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New Be careful who you step on, on the way up
I dunno if this is PHB territory, but he USED to be.

We'll call him LP.

I've got an person who used to be the president of
my company. He waffled between a nice, intelligent guy,
and a wacked out PHB. He REALLY shines when in project
management mode, but is a bit too salesy. He also
has a revisionist history concerning our company and
what went wrong.

My brother used to report him, and I to my brother.

He bounced manic/abusive, and my brother just took it.
My brother has a degree in psychology, and could read
the "signs", so he never took it personally. Well, not
usually. My brother's wife told him to quit many times
after hearing about the stories.

LP hired someone to be able to get rid of my brother, but
the guy turned out to be such a slimeball that he almost
destroyed the company. I'm now picking up the major failed
project (you've read about that before). I'm SURE it was
a hire to replace, but this guy had bigger plans, which
in turn got LP scared for HIS job. Cool, eh?

So LP hides for 2 years while this guy runs rampant. He
actually had a stroke during some part of it, and spent about
3 months recovering. Now LP gets bounced to project manager,
which means he takes notes for me. We hired back my old boss
(who LP layed off on 9/11!) as a assistant project manager
to LP, so he in theory reports to LP, and takes note for him.

I now spend a decent amount of time with him. And I am
the most HONEST SOB in the world, which means I point out
the downsides of the project to the clients. They've been
screwed for over 2 years, and I don't want the slightest
hint of bullshit in our dealings.

So of course, we get to YELLING. I've never done this before.
We were shaking the walls of the office. I know this because
the CTO has the office next door, and he was too scared to
come in an intervene. He later told me about the walls moving.

It's different now, though. He can't fire me. The company
NEEDS me, and appreciates me, and are merely allowing him
to stick out a year or 2 on this project until his retirement.
I could probably fire him!

So we yell. A lot. And I am not giving in or being beaten
down like everyone before. My old boss (OB) (newly rehired) comes
in and asks if everything is allright.

LP snarls at him:
We're JUST having a discussion!!!!!

OB tries to get us to calm down. FINE! NO YELLING!

That lasts a minute.

We yell some more.

We calm down.

We yell some more.

Oh, now I've got it!
I say:

For every decibel you hit, I'm gonna raise you just a little bit!

That killed it. No more yelling.

He even joked that my brother had given him a stroke, and
now it was my turn.

I take a long lunch, and then we have a productive meeting.

Now today.

It starts again.

He pulls some revisionist history as an example why we needed
to do something a certain way. I pushed back, explained how
HE caused it to happen. He didn't like that. It started again.

And then he said:

LEAVE MY OFFICE!!!

Me: No.

Him: NOW. GET OUT!

Me: No.

I will not give him the ability to dictate this project.
He may be "managing", but I'm "executing". I will not
be excluded from a meeting. I guess he figured he was
heading for a stroke, because he backed off and continued
the meeting. He never met my eyes again. Even when forced
to speak to me, he will not look me in the eyes.

New DEEEEEEP BREATH!!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA.....

No, this is just made up.... If it ain't!!!!


BWAHAHAHAHAHAH.... BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!


Don't it feel good??? Course now, none of the gloating in front of him!

greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!

Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead.
[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]
New I couldn't do that. You're brave.

"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"

New Nah
Brave is doing the "right" thing when there is
a significant personal danger associated with it.

I will often do the stupid thing (as shown in "Open Forum"),
or the bluffing/blustery thing, but ONLY when I hold almost
all the cards. It's taken me 6 years to get to this position,
and I plan to use my power for good, since I'm a techie
who gets rewarded on accomplishments, and opposed to a manager
to gets rewarded by manipulating people. And I'm a "lifer",
or as close as you get in a company today, which means the
top people (owners, ceo, cto) don't question my motives.

I truly believe the downside of screwing up this project is
major damage to the company, which could include massive
layoffs. While my ego doesn't accept the fact I could be
one of them, anything is possible, so I will allways push
to doing this project right, no matter what toes I step on.
And I'm known for that attitude generally, so I'm trusted.

They key is to accept confrontation as inevitable, and use
it to your advantage. I've just started reading a book
on negotiating, and it explains it's version of the various
personality types, as it relates to negotiation. I am an
aggressive problem solver, which directs my behaviour in
most cases. I'm comfortable with that, so I am typically
happy with the outcomes it produces.

Note to gfolkert:
100% true.
Later on in a meeting with the CEO, as we realized
the true cost to the company of this project, I
was about 95% supportive of him. And they did ask,
directly.

No gloating, at least not person or in front of anyone he knows.
New My former job
at the lawfirm, I was there for four and a half years, and they kept promising me to get promoted, but they never did anything about it. Always someone else got promoted. Usually the idiots making the messes for me to clean up got promoted. Why is it that management sometimes decides to reward stupidity? Why does favoritism run rampant?

I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
New I hate revisionistic histories
There is one woman I have to deal with who is so inclined. It really seems to me that she believes, "If I don't remember it, then nobody else can as well!"

Huh? You really think I won't remember X, and Y, and...?

While I can understand the wish, does this ever actually work for anyone?

Cheers,
Ben
"... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything."
--Richard Feynman
New It works for those in power
because people are either scared for their jobs,
or it works for those who are so valuable, its "OK".

This means when they say something that is WRONG, everyone
else in the room does a quick knowing meeting of the eyes
with everyone else, and decides to let it pass.

It's always fun explaining to the new guy, who is about
to interrupt and correct the speaker, that it's just better
to shut up. Not that it's dangerous, just unproductive.
New But when you run a government, a court the same way -
New Define "works"
If you mean that people who have other reasons to have people not talk get people to ignore the stupidity, well OK.

That doesn't translate into it "working" for any real definitions of work though. After all the same people would be perfectly able to admit the same truths and survive them. So what does pretense buy them? Not having to feel that they lost face?

Wouldn't be worth it for me...

Cheers,
Ben
"... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything."
--Richard Feynman
New Respect!
ie: You definitely have mine.
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
New Important word, that..
And in the normal relations in Bizness-2K: it appears that this is the relationship most prominently missing, at least in most of the horror tales as wend their ways into IWE-print.

You can't respect a 'superior' who doesn't know shit / and or / behaves in adolescent ways towards the unfortunates 'below'. And of course too, such a one - prolly has little self-respect for knowing (in most cases?) that s/he really has passed his level-of competence.. \ufffd l\ufffd Mr. Peter and his Principle.

I suppose that we don't hear enough of the beneficent stories, but I'd think that anyone in IT would want to share those - just to keep hope alive that, 'techno' does not *necessarily* breed only the lowest forms of human behavior!

..because that IS my impression overall, and after {migawd!} >5 years of hearing gothic tales of really shitty behaviour - of people being treated literally as commodities. Most of these have been from US of course - where anti-intellect hydrochloride appears to be a chemical in the water, so I have no useful impressions of the way it is in the more civilized (and civil) countries.

Or is 'road rage' rampant elsewhere, too? (It is certainly a symptom of a failing culture - wherever it would be found; just as is rampant drug use the last resort of those who Hate what their daily environment is like)

If I told too many of my 'big science' stories from >15 years ago, it would sound too much like gloating {sigh}. You poor bastards.. when comes the Revolt over revolting conditions? It was too late, after a one goes Postal...




Ashton
New OT: Interesting, Teutonic usage.
Meerkat John goes:
Respect!
ie: You definitely have mine.
Funny, that's exactly the way that word (only spelled with a 'k' in place of the 'c' :-) is used in Germany: Exclaimed by itself like that, it means ~"Bravo!".

Wha, has the German usage snuck into Ozzie parlance? Or was it something you made up on the spur of the moment?
   Christian R. Conrad
Of course, who am I to point fingers? I'm in the "Information Technology" business, prima facia evidence that there's bats in the bell tower.
-- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=27764|Andrew Grygus]
New Don't remember where I first got it from...
...maybe Aretha Franklin :)

I think the place it'd been most heard of late was on Da Ali G show, of all places. Even the Queen Mum said it, doing an Ali G impersonation, apparently.
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
     Be careful who you step on, on the way up - (broomberg) - (12)
         DEEEEEEP BREATH!!!! - (folkert)
         I couldn't do that. You're brave. -NT - (static) - (2)
             Nah - (broomberg) - (1)
                 My former job - (orion)
         I hate revisionistic histories - (ben_tilly) - (3)
             It works for those in power - (broomberg) - (2)
                 But when you run a government, a court the same way - -NT - (Ashton)
                 Define "works" - (ben_tilly)
         Respect! - (Meerkat) - (3)
             Important word, that.. - (Ashton)
             OT: Interesting, Teutonic usage. - (CRConrad) - (1)
                 Don't remember where I first got it from... - (Meerkat)

And don't forget the fire ants.
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