Dick moves in your line of work.

[Berkut]

Dealing with offshore development teams when I am managing the development work, but have no actual authority over the contributors.

This leads to things like "Hey, that batch of code we were going to developer to the customers testing group today? You know, the one I told you yesterday was done and would be ready this morning? Yeah, I didn't get that deployed because there was an error when I tried to ftp to the test server." sent to me the night before testing is to start, and after I've confirmed for the customer that we were all set and ready to go, and they can schedule their testing team tomorrow morning.

[dps]

Training my clients a week prior to a conversion & having them show no interest in the subject matter.  Then hearing from my boss a few weeks after the conversion that they're claiming they weren't trained. 

I'm going to start making them sign a form acknowledging that they were trained on each topic.

That used to happen *nonstop* at my last employer.  Upper management understood, though, and didn't hold it against the training dudes.

Most places that I've worked, even with internally conducted training, it's been necessary to get signed acknowledgement from people that they have in fact received the training, or they'll use the "I was never told about that" defense when they screw something up.

What I can't stand is the overall inherent passive-aggressiveness of corporate culture; it is simply mind-boggling.  It's all smiles and knives.  I don't get it.

Amen.

Recent example from colleagues: "Sure, we can handle the workload."

Behind our backs: "Lazy fucks won't help us and we'll be lucky if we finish on time."

On second thought, it's the general inability of many people to say no when they can't deliver on a request.

I think it's partly the result of the desire in corporate culture to put everything, no matter how bad it is, in positive terms.  Maybe it goes back to a misunderstanding of what the old saying, "The customer is always right" actually means.   The tendency to express everything in positive terms has a lot of downside, IMO.  For example, in many companies, they don't ever see problems, they see opportunities.  The downside of that is that if you don't acknowledge that you have a problem, you aren't going to take steps to fix it.

[Jacob]

Dick moves in games generally involve making ill-informed decisions in the later stages of production, without any understanding (and blatant dismissal) of the consequences in terms of budget and time, followed by throwing temper tantrums about the budget and time consequences when they inevitably result. This is usually compounded by the fact that the ill-informed decisions are detrimental to the quality of the game, independent of budget and time concerns.

[MadImmortalMan]

Yes, that's applicable to a lot of things.


Year 1:

MIM - This system is prone to instability, the software is pirated, we cannot support it and there are much better options available right now.

Business - *crickets*

Year 2:

MIM - We really need to get rid of this thing. It's getting terribly unstable and it's unlikely to last much longer. I'll tell you what. I'll go ahead and do some research on alternatives.

*crickets*

Year 3:

MIM - I've sourced a replacement and we're getting it ready. I'll just need some time to prepare the new system for rollout. I'd like some help with load testing.

*crickets*

Year 3.1:

MIM - Your old shitty system has bitten the dust. Enjoy your downtime. By the way, I've already got the replacement you've never heard of nearly ready to go. It just needs a couple weeks more preparation. About that testing...

Business - OMFGthisiscriticall we need it up tomorrow!!!11111

MIM - There may be nasty surprises if we don't do it properly...

Business - Don't care! Now now now!

Year 3.2:

Business - This new system is overloaded! Needs moar powarr!!!!111 This is emergency!!!1111

MIM - lol assholes

[Caliga]

Dealing with offshore development teams when I am managing the development work, but have no actual authority over the contributors.

Welcome to my last job.  That said, the offshore team was actually really good, except for the fact that they didn't really know how to write db-optimized code, which was a problem since we were not in a position to do performance testing, despite my repeated screaming that this was a serious flaw in our QA.

[viper37]

-lawyers who lie - about everything

I tought this was required...

[frunk]

Welcome to my last job.  That said, the offshore team was actually really good, except for the fact that they didn't really know how to write db-optimized code

That's kind of like saying they are really good at building a car, but if you try to drive it over 50 mph it blows up.

[Siege]

Ooops. I clicked the wrong button.

[derspiess]

What I can't stand is the overall inherent passive-aggressiveness of corporate culture; it is simply mind-boggling.  It's all smiles and knives.  I don't get it.

I think you'd have to be a woman to understand it.  Because I think that's where it originated.

[Caliga]

That's kind of like saying they are really good at building a car, but if you try to drive it over 50 mph it blows up.

We got by because after they delivered it, we tweaked it internally.  Now why that was considered acceptable business practice, don't ask me.

[Razgovory]

I think it's partly the result of the desire in corporate culture to put everything, no matter how bad it is, in positive terms.  Maybe it goes back to a misunderstanding of what the old saying, "The customer is always right" actually means.   The tendency to express everything in positive terms has a lot of downside, IMO.  For example, in many companies, they don't ever see problems, they see opportunities.  The downside of that is that if you don't acknowledge that you have a problem, you aren't going to take steps to fix it.

I think it's simply a career-limiting move.  Someone who says, "No, we can't do it in that time", may get fired and replaced with someone who says they can.  Even if they can't.  A good boss wouldn't do this to his employees, but not all bosses are good.

[Jacob]

What I can't stand is the overall inherent passive-aggressiveness of corporate culture; it is simply mind-boggling.  It's all smiles and knives.  I don't get it.

I think you'd have to be a woman to understand it.  Because I think that's where it originated.

Wait... are you suggesting that corporate culture was entirely different before women became involved?

[Grey Fox]

It's not just a suggestion, it's the truth.

[HVC]

No idea if it's changed the culture, but at least on my office all the stupid trivial drama comes from the fairer sex. Hell two male VP's seem to hate eachother but keep it cordial and work together if need be. There are stretches where some female employees (including a manager) won't talk to each other for the most stupid reasons. 

[Caliga]

It's not just a suggestion, it's the truth.