The person for whom I'm doing a software installation asked that it be done a different way than the vendor suggested. I said okay. Last night, I realized that doing this was possible, but it had a significant downside. I told her that.
This morning, she said that yes, she'd come to the same conclusion, and we should do it the way the vendor said. No mention of whose idea it was to do it that other way. And no thanks for realizing the problem before the project had gone far. Just a certain sense of yes, I'm on top of things.
I had noticed a tendency to do that. The need to appear in control, focused on the big picture, in touch with the powers that be, all seem important to this person. That's unfortunate, I think, because I suspect it tends to make people working for her reluctant to take risks, take stands. There's no sense of collegiality, of working together toward a common goal. There's Management, and then there's the people who take care of the minor details, like making it work. Then again, it got her promoted to an important position, so I suppose there's something to be said for it. This might simply be the traditional techie scorn for the desk-and-meeting-bound.
Maybe. It does make me wonder how people like her summarize me.
6 comments:
Off to visit family for Christmas but wanted to wish you the very best of holidays for you and your family!
Well, thank you! Can I use that marvelous house of yours while you're gone? The view sounds pretty terrific...(g)
Take care, and drive safely. Watch out for reindeer.
Heh-- I wonder the same thing sometimes, too.
Merry Christmas!
and to you as well, G!
A management type once said to me "When I need a plumber, I hire a plumber, and when I need my airplane fixed, I hire a mechanic. The mechanic doesn't make an airline, any more than the plumber makes a water distribution system."
I took that as a serious answer. And I have no come back on it so far.
I am working on that paradigm right now...as the workload gets larger and larger, I need to evaluate what I do, why I do it, and how I do it. Formost in my mind as I do that is that quote from the airline exec above. I find that it has more and more truth in it as I and my business mature.
He's right in the particular, wrong in the aggregate. Multiple mehanics DO make an airline. They directly affect the primary tool used by the airline to deliver its service. The plumber, that's more hands on and personal, but still, to ignore the absolute necessity of their service is to assume that the occasional leaky fitting is okay.
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