Can you try to find some gaps to fill/problems to solve? Get out there and start speaking to people?
This Business and Moment...
- Thread starter randomshenans
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Can you try to find some gaps to fill/problems to solve? Get out there and start speaking to people?
Oh man, what a week I had. Emailed work and went, sorry I'm off for sometime. Got **** on and need a break. They were like ok, let us know how we can help, which is nice. Took myself off to the alps on my own. No kids, no anyone. On the way down the engine **** a crank on my 2017 range rover sport... not like it's an old car so that was nice. Properly left it's engine all the way up a mountain round and stopped. Got it into a layby but caused all sorts of stuff. Had the firemen there getting the oil off the road as we have fast bikes and cars up and down all day. The police. Then a tow truck towed me to some backend town in the middle of nowhere, where I had to get a taxi all the way up the mountain.
Anyway, that was on friday, it's now Weds. The car has been recovered up here to me. I have a chalet to myself and although I have a load of life admin to get through and sort, I'm really starting to feel OK, or better. Hopeful or optimistic is probably a better way of putting it. I can't get back all week, so that's me here until at least sunday. I might even take next week off as well and see how it goes... I'm working out each day. Either a bike ride, walk, or workout outside. Finding time to read, sort out stuff I've put off for months due to no time (or lack of priority tbf) and jst getting some time to find myself a bit.
It's done such wonders for me, it really has. Anyone feeling burnt out or feels like they might be. Take some time, go somewhere pretty remote and just be. It's bloody amazing.
Just had a meeting with the cheezus guys and smashed a load of stuff as well. I am more focussed on things as I feel I can think more clearly and it's something I should have done a long time ago. Don't burn yourself out people. You forget to appreciate today and one day there won't be a tomorrow.
Anyway, that was on friday, it's now Weds. The car has been recovered up here to me. I have a chalet to myself and although I have a load of life admin to get through and sort, I'm really starting to feel OK, or better. Hopeful or optimistic is probably a better way of putting it. I can't get back all week, so that's me here until at least sunday. I might even take next week off as well and see how it goes... I'm working out each day. Either a bike ride, walk, or workout outside. Finding time to read, sort out stuff I've put off for months due to no time (or lack of priority tbf) and jst getting some time to find myself a bit.
It's done such wonders for me, it really has. Anyone feeling burnt out or feels like they might be. Take some time, go somewhere pretty remote and just be. It's bloody amazing.
Just had a meeting with the cheezus guys and smashed a load of stuff as well. I am more focussed on things as I feel I can think more clearly and it's something I should have done a long time ago. Don't burn yourself out people. You forget to appreciate today and one day there won't be a tomorrow.
Is there a problem with you saying to your manager that you are being asked to do too much and that she needs to find additional resources? “Sorry boss, but I cannot do all three of x, y, and z in the time available. Pick one for me to do and transfer the other two to other people.”
I'm doing a bit better now, but yes the crux of the issue is that there is nobody else, in a team of 60 within the function there isn't anybody that comes close to being able to do what I do. We have people that have the ability, but they're all sensible enough to want to stay well clear, and it would take years of experience and being thrown in at the deep end to be able to substitute for me.
That is not your problem. Saying no is one of the toughest things you can do but you need to push the problem upstairs. Ask them what the company will do if you’re off ill for months?
I’m starting to get sick and tired of all the ‘enablement’ positions within IT who have so much power. So called architects who in reality know very little, project managers who know nothing about IT and are focussed making everyone’s lives difficult. I could go on but I’d be raging.
Soldato
I had the same thing happen to me. I eventually just asked to be transferred to a different team where I could focus on things I’m more interested in. It was that or leave the company (I didn’t tell them that)
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Architect has to be the biggest scam position after scrum master.
Soldato
Don't forget bad PMOs.
Soldato
I ran into a similar issue, albeit on a smaller but a little more ridiculous scale.
I started by taking full lunch away from desk, informing them of my work load and realistic timescales within my working hours and remit and ended up just playing hardball.
It’s been two years and I think they’re just getting the idea… It may have been my paternity leave that opened their eyes lol.
Not sure if the right place being self employed and all but here goes
run a small airport transfer/corporate travel company and as you can imagine covid pretty much wiped us out. Think going from 60 cars to 2 in terms of loss of business and scale.
back at it again now and we’re back up to 26 cars atm but just such a struggle. Took a massive financial hit during lockdown with business problems (a few suppliers went under owing us well into 5 figures between them and a divorce has left me personally skint)
whilst the business is growing I can’t expand or develop due to cash flow problems. The easy solution is to move away from the industry aggregators/suppliers and start building more of our own direct bookings with the public but it all comes at a cost. The question is do I sink the last of my savings in to marketing towards growing our own direct bookings which invariably are prepaid or paid on the day reducing the reliance on suppliers and helpin my cash flow long term or push the rest of what I have left into alleviating the immediate cash flow concerns and let us take even more aggregator work on in the short term
run a small airport transfer/corporate travel company and as you can imagine covid pretty much wiped us out. Think going from 60 cars to 2 in terms of loss of business and scale.
back at it again now and we’re back up to 26 cars atm but just such a struggle. Took a massive financial hit during lockdown with business problems (a few suppliers went under owing us well into 5 figures between them and a divorce has left me personally skint)
whilst the business is growing I can’t expand or develop due to cash flow problems. The easy solution is to move away from the industry aggregators/suppliers and start building more of our own direct bookings with the public but it all comes at a cost. The question is do I sink the last of my savings in to marketing towards growing our own direct bookings which invariably are prepaid or paid on the day reducing the reliance on suppliers and helpin my cash flow long term or push the rest of what I have left into alleviating the immediate cash flow concerns and let us take even more aggregator work on in the short term
I was watching a video on small business the other day. I have no business experience of it myself. But they suggested negotiating longer terms from your own suppliers. Ease the pressure. Considering you've weathered the crisis and are still going ( fair play) they might consider it.
I've a had this a few times over the years. Last time, when I had enough and basically stopped working for a couple of months to automate the process's which were so time consuming. I also changed my approach, and slowly moved myself laterally to a different role.
Any chance you can look at businesses and come up with a revenue stream that way? Offer an hours based service or package where they sign a retainer, cash down, and get to use you when they want up to X hours, which saves them longterm in money and helps you with cash flow up front?
I'd be looking at also where the money is coming from and what is stopping it coming in? What are your main sources of revenue customer wise and how do you get them?
Isn't the issue more about the wrong people being in those roles, or the expectations from senior stakeholders about what the role should be doing, than the roles themselves?
If you take the role of a PM, I've worked with good and bad ones in the IT space. Sometimes the issue is that PMs are appointed by people without the technical knowledge, so they will appoint people with good stakeholder management skills, strong on generic planning and reporting, but who are fully reliant on technical people to identify what is important and understand issues. Even those without a significant knowledge of IT can still be effective if they are very very good, asking the right questions and assimilating information, pushing back on stakeholders based on inputs from the team but they are quite rare.
Good architects can be invaluable and sometimes it is less about what they know and more about their ability to understand a [new] problem, do appropriate research and effectively articulate and drive through solutions that consider the big picture. I've worked with adept developers who lack that breadth of thinking, good problem solvers within a narrow sphere but who lack the mindset to step back and conduct holistic assessments. This is where architects can add value because they won't just be looking for point solutions.
That said, there are different varieties of "Architect" and in some organisations this seemingly just becomes a way of showing seniority rather than aptitude, e.g. it is viewed as a natural progression route from development roles rather than a change of discipline.
Soldato
I find that really interesting because I've only worked with a couple of architects - the most talented (and in demand) one, insists "I AM NOT A DEVELOPER". Despite the fact he researches in great depth to ensure API compatibility, requirements, even costs of technology implementation. And writes a fair bit of working prototype code. But the delineation is there, that he expects us to then source dev roles to actually implement the systems for production.
I certainly wouldn't say it's a next step from developer - although as a now-developer who's not thriving, I can see how I'd be more effective in architect or designer roles.
One of those situations I hate - there has been an issue the last few weeks at work which has impacted things quite a lot due to people being unreliable. They are now looking for people who could cover it as a contingency - it is something I'm perfectly capable of doing but also something which is way way out of my comfort zone and doesn't come to me naturally and that won't ever substantially change - doing it as a regular thing would just make me miserable but I'd be happy to step up and do it as a genuine infrequent emergency - but I know if I step up I will just end up with it always falling on me...
Head of Product left here while I was on my 2 week break. Come back to a complete **** show. I know the CIO wouldn't consider me for the role as he seems hell bent on having someone from a science background but whatever. I also don't think I'd want it longterm but would be a nice step before running from the mess 
the ad interim head of product is someone who's been there for like 25yrs and already has undone a lot of the stuff people have been working on. He said in a meeting yesterday "this is the last meeting I'm accepting on this topic" about a process that was being defined. He thinks product teams can work it out themselves, which they should be able to do, but the continuing feedback is that those on multiple product teams can't work out how to deal with things and need to be told exactly what the process is. So this should be fun dealing with all this.
I just really cannot be chewed with it all. It's OK though, I'm apparently good for producing PPTs for people at the moment. That seems to be my role. I'll suck it up for as long as I can, but it's fast becoming such a drag to push and fight constantly for things to be done better. Especially now with the new temp guy, it feels like starting all over again on certain things and this guy has completely different views.
Sod it, I'm a really well paid lacky who makes powerpoints and attends countless meetings
the ad interim head of product is someone who's been there for like 25yrs and already has undone a lot of the stuff people have been working on. He said in a meeting yesterday "this is the last meeting I'm accepting on this topic" about a process that was being defined. He thinks product teams can work it out themselves, which they should be able to do, but the continuing feedback is that those on multiple product teams can't work out how to deal with things and need to be told exactly what the process is. So this should be fun dealing with all this. I just really cannot be chewed with it all. It's OK though, I'm apparently good for producing PPTs for people at the moment. That seems to be my role. I'll suck it up for as long as I can, but it's fast becoming such a drag to push and fight constantly for things to be done better. Especially now with the new temp guy, it feels like starting all over again on certain things and this guy has completely different views.
Sod it, I'm a really well paid lacky who makes powerpoints and attends countless meetings
Soldato
Don't stress... Yesterday I got a public (via Teams message) pat on the head for spotting several bad labels on code documentation. I'm a "software developer" but my most useful role is spell-checker
Relate about the frustration pushing for better process - personally I'm a bit inexperienced in this field to try and take the lead by force. But it means I spend lots of time in meetings just pointing out what won't work, as I tend to know the details and gotchas behind our products.
Oh dude lol I feel that ****!Don't stress... Yesterday I got a public (via Teams message) pat on the head for spotting several bad labels on code documentation. I'm a "software developer" but my most useful role is spell-checker
What's ironic is I AM actually responsible for all product management processes lol but at the same time my role is buried and in a team that makes it pretty impossible to do without each tiny thing being a huge push/fight/persuasion to get them to understand. Ah sod it. I just spoke with the guy who is leaving, he's a really good guy and it's such a shame he's leaving. He's not even got anywhere to go, just said it's not worth his mental health being there and constantly fighting people to get them to do things properly. So I can see this is going to be me in the future. Or, I just concentrate on all 20000 things I work out besides this, take the pay, bonus and lovely pension and hope they don't notice I've virtually checked out from the company lobotomy!