I had a sit-down with MCB yesterday. If she’s as straightforward as she claims, things may be looking up. Perhaps I’m an optimist. I made a case for replacing billing and ticketing, to reduce much wasted effort in support, accounting and engineering. She seems to agree that it sounds like a no-brainer. And all of my team was in the office yesterday. Yay. A good day. Now if I could just get the correction, or a very good explanation, on the discrepancy in last quarter’s bonus, I might feel better. One of the critical issues I emailed DK about nearly two weeks ago. If it doesn’t show up this payday (tomorrow) and no explanation is forthcoming, well, I can’t predict my response.
of being a manager in my particular shoes is that I was never able to let go
of the technical part of my job. Not even half of it. I was expected to
move up to “Director-level” and assume those duties, which include
orchestrating the big picture, cracking the whip, and babysitting, while
continuing to troubleshoot the many, many issues that come up in this
business that my subordinates have thus far been unable to resolve on their
own, and frankly, probably have no desire to learn to do so.
So I’m wearing a few hats. I’m the boss of these guys. I’m supposed to be
architecting the master plan, although every major decision, especially
those involving money, must be signed off on by someone higher up in the
food chain. The bureaucracy is getting thick already, and if you could see
this food chain, you wouldn’t envy me. I try my best.
Meanwhile, I’m constantly being asked for assistance by the front-line guys
in solving problems I consider to be trivial. I don’t want to alienate
them, but sometimes I feel like asking some of them if they even have the
capacity to learn. I’ve gotten a bit better at delegating those, I
generally redirect them to someone who I know can solve it, knowing, of
course, that will come back to bite me in the next meeting when I ask why
the assignments aren’t getting done. “Because you told so-and-so to
escalate this to me, and I was pulled off my main tasks to do so.” Tell the
truth, bucko. If you hadn’t been pulled off your main tasks, would you be
focusing on finalizing your deliverables, or would you be browsing funny
videos on the net or instant-messaging your friends?
One day the big bosses will implement a strict we’re-watching-you policy,
and that will GREATLY change the momentum of your day. Don’t say I didn’t
warn you.
This is a rough sketch of our company OrgChart. I (BG) am Director of Operations. MD is Director of Bus Dev. DK is COO, but has been pulled aside to head another project, and is fairly absent.
The left stack under me are engineers. The right stack under me is tech support, of which GL is the head. JH is our current accounting person, currently a temp.
MCB, who is likely our new boss, started yesterday. Stopped by with DvV
and introduced herself. I felt bad — because of my lack of
bookshelves, my office appears extremely disorderly. Oh well. Hope she
doesn’t live by first impressions. DK, old boss, hasn’t responded to
any of my important emails over the past couple of weeks, giving me even
further signs that MCB is going to be the new boss, or that someone is.
Perhaps the ship has steering after all. Some of us want to excel, and
it’s getting more and more difficult.
