This Business and Moment...

Macky said:
Examples of "deliberate but considered language"?
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I don't call them ******* useless don't worry! :D

But I say for example, what are you going to do to improve our performance in xyz.... where we seem to be failing...

Are you listening to the industry experts you've employed to help achieve the goals you have set?

How are we going to be the tail that wags the dog and stop bending the knee to the department/xyz/etc...

When are we going to make decisions and stop waiting for things just in case xyz....

And challenge basic behaviours like collaboration and duplication of effort etc....
 
What i’ve learnt is you have to hit the zeitgeist - right place, right time and all that. I did a presentation to the board last week (but was more polite than @Freefaller ) and at least one was a Davos attendee. That’s just a lot of graft and a sprinkle of luck…I could have wasted my time posting here :D
 
CapitalOne said:
What i’ve learnt is you have to hit the zeitgeist - right place, right time and all that. I did a presentation to the board last week (but was more polite than @Freefaller ) and at least one was a Davos attendee. That’s just a lot of graft and a sprinkle of luck…I could have wasted my time posting here :D
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I like to get to the point and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I don't have much of a filter. :o
 
Depends on the people, i know some execs I can be direct and give direct opinions but others I need to make them think it’s their idea.
 
NickK said:
Depends on the people, i know some execs I can be direct and give direct opinions but others I need to make them think it’s their idea.
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Yes we have a few of those. It's so frustrating. But ultimately as long as the work gets done and the problems get solved I don't mind so much. However good leadership credits the teams and individuals involved.
 
One of our principal architects is quite young, owns/operates two side companies etc but works hard. I've opened discussions yesterday with the SE Director, the director's mentor/helper (ex chief architect of a bank that's basically retired, helping his mate by providing mentorship and odd jobs) that is also exec mentoring the CTO, to fund the architect's first steps in executive mentorship.
 
Been approached for an interesting role. In the same city that I live in which is nice.

Good reputation (some might disagree on personal fronts), they promise insanely good hours (like a genuine 8-6), 30+ days holiday, sabbaticals, fully flexible (don't care for this, infact vaguely anti such things as I think it hurts innovation when there is too much of it). Working on a leading and owning a strategic initiative that is.....ambitious to say the least. Been given access to information subject to a NDA (can't say too much in general about anythint as it would be easy to identify me if I took up post).

Problem is that I don't actually care about the product at all, really doesn't interest me particularly. I know I could do it as I just work at things and I've already mulled over their problem and think I see a way forward.... I'm also not sure having the "quiet" life is beneficial in my early-ish 30s...as I've been working 80-100 hour weeks since my 20s and it's really propelled me far and I guess would be hard to ramp up again.

Salary is okay (ground salary is incredible , exceptionally strong even for swiss standards) but bonus is weak so I don't think the incentive is there to actually perform which makes me doubt their intentions as seems a bit...amateurish?

Will also burn bridges in current job as it's related field and we don't always get along with this company. Consideration for a small place.

Long term I think it sees me fairly well known in certain circles which is always an interesting proposition. I think I see myself as having solidified my status somewhat but that has the downsides of being typecast.

Maybe this is my midlife crisis starting now as usually I'm quite decisive about things. This job offers me the chance to retire even earlier than planned but it's somehow not appealing as it was?

Think I missed the boat a bit in terms of having a family, I'm not old as such but I imagine it gets harder year by year to meet someone. This role would make sense as a family as it would bring good reputation for us all, comfortable hours, comfortable life very steady.

Food for thought this weekend I guess.
 
(I have to say as an aside I do enjoy this forum a lot it's great having an anonymous platform to mull over things and also to read about others experiences and thoughts on life).

(Even if I do appear to stir a hornets nest occasionally! I'm actually quite affable in real life!)
 
Orangeade said:
Problem is that I don't actually care about the product at all, really doesn't interest me particularly. I know I could do it as I just work at things and I've already mulled over their problem and think I see a way forward.... I'm also not sure having the "quiet" life is beneficial in my early-ish 30s...as I've been working 80-100 hour weeks since my 20s and it's really propelled me far and I guess would be hard to ramp up again.
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If there is an chance to have "quiet" life in your early 30's then go for it. As it wont get any easier in your late 30's into your 40's. Just don't kill yourself over stupid hours, not worth the long term health risks.

Orangeade said:
Think I missed the boat a bit in terms of having a family, I'm not old as such but I imagine it gets harder year by year to meet someone. This role would make sense as a family as it would bring good reputation for us all, comfortable hours, comfortable life very steady.
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Nope, you haven't. (if you are male, I assume you are!). Always best for a man to start a family in their 30's, better mids 30's. As they should be more financially established to build a family successfully.

I am 39, will be 40 in a few months. Currently have no kids and went back onto the dating scene a few months back. Met a few women and made it clear, I do want kids but it would be stupid for me to try and start a family with a woman who is around the same age as me or older. Some don't like to hear it but they need to take that up with Mother Nature and not me :D
 
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tough week, I have people deciding things and effecting thing without being consulted, i then find out third hand that has been discussed but not/fragmented communicated. This is after the approach has previous been discussed and agreed. The deputy CTO even highlighted this guy’s approach is against the product led approach the company wants to pursue going forward..
The issue is these are contract/consiltancies and I’m an FTE. So I’m ending the week at the point where I feel a nice resignation letter pointing out the problem, the impact it’s having - it means I’m having to realign the teams destroys any time I have to actually do my day job plus I’m fighting to build out a credible product with coms into a massive organisation.
Plus to top it off I have no management chain, massively understaffed, the previous director has done a runner leaving a world class mess and the programme guy has used consultancies hence cost to finance makes it difficult to ramp up to the size required.
Not only that - people in the wider org are deliberately confusing things because they don’t want organisational change and pedantically pick holes as a reason the break from the agreed processes.
So feeling like I’m spending my time firefighting and it would be simple easier to leave the org to fail as it doesn’t want to progress.
I have a 1:1 next week with the CTO, and I’m hoping to see the wide ranging changes he’s proposing.
Just trying not to rage quit with an explosive resignation letter - we’re just remortgaging in august.. so if I can wait until september and bite my tongue long enough.
I’ve never met such an organisation that needs so much handholding, so much resistance to change as that the organsation has such a reliance on non-FTE staff. It just feels like a culture I can’t relate to and it does not suit me, the way I work or the values or ideals i hold (and that’s building and excellent org).
 
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Very relatable, though at a smaller scale for me. My entire week was spent trying to read and validate a load of test cases for our new flagship product. This is big stuff, our current platform is 8 years old and in 10+ million homes so the next iteration has similar implications in trying to influence the TV landscape.

And I'm sitting there reading descriptions of user journeys which don't make any sense. Between grammatical/communication issues and actual "What is this feature meant to be doing?" I feel like I'll never be able to turn it around.

Being tied up with that all week has got in the way of doing my actual job running a test lab so I was there til gone 8pm wiring network cables up and swapping rack units. I got to the point I just said I can't help with the next round of tests. It's madness but if I don't try and feed into the process I'm worried the validation process will just be chaos. I guess I have to let go and hope the actual developers make a great product without needing to rely on the test descriptions. Feels awful but I've got my own life to sort out with exhaustion and months of overdue DIY. That takes priority right now!
 
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Freefaller said:
I just had a go at my CEO in front of 300+ staff. :o

Well I wasn't rude, just challenging. For around 18 months I've been trying to push for a piece of work to be done as it's a massive gap in our work, I've done a bit of work on it to help the business plan, prepare and execute this piece of work. I don't care if I'm not part of the delivery of it, or if it's done without my help, but I've been banging on about it since I joined and have a lot of expertise/knowledge in this space.

The other day I heard that there were at least 2 or 3 workstreams being planned on this particular piece of work. No coordination, or collaboration. Lots of duplication of effort and therefore cost being associated with this activity.

The reason it has traction? Because our CEO suddenly has an interest in it and she wanted to make sure it's not overlooked. I've spoken to the leads of each of those initiatives that they are moving forward and told them to wait so that we can get some clarity on what people are up to to maximise the impact of the work. I shared the work I had done on this to date (this is an area of expertise of mine, and as I said, I had been banging on about it for nearly 1.5 years), and everyone has gone, "oh wow, that's really good"... No ******* **** sherlock!!!?

Anyway, I FINALLY have a meeting with the CEO to discuss the opportunity, but I fear that if I share the work done to date it'll bamboozle her and she'll want to do it her way... so I have to water down my work to make it look like it's something that's in her control. I've told the other workstreams to pause their work until we get some clear direction.

This happens all the bloody time... central government sector is a nightmare. I think my next role will either need to be in a less dysfunctional department or back to private.

I'm one of the few people that doesn't mind standing up in front of the company and challenging the status quo, I use deliberate but considered language, but my role is meant to be one that challenges and stirs the pot a little to make sure we're doing the best we can. Needless to say the CEO didn't like to be challenged and doesn't like to be challenged (despite saying she's keen on hearing feedback)...


Perhaps I'll be managed out of the business soon - but I can't bend the knee if I feel there's something wrong. I know I should pick my battles more judiciously but I struggle to shut up. :D :o
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Depends if you want to play the game not, but if you don't, then I say **** 'em, stick to your principles.
 
sigma said:
Depends if you want to play the game not, but if you don't, then I say **** 'em, stick to your principles.
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I'm not a conformist! :D I'm not chasing glory or gongs. I just want to right **** to get done.

Had a follow up meeting and turns out they really liked what I was suggesting and asked me to take the lead on it.

So I guess being a stubborn git who isn't afraid of challenging the upper echelons can work sometimes! To be fair I've never been fired for being positively disruptive. It can feel relentless though to get stuff happening.

I could never just clock in and clock out doing the same thing which is why I chase change and opportunities.
 
How likely is it for an employer to try and enforce an onerous notice period?

I've worked there for 2 months and my contract says 3 months notice. I should've have questioned why the notice period isn't shorter during the probation period (6 months) before signing but hey ho.

Clearly under the circumstances where I'm not doing the job that was described or outlined in the job specification, there wouldn't be much in the way of financial cost to them if I left earlier. It would be different if I were a longstanding member of staff with significant workload to hand over, and if anything letting me leave sooner rather than later would save them a ton of money which they could use to hire a temp to do the work I'm actually doing.

I'm going to offer them 1 month but ask for less, based on the above.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
How likely is it for an employer to try and enforce an onerous notice period?

I've worked there for 2 months and my contract says 3 months notice. [...]

Clearly under the circumstances where I'm not doing the job that was described or outlined in the job specification, there wouldn't be much in the way of financial cost to them[...]

I'm going to offer them 1 month but ask for less, based on the above.
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I wouldn't even offer them that in the case of a bait-and-switch job. If they've conned you and you're clearly now somehow in a role that is rather different from what they purported to be hiring you into then I don't see how they have a leg to stand on re: anything here, in fact I'd consult with an employment solicitor ASAP.

If/when you get a new job offer and they're asking you when you can start then just point out that as you're in your probation period you can start within say a week or two.

Just give your current employer a week, explain the reasons for that and tell them they're lucky to even get that, if they don't like it tell them you're happy to just leave that day if they'd prefer.
 
Just had another example of delivery having a random conversation, not bringing in product and then deciding amongst themselves that’s the way they’re going to deliver something.
I’m starting to think that it would be more useful to fire the delivery lead given the tangental direction it’s giving, will see what my 1:1 gives tomorrow and if I have the support in place with the org changes I’m expecting.
 
I'm still loving being a remote worker, working from home pretty much every day, especially now that my kids are on holiday and I can see them loads and still start work in my PJs at 8.

What I'm not particularly loving is the work and the company. Have had an offer from a large company that does 3 days in the office 1hr each way from me. Same money but better culture and benefits.

I think I'll regret moving to a hybrid role, wasting 2 hours commuting each day, but just hate the table thumping culture in my current company. Dilemma.
 
Participant said:
I'm still loving being a remote worker, working from home pretty much every day, especially now that my kids are on holiday and I can see them loads and still start work in my PJs at 8.

What I'm not particularly loving is the work and the company. Have had an offer from a large company that does 3 days in the office 1hr each way from me. Same money but better culture and benefits.

I think I'll regret moving to a hybrid role, wasting 2 hours commuting each day, but just hate the table thumping culture in my current company. Dilemma.
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If you hate the company and people, then that's simply going to be a daily grind. Sometimes it's the people that make all the difference.
 
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