Reply #11: It would have to be...

[TlalocW]

My first full time computer programming job. I started off as a contractor, and my sense of humor got me in trouble the second week (someone asked me if I could do something, and I picked up my Magic 8 Ball from my desk to get the answer). I eventually got under a manager (who is now a good friend) who had the same sense of humor, but I still got in trouble when I told people, "No," in regards to can we do something this way, or will you do it the wrong way, etc. My friend/manager, Robert, could do the same thing, but no one ever got mad at him. Eventually my friend went back to being a programmer, and we were all put under this one jerk of a manager, Randy, who never bothered to check into things. I went to him asking for a raise and a promotion and showed him everything I had done to modernize the scripts my group wrote. Because of me instead of having to write a whole new set of scripts to connect to a hospital bulletin board that we already connected to in a previous line of business, we could just add in the information of the new line of business to the previous scripts, and it was ready to go in five minutes instead of weeks.

He seemed shocked at all I had done, and he came back with, "Well, this is great work, but you have a bit of a reputation here. I'll tell you what... We're in a hiring freeze so we can't promote anyone. Be on your best behavior until the hiring freeze is over, and if there are no more complaints about you then I'll promote you." Fine.

Well, the hiring freeze ends, and my friend/ex-manager and I go to see this guy about a business analyst who keeps screwing up and blaming us. We have a pile of print-outs a half inch thick documenting everything, and we're sick of being the scapegoats (mainly me because no one ever stood up to my friend because he knew the process of everything so well). We get done, and my friend leaves, but I stay. "Randy, have you had any complaints about me?" He says no, and I can see in his eyes that he's trying to figure out why I'm asking. "And the hiring freeze is over?" Yesss... "Those were your two requirements for promoting me and givng me a raise. How about it." Well, it's not that simple... You have this reputation... "Randy, based on what Robert and I just showed you, how much of that reputation do you think is valid? Do you go and follow up on any complaints that add to this "reputation?"" Well, no... "So basically, I'm never going to get ahead in this company because you won't do your job as a manager. I'll always have this reputation no matter how good I am. Robert has told you that I'm the go-to guy when we have some sort of problem to be taken care of through programming, and I always deliver, but it will never make a difference because of my reputation."

A week later, I had gotten a better job, paying more money and using newer programming languages and resigned. Randy was "disappointed that I had decided to do this." I kept my mouth shut because Robert advised me to not burn any bridges, and he went up to read him the riot act later that day about fucking up with me and how that he was going to have train at least two new people to be able to take the place of me, etc. and what a piece of shit he was because he didn't keep promises.

All in all, a mixed bag. I liked working with my friend Robert and a few other people, but the business side was so full of people who were only competent at switching the blame to other groups.

TlalocW