In a funk at work…
I have just about hit a career low in terms of how I have felt about my work. Ideally, you want to do meaningful work that is interesting and have some fun doing it. Unfortunately, it seems the environment I find myself in is so far from that.
In the information technology business, you do the work some business entity needs you to do. At Nokia, it seems each business entity seems to run their own little company with the budget they are given. Some play nice and work maturely. Others are completely unreasonable. Our small organization meanwhile fights and scraps for work, so it cannot be choosey about the work it gets. Sometimes these factors combine to form a very bad situation.
The business we are working with grew their own software internally, but has recently turned it over to us in IT to maintain. Their system is built poorly with now-obsolete technology and has little documentation. It also is quite unstable keeping our fledgling staff up until all hours to keep running. Fortunately, I am not one of those people.
Due to one of their vendor packages no longer being supported, it must be replaced. As such, they chose the replacement and negotiated the contract without IT involvement. They also chose to swap out another knowledgebase type of product. And at the same time, they wanted their obsolete system replaced.
Of course, they wanted all of this done in three months. They also wanted their existing system maintained. No, they did not want to document the requirements for the new system. No, they did not want to put a testing group in place. No, we don’t have much leverage over the vendors in doing their package implementations — those agreements were done without us. No, we don’t know the details of the 26 integrations required. No, we didn’t have our outsourced team up to speed yet.
Our architect arrives to work at 3am and sometimes doesn’t leave until 5pm and works through lunch. I’m an architect too, but playing the role as developer on this project. Others work 10+ hours between developing the new system and supporting the old system. Prior to the Christmas break, it was suggested that we limit our vacation. Two and a half months later, the pace continues.
With the lack of documentation, it has been difficult to estimate the work. In addition, the one vendor has not kept to their schedule. In both vendor cases, the integration approaches are sub-optimal. As you might imagine, we’ve had several deadlines along the way, but missed each one of them. Given all that I’ve represented, is there any wonder why?
With all the schedule slips, our business is rumored to have inquired about our technical competence. Our management doesn’t seem to understand the scope of the project, the resourcing shortages, the vendor relationship challenges, and the affect of long-term heroic measures.
I go to work every day feeling that the business doesn’t respect us and views us as slaves who should not have lives. I lose respect for my management every day for not stepping in to provide us a sane working environment with realistic and attainable project goals. I view the situation as hopeless and given that our competence has been questioned, I’m not inspired in the least to give any of my personal time to benefit the unappreciative business.
As an additional point, our bonuses this half were cut because the business rated us poorly. And yet, this is the same business that puts us in these situations. Of course, our own management perpetuates the problem by enabling the business to do so.
All these factors have me questioning my value system and wishing that I had a job which complemented what I think my value system really requires. Its less about money and more about doing something that matters and sharing the experience with people you enjoy and respect. And working with leadership that respects you, inspires you, and places you in positions where its possible for you to succeed.
