Post #43,309
6/24/02 11:16:08 AM
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just got screwed over in a review
10 days ago I received the worst review I ever have = "Unsatisfactory".
To say that it was like a kick in my career's groin is an understatement. Some things I expected, like being hit for stuff that blew up in Production but worked fine in testing - my fault. But other things, like taking too long for a given project, which I complete by the due date but am told I took too many HOURS (which is not listed on the project sheets I'm given, and have only been put into a tracking program since early May) was a complete blindside. If the boss or the customer thinks something should take 2 hours, then they should tell me somehow that I should do it in 2 hours. If it is going to take longer, and I know that in advance, I can say so. Some things take longer once you get into them because you discover that the customer gave you crap data, or the network that morning is molasses slow, or whatever the case may be. Other things like "has shown no real innovation in his daily tasks". Tell me: how the hell do you "show innovation" in programming? Maybe you can come up with a more efficient way to do a procedure, but then, maybe you can't. When the system has NO documentation, and you turn to fellow programmers for their knowledge of areas you\ufffdve never been into before, should you be knocked for \ufffdrelying on input from other team members\ufffd? And to top it off, flagged for \ufffdQuantity of work\ufffd. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Numerous times over the past 6 months I have emailed both my manager and her assistant, telling them I\ufffdm available for work, and have received numerous replies from the assistant that \ufffdshe doesn\ufffdt have anything for me right now\ufffd. So during that time I dive into a programming book to expand my knowledge, or hit the code to decipher some arcane business logic. But all to no avail: in the review I get hit with \ufffdneeds to improve his quantity of work\ufffd. Since I can\ufffdt give myself work, and they don\ufffdt give it to me, then what?
How do you overcome your manager's perception that you're not cutting it? How do you show an improvement when you don't know what the metrics are?
I\ufffdm going to post my resume on the major boards tonight. I\ufffdm open to anyone\ufffds and everyone\ufffds suggestions.
lincoln
"Four score and seven years ago, I had a better sig"
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Post #43,316
6/24/02 12:30:56 PM
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Sounds like classic managing to lower client expectations
What they think they want and what you think they want are on different pages, if people dont love ya, time to hit the bricks and go where you are appreciated.
thanx,
bill
TAM ARIS QUAM ARMIPOTENS
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Post #43,326
6/24/02 1:41:28 PM
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That is pretty much what happened to me
it is a trick that they use to get rid of an employee without calling it a downsizing.
2 hours to get a program done? It should take weeks at least if it is a complex program. Their expectations are too unfair, unless it is just changing the font type, the labels, and the colors of the program.
Beware that sometimes when it works great in the test environment that something on the production machine can foul things up. For example I wrote an ASP page to do a report and cache the report to a text file to speed things up so it only updates the page once a day. It worked fine on the development and test servers, but died on the production machine because someone set the directory the text page was stored in to read only. Then they refused to change the rights to that directory, and it ruined the whole program. Was it my fault that it didn't work? Not the way I see it, as I didn't have admin access to the production server to check the rights for the iusr**** account. Basically I was set up to fail, as I expect you were.
Tricks they teach in management class:
#1 Shread any documents that excuse the employee for illneses and then count the sick days against them.
#2 Set them up to fail. For task requirements change months to weeks, and weeks to hours. Do what you can to foil things for them. Give vauge task descriptions and then claim they didn't do everything they were told. If they ask questions about the vauge descriptions say they have poor communication skills.
#3 Accept every rumor told about them as being true, chalk it up to "suspicion".
#4 Claim that they are doing personal business at work. If they are reading a book during lunch hour, claim they were reading the book during work hours. If they get a phone call from a vendor, claim it is a personal phone call, or that they spend too many hours talking to vendors.
#5 Monitor their web activities, if they visit Yahoo Clubs for programming info, claim it is a personal club, do the same for ASPTODAY.COM and others. Exagerate on the time used on the web so that minutes become hours. Treat visits to MICROSOFT.COM, etc as PORNO sites or other sites the employee shouldn't be visiting. If you can, get the people in IS/IT to create a fake log.
#6 Give them probation, and then wait a few weeks and make up something to get rid of them. Say you suspect they broke the rules, and then let them go. Keep screwing with them after they leave the company so that you can justify your poor review on them.
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #44,457
7/4/02 12:32:28 PM
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Sigh. Dev vs. beta vs. deployment
We have development environments, beta environments. Things work fine in the development environment. Beta environment fails miserably. Track one problem down to an invalid macro (oh Gawd I hate places that make extensive use of macros.) Other problem remains intractible for a couple of days until I discover an obscure bug in the make scripts that we're using to compile and maintain the beta environment.
Now in my annual review, if my manager is a SOB such as what y'all are talking about, this could very well be used against me. My immediate manager is *not* such an SOB, but then he's not the only person in the heirarchy of management. Who can tell what the higher-ups in human resources may interpret or do?
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Post #44,499
7/4/02 9:47:50 PM
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Simple, they wanted to be rid of me
they figured that after 4 years, I have already done all I can for them, and I was earning too much of a salary for my position. 4 years of good reviews, and then one big awful review that makes mountains out of molehills, and fabercates the rest.
Correct, the higher ups in HR have no idea of what I am doing, my immediate supervisor is the one who reports to them what I am doing. He all of a sudden stopped seeing things my way, because he or the higher ups wanted to be rid of me. I could only prove it in court if they haven't already shreaded the documents or email or meeting minutes related to their decision to get rid of me. Being a lawfirm, they like to get rid of evidence, like my doctor's excuse notes for when I was out sick. Who knows what else they shreaded?
According to ex-coworkers, they haven't replaced me yet in that position. So they either eliminated my position and were too chicken sh*t to call it a downsizing, or they cut $5X,XXX USD out of their budget and decided to get rid of me because my salary was that high.
I also spoke about forming an IT union, and that could have done it as well.
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #43,343
6/24/02 4:04:44 PM
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Document everything
keep the documents offsite, and in a lock box or saftey deposit box. Contest the review and/or probation, and contact a lawyer. I wish I would have done that, but I think it may be too late for it? Keep copies of your email, or whatever communication you had between your bosses and you. If I would have done that and keep copies offsite, I could have turned around and sued the firm. But I didn't think of keeping copies off site, and whatever copies I have at work have either been lost, shreaded, or modified.
Basically, save whatever money you can and get ready for unemployment again. Either they are going to fire you, or force you to quit. Don't get any loans, charge anything to credit cards, and don't buy anything expensive for a while just in case you need to live off of unemployment.
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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Post #45,002
7/10/02 2:56:07 AM
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Any warning?
I would be a little upset that they did not tell you earlier that they did not like your work.
I would say something like, "I did not know that you were unsatisfied until the review. If there are problems, I would like to know about them a bit sooner next time so that I can correct them."
As for the advice to "move on", the economy for IT stinks right now. Unless you are lucky or have a super-smile, it is rough out there. You may just have to put up with shyte until tech hiring picks up again.
________________
oop.ismad.com
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Post #45,060
7/10/02 3:42:40 PM
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Usually little warning signs
they didn't tell me in advance that they didn't like my work, they waited until the review. There were some signs, but I didn't know how to read them. Such as managers withholding important information from me, not being invited to important meetings, being overworked, coworkers talking behind my back about me, and the attitudes that some coworkers had towards me.
I am free now, to choose my own destiny.
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