Death in the family, lost 3 days to that. Tasked AB with installing the virtual environment for the new billing system, and then the new billing system, last Friday. It’s been a week now and I still don’t have it. This is insane. Perception among subordinates is that CC and GH are simply not pulling their weight, either by self-flexible-scheduling or by plain slacking.
Met with MCB again yesterday, provided draft memo outlining justifications and issues for new billing system, had some discussion regarding that. Need to determine methodology for usage-based billing in the new system, and a couple other things. Also provided memo outlining my ideas for using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) a la Akamai to deliver high-bandwidth events such as inclement weather and breaking news.
My theory on network plan seems to be working, although I would rest much more easily when I’ve had another pair of qualified eyes looking at it. Just sent an email to CC asking when his friend can come by.
Received 30-day trial license for new billing software yesterday, directed DvV to prepare a server for it. Last I heard at day’s end yesterday, it was installed and waiting for IP addressing. Just sent an email to DvV asking whether that’s available for us to play with at this time.
Memo to MCB outlining justification for new billing software is at 3.5 pages and holding, pending cursory evaluation of new billing software to ensure that it answers our needs.
As I suspected, a small oversight. This should be more organized, automated, or attended. They don’t realize what this type of financial disruption does to a man who’s feeding a family of four. I need a raise.
NB called out sick despite being specifically requested to close today. And CC decided to “work from home” today because his car needs work. Tomorrow too. And just when I thought we were all back on working schedules again.
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.
Rather than bore you with how it started, I’m going to start right here in the middle of things, and gradually you’ll get the idea of where things are.
Yesterday our bookshelves and dividers were supposed to be delivered. JH, who was put in charge of tracking that order, was out — allegedly sick, though nobody knew this yesterday — and the furniture did not arrive. None of us knew who to call, so we just blew it off. Today, we want to know why the furniture didn’t come yesterday, but she’s still sick. She’s allegedly on her way in, but it’s after 11, so the jury’s still out there.
Yesterday CC came in early and left early. WW was out due to plumbing problems. GH came in but was still complaining of the sinus problems that kept him out twice within the past week or so. Today it’s after 11 and CC is nowhere to be found. GH has called in sick due to “food poisoning” and WW has called in late due to finishing work on his plumbing problem.
MD is up my ass about client requests from the new clients we acquired from our biggest client who went belly-up. Half of them are ongoing, slow-to-resolve issues, and the other half are what I like to call ‘content issues’ which we should not be dealing with, and if we can correct them at all, it is with difficulty due to a fundamental lack of knowledge of their systems.
