conversation and it was the end of things. Back at work, I got into a conversation with my supervisor about the call. She thought it was weird that her boss' wife called one of her employees. It just left a bad taste in her mouth. I questioned that and mentioned that I didn't think it was that weird. They knew each other and had previously interacted in a non-work setting. After some discussion, we settled on cultural differences. Part of the reason I don't think it is a huge deal is because John and Susan are close to the same age. She's a few years older than he is, but not enough to make any real difference. The conversation was interesting though. And, I guess there's some merit to it.
This is my first job where I'm interacting primarily with people who are of a different generation. I need to keep in mind that they were brought up under different norms. Sometimes, I need to step back and better inventory my audience. That might mean that in some settings I'll change the way I act or what I say. One such occasion is in meetings. People get taken back when I speak up in meetings with high level executives. People seem to get really shy and reserved around the older managers. I have no shame in talking to them and asking them questions. I want to learn. I want to gain knowledge and understanding. I want to interact with the decision makers. This is what I'm a fan of. We all put our pants on the same way and are here to do a job. I want them to help me do my job better, by teaching me. That, I assume, is why they're in management. They must know something I don't. If I want to move through the ranks, I need to figure out what that is.
Last weekend, BuCorps employees had a day out at the ballpark. My boss was sitting a row or two in front of me with his wife while I was text messaging co-workers who were tardy trying to see where they were at. The bosses wife, Susan, (who had met my tardy co-worker John and is in her early 30s) wanted to call him and yank his chain about being late. Since I had my phone out, I dialed John's number and handed it over. They had a brief conversation and it was the end of things. Back at work, I got into a conversation with my supervisor about the call. She thought it was weird that her boss' wife called one of her employees. It just left a bad taste in her mouth. I questioned that and mentioned that I didn't think it was that weird. They knew each other and had previously interacted in a non-work setting. After some discussion, we settled on cultural differences. Part of the reason I don't think it is a huge deal is because John and Susan are close to the same age. She's a few years older than he is, but not enough to make any real difference. The conversation was interesting though. And, I guess there's some merit to it.
This is my first job where I'm interacting primarily with people who are of a different generation. I need to keep in mind that they were brought up under different norms. Sometimes, I need to step back and better inventory my audience. That might mean that in some settings I'll change the way I act or what I say. One such occasion is in meetings. People get taken back when I speak up in meetings with high level executives. People seem to get really shy and reserved around the older managers. I have no shame in talking to them and asking them questions. I want to learn. I want to gain knowledge and understanding. I want to interact with the decision makers. This is what I'm a fan of. We all put our pants on the same way and are here to do a job. I want them to help me do my job better, by teaching me. That, I assume, is why they're in management. They must know something I don't. If I want to move through the ranks, I need to figure out what that is.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Bored? Lonely? Too much work?
Hold a meeting! It's a quick way to get nothing done and make new friends!
That's the joke anyway. Today, I participated in a great meeting. Here's what made it great:
The facilitator/leader knew what was up. She effectively managed the participants ensuring that no one ran away with the meeting. She started on time and made no apologies for those who came late nor made any effort to re-hash for them.
The participants were ready for war. Everyone knew what they brought to the table and shared that. Topics needing discussion and debate got them. Opinions were supported with logic and reason and presented in constructive ways. New ideas bubbled to the surface and were hashed out. Action items were created and defined at the end of the meeting for those in attendance.
It's a great feeling to walk out a good meeting. While not getting anything done, it is empowering to come out of something full of ideas and with a fire to make it happen. Sadly, these good meetings are few and far between. Maybe one day people will change it? What traits do you see in effective meetings?
That's the joke anyway. Today, I participated in a great meeting. Here's what made it great:
The facilitator/leader knew what was up. She effectively managed the participants ensuring that no one ran away with the meeting. She started on time and made no apologies for those who came late nor made any effort to re-hash for them.
The participants were ready for war. Everyone knew what they brought to the table and shared that. Topics needing discussion and debate got them. Opinions were supported with logic and reason and presented in constructive ways. New ideas bubbled to the surface and were hashed out. Action items were created and defined at the end of the meeting for those in attendance.
It's a great feeling to walk out a good meeting. While not getting anything done, it is empowering to come out of something full of ideas and with a fire to make it happen. Sadly, these good meetings are few and far between. Maybe one day people will change it? What traits do you see in effective meetings?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Proofreading
I always found the most difficult part of the writing process to be going back to proofread a paper once it was done. Admittedly, I rarely did it while I was in school. Now that I'm a big boy in the working world, I'm much more cautious before I submit something for someone else to read. I'll read an e-mail two or three times to make sure it is grammatically correct and conveys the ideas I intend before I click send.
Not everyone checks what they do as cautiously as I do. I'm getting a new boss at BuCorps next week. The things I know about him I can count on one hand, but I've already got a bad taste in my mouth. My front line supervisor sent him an e-mail welcoming him to the job. He replied that he was excited for the position and yadda yadda. His response also included a grammatical error. I don't purport myself as having excellent grammar, I'm a computer scientist. It's not what I do. So, when I notice a grammatical problem, it's there. For me, the problem is bigger than a grammatical error. This guy either didn't proofread the e-mail he wrote or proofread it and didn't recognize the error (his subject/verb agreement was off). Either way, I'm nervous:
1) It was a simple e-mail; a middle school student could have written it. If he didn't recognize the problem, there are several universities which need their degrees back.
2) If he didn't proof read it, I'm going to be working for a man who doesn't care enough about the first impression his employees will have about him to proofread a 3 sentence e-mail.
Yes, it's shallow for me to think like this. But, is it to much to ask of someone making over $120,000 to proofread something? I hope not.
Not everyone checks what they do as cautiously as I do. I'm getting a new boss at BuCorps next week. The things I know about him I can count on one hand, but I've already got a bad taste in my mouth. My front line supervisor sent him an e-mail welcoming him to the job. He replied that he was excited for the position and yadda yadda. His response also included a grammatical error. I don't purport myself as having excellent grammar, I'm a computer scientist. It's not what I do. So, when I notice a grammatical problem, it's there. For me, the problem is bigger than a grammatical error. This guy either didn't proofread the e-mail he wrote or proofread it and didn't recognize the error (his subject/verb agreement was off). Either way, I'm nervous:
1) It was a simple e-mail; a middle school student could have written it. If he didn't recognize the problem, there are several universities which need their degrees back.
2) If he didn't proof read it, I'm going to be working for a man who doesn't care enough about the first impression his employees will have about him to proofread a 3 sentence e-mail.
Yes, it's shallow for me to think like this. But, is it to much to ask of someone making over $120,000 to proofread something? I hope not.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Asking the right questions
My dad is an attorney. Maybe that helps me more than I thought as far as figuring things out.
A great example is from today at work. BuCorps is being audited. From my standpoint, that means applications and servers I host are getting scanned for security vulnerabilities. I fully support this effort and want to ensure that our servers are as robust as they need to be to thwart attacks. Today were several meetings with the group doing the audit. I've never been involved in an audit of this nature before, so I was pretty interested in how it would progress. I prepared for all the questions I envisioned would be asked so I didn't come across as unqualified.
The first meeting was about backup and recovery. Notebook in hand full of information about our backup, disaster recovery, and continuity of operations plans I was prepared. Imagine my disappointment when all I was asked was for a screen shot that demonstrated that the databases were scheduled to be backed up nightly. I was in shock. I wasn't asked about the percentage of the time the backups were successful. I wasn't asked if the backups were moved to another location. I wasn't asked about restoring from backup. I wasn't asked about what happens if the building is blown up and we lose servers. All the auditors wanted to see was that the backups were scheduled. Had they asked the right questions, they possibly could have gotten some pretty juicy information for their audit. But, alas, all they wanted to know about were the scheduled jobs.
My second meeting was about security patches. The auditors wanted to see what operating system security patches had been installed in the last 6 months. I asked them what I needed to show them to satisfy their requirements. They didn't know. I asked them what servers they were interested in. Again, they had no specifics. They ended up getting screen shots of the add/remove program wizard. I hope it works.
My third meeting was about security scanning. The first thing that irked me was when the auditors showed up late. Everyone else made it on time, they were late. But, I'll forgive that. It gave everyone else an opportunity to prepare for their arrival. Having heard stories of past audits crippling hardware because an improper button was selected, I had several topics to discuss. The most hilarious was trying to get the idea across that running security scans on a production server in the middle of the day was not a good idea. They just didn't understand the repercussions. In fact, the importance of the servers seemed to slip their mind. The servers they wanted to scan are used by more than 40,000 employees every day. The servers interact with terabytes of data each day. It just didn't click.
The audits will continue next week so I'm sure the hilarity will continue. I guess today just reinforced the importance of understanding what you're working on. A finance major will have difficulty doing a GOOD audit of a computer infrastructure because they don't know what everything is, the same way a computer expert couldn't do a home inspection. When eliciting information, leading questions certainly have their place, but so do open ended questions. Good open ended questions allow much more knowledge to be gained than a simple leading question. Most importantly, to quote the movie Finding Forrester, "You gotta know the rules if you wanna play the game."
A great example is from today at work. BuCorps is being audited. From my standpoint, that means applications and servers I host are getting scanned for security vulnerabilities. I fully support this effort and want to ensure that our servers are as robust as they need to be to thwart attacks. Today were several meetings with the group doing the audit. I've never been involved in an audit of this nature before, so I was pretty interested in how it would progress. I prepared for all the questions I envisioned would be asked so I didn't come across as unqualified.
The first meeting was about backup and recovery. Notebook in hand full of information about our backup, disaster recovery, and continuity of operations plans I was prepared. Imagine my disappointment when all I was asked was for a screen shot that demonstrated that the databases were scheduled to be backed up nightly. I was in shock. I wasn't asked about the percentage of the time the backups were successful. I wasn't asked if the backups were moved to another location. I wasn't asked about restoring from backup. I wasn't asked about what happens if the building is blown up and we lose servers. All the auditors wanted to see was that the backups were scheduled. Had they asked the right questions, they possibly could have gotten some pretty juicy information for their audit. But, alas, all they wanted to know about were the scheduled jobs.
My second meeting was about security patches. The auditors wanted to see what operating system security patches had been installed in the last 6 months. I asked them what I needed to show them to satisfy their requirements. They didn't know. I asked them what servers they were interested in. Again, they had no specifics. They ended up getting screen shots of the add/remove program wizard. I hope it works.
My third meeting was about security scanning. The first thing that irked me was when the auditors showed up late. Everyone else made it on time, they were late. But, I'll forgive that. It gave everyone else an opportunity to prepare for their arrival. Having heard stories of past audits crippling hardware because an improper button was selected, I had several topics to discuss. The most hilarious was trying to get the idea across that running security scans on a production server in the middle of the day was not a good idea. They just didn't understand the repercussions. In fact, the importance of the servers seemed to slip their mind. The servers they wanted to scan are used by more than 40,000 employees every day. The servers interact with terabytes of data each day. It just didn't click.
The audits will continue next week so I'm sure the hilarity will continue. I guess today just reinforced the importance of understanding what you're working on. A finance major will have difficulty doing a GOOD audit of a computer infrastructure because they don't know what everything is, the same way a computer expert couldn't do a home inspection. When eliciting information, leading questions certainly have their place, but so do open ended questions. Good open ended questions allow much more knowledge to be gained than a simple leading question. Most importantly, to quote the movie Finding Forrester, "You gotta know the rules if you wanna play the game."
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