Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:58 pm**

Jesus fucking Christ.

So my manager quit a couple of weeks ago. He wanted me to be the next manager, and thought I'd do well, etc. We then had some transition meetings in which he basically told me half the people on the team were crap or had significant issues in their work, and half the projects the team had worked on were time bombs. As a manager, he makes you feel great, because he'll a) stick up for you no matter what, b) stick up for the team, and c) only say good things. During our transition meetings, he talked shit about half the people, and said I needed to be on them like a hawk. (Um, what were you doing the past 3 years, mr quitting?)

Thib knows this guy from a place we all used to work.

He quits, I was named Acting Manager.

Despite there being 2 holidays and 4 weekend days since he quit, I've worked every damned day.

Last Friday, someone had been working on something for >3 days. It was about 1/2 to 1 day of work. I got into a management meeting, and two managers told me that a particular database upgrade wouldn't work according to that person. "No, all upgrades work" I said. They said employee X said otherwise. So after the meeting, I talked to employee X and he stated that he was correct. I asked why? "Because that's how I fixed the previous problem."

Apparently creating a WHOLE NEW PROBLEM was his solution. And taking 3.5 days to do it. (Quite frankly, it was 4 hours of work) The release manager announced that everyone would be working that weekend. This employee said "Hell if I'm working on this god damned stuff all weekend" and stormed off.

Two weeks before, another manager had put him up for a promotion, which was in progress.

This week, I stopped it. Within a month, he'll be on a "performance improvement plan" aka: you're getting fired in 3 months.

Meanwhile, for the whole two weeks, one employee has been a raging BITCH about me getting the acting manager title. I offered it to him, and I said if he were interested, he should apply or let the director know. "They're just going to hand it to you" was his response.

Note: Of the 8 developers on the team, these are the two worst. Employee A is #1 worst, BITCH is #2 worst.

</rage>

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:02 pm**

Behead them both, put their heads on pikes outside your office door, as a warning to the rest.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:03 pm**

Or, as an experiment, behead the incompetent one and see how that affects the one with the bad attitude.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:16 pm**

If it will make you feel better I can do a better job then them and not know the job and you can fire me! Then show them what I can do no training, an maybe one or both will shot themselves in the head
Or if I don't do that great of a job I can shot one of them. Let me know. Thanks Unk.
Hang in Hang out Live long or in some cases love bunnies

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:54 pm**

This is why I don't want to be a manager.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:25 pm**

Luke, Bunny Lover, Follow the force. Hire Unkbill at 100k a year.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:27 pm**

unkbill wrote:Luke, Bunny Lover, Follow the force. Hire Unkbill at 100k a year.

I think it would be a good investment to hire a biker to go to the movies with you... buy his ticket, and give him $50. Then if anyone talks or uses a cellphone during the film, biker gets up and gets all confrontational. He might get kicked out after the first fight, but it will serve as a warning to others.

Posted: **Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:12 am**

unkbill wrote:If it will make you feel better I can do a better job then them and not know the job and you can fire me! Then show them what I can do no training, an maybe one or both will shot themselves in the head
Or if I don't do that great of a job I can shot one of them. Let me know. Thanks Unk.
Hang in Hang out Live long or in some cases love bunnies

I've missed you, unk

Posted: **Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:16 am**

thibodeaux wrote:This is why I don't want to be a manager.

My brother became a development manager for the first time 2 months ago.

Me: So what's the salary bump like?
Him: 10% or so, at least in my experience, and others I know.
Me: That doesn't sound worth it.
Him: You really only become manager if you want to be a director some day. That's where the money is.

So yeah... I'm torn. Quite frankly, it doesn't seem worth it, especially when people will pay me $100-125/hour to do consulting on the side. On the other hand, I like the idea of trying to guide the team to create better products, etc.

On the other other hand, see post 1.

Posted: **Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:52 am**

Yeah, guiding the team to make things better is nice in theory, but you have to make sure you're doing it at a company that isn't so hopeless as to make that completely impossible.

Posted: **Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:15 am**

So despite employee A being the least competent person on the team, the former manger was PUSHING for a big raise for him. The former mgr had told me that two OTHER managers had been pushing for it, and he was happy to let it happen. Well, turns out according to managers at a mtg with him, HE was the one pushing. So that stopped.

Then, it turns out employee B from above, who's pretty good, not excellent, was on a list to be on a performance improvement plan... but employee A, who completely sucks, was getting a big raise. WTF?

For comparison, I'd give employee B a 7/10... I'd give employee A a 4/10, at best.

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:20 pm**

Well, I officially accepted on Thursday. New title: Senior Manager of Database Development (or something to that effect).

So I get:
new title
$15k pay raise
15% annual bonus (previous bonus: 0%)
new laptop
some development software I've wanted for a while
To tell people what to do

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:37 pm**

Congratulations: you are now The Man.

Damn You.

Edited By thibodeaux on 1340649475

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:14 pm**

Thanks... money's not everything... but it's sure nice.

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:54 pm**

Don't get an ulcer.

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:05 pm**

GORDON wrote:Don't get an ulcer.

Hah, you're almost 10 years too late.

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:06 pm**

TheCatt wrote:
GORDON wrote:Don't get an ulcer.
Hah, you're almost 10 years too late.

Don't exacerbate the ulcer.

Posted: **Sat Jan 12, 2013 9:56 pm**

Well, I am resigning as manager. Glad I tried it, but ultimately, I just didn't care for it. I really enjoyed the internal parts: dealing with my own team, leading projects, motivating people, coming up with ideas for improvement. We GREATLY improved the performance of our system. Our most critical reporting process went from 11 hours to 38 minutes. Previous manager had been working TWO YEARS to come up with the 11 hour solution. We did the 38 minutes in 1.5 months.

I even enjoyed working with customers. Sure, they're demanding, but that's their job. It was mostly fun.

The part I disliked the most: Working with other managers, upper management, and representatives from other departments. I like my boss, the director of engineering. But getting people to care about "The product" instead of their own little pet projects and initiatives is painful.

The good news: I get to keep the pay raise and the bonus, and I'll be a manager-level individual contributor, database architect. So I'll still get to do the technical leadership/fun stuff, but we'll get a more peoply manager person to take over the managerial side of things. I've had that role/arrangement twice before, and have found it to be my favorite way to work

Posted: **Sun Jan 13, 2013 8:56 am**

My manager just resigned (Catt, you know him: Mark I.) Anyway, our company is still small enough that the engineering managers report directly to the VP. Well, now MY TEAM reports directly to the VP. We'll see how that works out.

Posted: **Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:40 pm**

I still have yet to see our PM, although I saw the dude that lasted for about a month that came before him. For all I know, he's just a figment of someone's overactive imagination. Management seems to have a large burnout rate.